News
Isao Takahata & Ghibli's Kaguya-hime no Monogatari Opens on November 23
posted on by Egan Loo
Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya), the first new film from Studio Ghibli co-founder and director Isao Takahata in 14 years, will open on November 23.
The famous Japanese folktale Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) centers on princess named Kaguya who was discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. Taketori Monogatari has inspired dozens of manga and anime stories, such as Reiko Shimizu's Kaguya Hime and Arina Tanemura's Sakura-Hime Kaden.
Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko) revealed in 2009 that his next film will be based on the folktale. The tagline for the film reads, "A princess's crime and punishment."
Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) is composing the film's soundtrack, and singer-songwriter Kazumi Nikaidō's new song “Inochi no Kioku” (Memory of Life) is the main theme song. Takahata conceived the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Riko Sakaguchi. This will be Takahata's first film since My Neighbors the Yamadas about 14 year ago.
TOHO had planned to release another anime film from Ghibli, The Wind Rises, on the same day as Kaguya-hime. However, TOHO announced in February that it delayed Takahata's film until this fall. The last time that Miyazaki and Takahata had films opening on the same day, or even in the same year, was a quarter of a century ago when Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro and Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies were shown back-to-back in Japan in 1988.
Source: Cinema Today
