The Tale of The Princess Kaguya

I thought that there was something of the "Tom Thumb" to this story of a loving elderly couple who made their living amidst the giant bamboo. After many years of praying, they are given the gift that they truly crave. A child. A very little, little, girl whom they name "Kaguya". Over the years and nurtured by their love, her own inate kindness and a little of her father's rather kindly grandiose aspirations she turns into a rare beauty famed across the land. Now dubbed "Princess Kaguya" she has attracted the suit of five of the most prominent men in the Kingdom, and even the Emperor himself has shown interest and summoned her to his court. She, on the other hand, is wise to what is going on and sets each of her suitors a seemingly impossible task in the hope that she can avoid any arranged marriages. The question is, though, that even if she can thwart their silver-tongued advances can she ever have any hope of finding a true love of her own? The delicate brushwork here is masterful, especially the simplicity of the bamboo and the vibrancy of the colouring, and the story gently teases us without ever directly explaining just what the parable is until the end. It mixes some of the more amiable elements of fabled fantasy with some fairly obvious symbolism of the expected role of a girl in this society, but it's not trying to ram home any political points but instead to illustrate the values of love and decency on an almost ethereal basis. The score adds an additional richness as it effortlessly shifts from the mischievous to the mysterious and this delicate piece of craft really does merit a big screen viewing (ideally without any dubbing) to get the full visual effects as this warmly washes over us.