REVIEW: Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (2013)

by Dustin Kramer

I’m conflicted about folktales. What began as bits and pieces of oral literature, before someone had the good sense to put them to paper, are owed some amount of respect for being among the first stories that humans told. However, so many of the principles that we consider essential to the telling of a “good story” were developed — and are still developing — many generations after the birth of these yarns. Ancient storytellers didn’t have the benefit of thousands of years of literature to lend them a detailed understanding of structure, character development, conflict, or how to make these elements compelling. I don’t mean to be so hard on the awkward adolescence of modern literature, but folktales tend to be pretty bad stories. The process of adaptation can inject modern storytelling sensibilities into an otherwise crappy narrative, but in the case of the 2013 Studio Ghibli film Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Story of Princess Kaguya) filmmaker Isao Takahata was unable to give this fable the contemporary touch it needs.