Great news for the Twin Cities: For a week, starting December 5, The Tale of Princess Kaguya is coming to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Society at St. Anthony Main. You should take the opportunity to see it.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya is the latest film from Studio Ghibli, Japan’s unparalleled animation studio. Everything that Ghibli makes is on my list of must-see movies. But even for the studio that brought us Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, The Tale of Princess Kaguya is going to be special.
Written and directed by Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata (who also made Grave of the Fireflies, one of the best war films I’ve ever seen), The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a hand-drawn adaptation of of the Japanese folk legend The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, which tells of a bamboo cutter who finds an infant in a bamboo stalk. The story is famous in Japan; it’s known to be mysterious in both its meaning and message. Takahata first worked on to adapt the tale over 55 years ago before abandoning the project.
Now, at the age of 79, and after at least 6 years of work on the project, his version of the story is released.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya will play for one week at the MSP Film Society, in both English and Japanese language versions. Find out when it’s coming to your city at the film’s Facebook page.
