tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post2364318276321305982..comments2024-03-24T20:15:00.996-04:00Comments on Critic After Dark: The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, Isao Takahata, 2013)Noel Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-28592206913371354932015-03-23T16:32:30.151-04:002015-03-23T16:32:30.151-04:00Thanks. Good call on the gradual loss of color. Th...Thanks. Good call on the gradual loss of color. There's a mailing list for English speakers called the Nausicaa Mailing List, and you can tell that activity there has been dying out since its heyday, in the nineties. Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-19602315681991749802015-03-23T09:51:17.687-04:002015-03-23T09:51:17.687-04:00I must have read (or skimmed over) 40 reviews sinc...I must have read (or skimmed over) 40 reviews since I saw this yesterday morning, and, as ever, the quality of your insight was far above that of any other. Thank you.<br /><br />The striking reaction I had to Kaguya was the effectiveness of the swift mood swings. I was enjoying Kaguya's tragicomic adjustment to her life in the city - in the words of her teacher, she acts as if it were all a game (she's clearly too intelligent to care much for it all). But then <i>that</i> scene happens, stunning me cold. My laughter was chilled, to say the least. Then later she deftly evades the suitors, sending them on ridiculous challenges befitting their ridiculous declarations. And then one of them dies trying. And soon after, there's the Emperor's horrible embrace, her terror forcing an unconscious calling out to her true family. Such desolate moments become more frequent and prepare the melancholy of the ending.<br /><br />Takahata displays a mastery of form, as ever. I particularly appreciate how the colour fades from the backgrounds as the film progresses away from the countryside, reflecting Kaguya's alienation. And as the regal characters are drawn with detailed, hard lines, wearing bold colours, more backdrops are left "unfinished".<br /><br />I think <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/the-tale-of-princess-kaguya/review.html" rel="nofollow">Robbie Collin</a> in the Telegraph is right to say that "Ghibli has one more film left to release before it goes into indefinite hibernation (the ghostly coming-of-age story When Marnie Was There), but as you watch this, you sense the studio’s life’s work is being completed before your eyes, like the sails are being raised on the most magical ship-in-a-bottle ever built."<br /><br />Joe Hisaishi's music was superb too, appropriately subdued and restrained. I'm sure I caught several melodies calling out to earlier Ghibli OSTs (one from Grave of the Fireflies, one I couldn't place). Can't wait to see it again.J Cronanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00027666011493961716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-25398022000665297572015-03-20T13:44:19.938-04:002015-03-20T13:44:19.938-04:00I like this ending just fine.I like this ending just fine.Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-61065779471526044742015-03-20T12:53:27.846-04:002015-03-20T12:53:27.846-04:00It's interesting how Takahata has changed the ...It's interesting how Takahata has changed the ending. He made the Emperor unsympathetic, so Kaguya no longer gives the Emperor a bottle for longevity, the pining Emperor no longer sends soldiers to the highest mountain to burn a love letter and the bottle, history no longer renames this mountain as 不死, which means the same in kanji as it does in Mandarin Chinese: "no death", later to become 富士, or Mt. Fuji?<br />I love this ending, but like "The Fly", both the original and its remake, they changed the story, they had to jettison the memorable ending.Quentin Tarantadohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08091214116015175705noreply@blogger.com