Isao Takahata’s Magnificent Swan Song
Ghibli Month — Chapter 21: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Director — Isao Takahata
Year of Release — 2013
Language — Japanese (this one’s mandatory)
How Many Times Watched? — 1 time
Rating — ★★★★★
This is a Must Watch. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.
There comes a time in everyone’s life where they watch a film that changes the fabric of their being, where after watching it they can no longer go on living life the same way. It can be as crazy as a career change or the answer to a difficult decision, or, in my case, changing how you view the world.
Movies have the unique power to affect people in a myriad of ways. They can be comforting or anxiety-inducing, offer a good laugh or a much-needed cry, and sometimes even force you to think about the complexities of life.
Isao Takahata understands this better than anyone. He crafts works of art that demand to be watched, to be wholeheartedly felt and fully taken in. They offer an experience that couldn’t happen any other way.
Punctuating his long and illustrious career, Takahata decided to go out with a bang. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Takahata’s final film, took so long, that even with a five-year head start, Takahata still missed the scheduled release date to be a double feature with Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises — 25 years after the original Miyazaki/Takahata double feature of My Neighbor Totoro/Grave of the Fireflies.
Throughout his time at Ghibli, Takahata made films that cut straight through the human soul, showing people at their most honest and vulnerable positions. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is no different, crashing over you like a poignant wave of emotions, a rush of feelings you never thought possible.
Kaguya was a labor of love, one built with such intricate detail, you can’t help but notice every small brush stroke and pencil scratch, every smudge and inconsistency. Basing the story off a traditional Japanese folktale, Takahata chose to employ a more traditional Japanese art style comprised of rough charcoal strokes and vivid watercolors, as if drawn on an old bamboo scroll.
I hate to cop out and say that it needs to be seen to be truly felt and understood, but the cliche rings true now more than ever. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Its beauty is awe-inspiring and life-changing.
Takahata, though making films since 1968, did not draw his own films, and instead relied on the skills of thousands of animators. But this did not stifle his ability to create provocative art. His approach to animation transcends the medium, which often makes his films feel like they could have been live-action, while at the same time also proving how animation was the only possible format to tell the stories he wanted to tell.
“I don’t think audiences really watch live-action features carefully,” Takahata once said. “However, they’d be forced to for an anime feature. Because anime captures things we do and reflects more solid reality than how they actually are.”
With his films, Takahata creates a new reality, one that equally surpasses truth and finds its foundation in it. His aim is for the audience “to recall the reality within the drawings, rather than thinking the drawings themselves are real.” As oxymoronic as it sounds, Kaguya is at its most realistic when the animation is anything but.
Without diving into too much detail, there is a scene where Princess Kaguya feels completely overwhelmed and scared, wanting nothing more than to run away and hide from all her problems. Takahata could have made this a very simple scene but instead chose to draw a visual representation of the chaos welling up in the princess, ready to explode at any moment.
Takahata has never been one to shy away from experimentation, consistently pushing the boundaries of animation and never settling for the status quo. He fully embraced his vision and would not let anything hold him back, even if it would take eight years to reach completion.
While Takahata’s works may understandably not be your favorite Studio Ghibli films, there is no getting around one simple fact: Isao Takahata is the unsung hero of Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki may be the figurehead for the studio, but none of his films have affected and inspired me as much as Takahata’s. From Grave of the Fireflies to Only Yesterday and finally to The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Takahata is an animation legend. Strike that. Isao Takahata is a cinematic legend and his work will live on and inspire generations well into the future.
Watching The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and the rest of Takahata’s filmography, I could not help but feel immediately inspired. He has a certain knack when it comes to his visual storytelling that is matched by none. The way he builds his stories around his characters is rare to see and, frankly, impressive. His work has taught me that film is more than just for entertainment; it is a vehicle that can effectively and excitingly portray the human condition.
And he accomplished all of this without even knowing how to draw.
Art is more than just understanding the technical necessities. There is a certain heart to filmmaking that cannot be taught. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya reinforced that I am meant to be making films, no matter the cost. I don’t need to fit any standard. I don’t need to follow all the rules. I just need to speak from my heart (as cheesy as that sounds).
Thank you, Isao Takahata.
