"The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" (film)

CC Liu, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; Studio Ghibli; Laemmles.com

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Legendary Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko) revisits Japan’s most famous folktale in this gorgeous, hand-drawn masterwork, decades in the making.

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter (James Caan) and his wife (Mary Steenburgen), a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady (Chloë Grace Moretz). The mysterious young princess enthralls all who encounter her -- but ultimately she must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime.

From the studio that brought you Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and The Wind Rises comes a powerful and sweeping epic that redefines the limits of animated storytelling and marks a triumphant highpoint within an extraordinary career in filmmaking for director Isao Takahata. Now playing: Playhouse 7, Pasadena, through Nov. 13th.

(Indie Films) This is a marvel of Japanese animation, a hand-drawn, painterly epic that submerges us in a world of beauty. - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Review

Ella Taylor (NPR.org)

My first encounter with the lovely 10th-century Japanese folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter was in the Sesame Street special Big Bird Goes to Japan. A kind and beautiful young woman named Kaguya-hime appears out of nowhere to take the Yellow One and his canine pal Barkley on a... More

 

Animated, Drama, Fantasy, 137 minutes, English. Director: Isao Takahata. Cast: Aki Asakura (Japanese version), Chloë Grace Moretz, Darren Criss, Isao Hshizume (Japanese version), James Caan, Lucy Liu, Mary Steenburgen, Takeo Chii (Japanese version), Yukiji Asaoka (Japanese version).