PRINCESS FROM THE MOON / TALE OF THE BAMBOO CUTTER (LIT.) (TAKETORI MONOGATARI). Viewed on Streaming. Costumes = eight (8) stars; restoration/preservation = eight (8) stars; subtitles = eight (8) stars; cinematography = six (6) stars; set design = six (6) stars; score = five (5) stars; special effects = three (3) stars. Director Kon Ichikawa (who is also credited as a writer) provides a fairy tale (geared toward adults) set in the late 8th Century about the adventures of the sole survivor of a space-ship crash who arrives as an infant and is adopted and raised as a daughter by an impoverished rural couple whose young daughter has coincidentally just died. Ichikawa's fantasy photo-play is a well constructed, updated twist to an ancient (and mysterious) Japanese folk tale. (The sudden post-adoption wealth of the poor couple is particularly an enigma!) Toshirou Mifune's performance is usually upstaged by other actresses and actors. His line readings are considerably less that those of others. Apparently his name was used for window dressing. Leading actress Yasuko Sawaguchi fully develops her plumb role as the puzzling "princess" with an abundance of growth hormone. Supporting actresses and actors are generally fine except for bits of over acting here and there. Court scenes are especially well done. Costumes look (in color) and sound (like silk rustling?) spectacular. They also seem to be authentic for the period. Cinematography (wide screen, color) is okay, but village crowd scenes are often a bit blurry (perhaps to help hide exterior set limitations?). Unfortunately, the film goes off the rails in its final scenes and on the closing credits sound track. It takes way too long for this highly derived ending to wrap, and the special effects are dated (even when the film was released) and well on the cheesy side. (If you think you've already seen a huge space ship like this arrive and pick up a stray, you sure have in other sci-fi films with superior special effects!) End credits include a bolted-on song sung (would you believe?) in English and consisting of a one line lyric repeated Ad Nauseam. (Overly nervous producers/distributors?) Nonetheless, recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

I assume that "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" (also called "Princess Kaguya") is a familiar story to many Japanese people. Here in the States, we have, for the most part, never heard of it. Because of this, I am not sure how it compares to other versions of this story. All I know is that I really enjoyed this film with a modern slant.The original story was written sometime around the 10th century (at least that's what Wikipedia says) though at the end of the film it says it's set around 790AD. Regardless, it's a very fanciful tale that has been updated a bit to suit modern sensibilities. The film begins with a wood cutter (Toshiro Mifune) finding a baby when he's out in the bamboo forest visiting his daughter's grave. However, this is no ordinary baby--it grows VERY fast and is an outer space baby!! And, more importantly, it looks like his dead daughter but with weird blue eyes (in the original story, she had hair that shone like the moon). She soon grows up--at a highly accelerated rate. And, she's so beautiful that all the men seem to want her--even the Emperor! However, she rebuffs all their advances and sends the suitors off on impossibly crazy tasks--and you assume it's just to get them out of her hair! Later, the film becomes a LOT like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", as her actual people from the Moon are coming back to claim her. This is because given modern sensibilities and special effects, the ship looks a lot like those from Spielberg films--such as "Close Encounters" or "E.T."! It's all the more amazing because the story was written so long ago.The story is very beautifully filmed, acted and the story is pretty exciting. The only negative is that, inexplicably, the film's credits roll with a song from Peter Cetera (from "Chicago")--music that seems odd given that it's a medieval story! However, this is a very minor quibble and the story is lovely from start to finish.

The old Japanese folktale of the Bamboo Cutter is here reinterpreted to make Kaguya an alien visitor. Sticking fairly closely to the original 9th century tale of a bamboo cutter finding a mysterious baby girl, this film puts a modern spin onto it by turning the beautiful visitor from the moon into an alien entity lost from a crashed spaceship. Sounds silly, but.... It keeps the original story but "explains" what really happened to our modern sensibilities. I'd have preferred the more traditional folktale ending, but despite the Close Encounters of the Third Kind finale, this film still shines some light into that REALLY alien world, Heian Japan.