Monday, September 26, 2016

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya review


Well... I didn't like it. Haha, I'll start off with that. (by the way, there're spoilers)
I usually like Studio Ghibli's animations. Mostly Miyazaki Hayao's work, but I like other ones made by them as well. When I saw the trailer, I had very high hopes for this animation. It looked like it had a very nice feel to it with a very distinct fairy tale theme which I like. I guess my problem was that I haven't heard of princess Kaguya before so I didn't know what to expect and when it actually hit me, it was a bit of an unsatisfying shock.
I know I didn't like it, but overall, it's a very good piece of film. It displays the various emotions princess Kaguya goes through vividly with their animation and I resonated with princess Kaguya's emotional conflict, feeling trapped, unresolved desires, joys, sadness, anger and many more emotional journey she went through. I very much enjoyed the first half of the film where it was mainly focused on the growth and development of the princess.
What I didn't like was how the movie ended. This wasn't necessarily a happy ending sort of movie. Most movies have a very general theme like, 'we endure sadness for the happy times' or 'keep working through issues and one day you'll get through them.' type of happy morals. This movie felt like it was more saying 'after happiness comes sadness' even though the songs and the speeches indicated that our lives goes round in circles, the ending was filled with unresolved problems and sadness. Kaguya never really found true happiness, always felt like a fake, she felt trapped in her own emotional conflict of wanting freedom vs making her parents happy or finding happiness the traditional way and after all that, she just left earth never even knowing what love between lovers feels like.
I think I didn't like it particularly more at this moment in life because I've recently gotten out of a relationship that wasn't very healthy for me. The man I was with had no job for more than a year whilst we were dating, stayed at home smoked weed all day and just played games. I felt more and more trapped being in the relationship having given up things I used to enjoy like dining out, going to the movies or just going out in general. In a way, a bit arrogantly I felt like I resonated with Kaguya's feelings. Her desires of freedom vs her desires to satisfy others was sad. Still being uncertain of my own choices to break up and move out I didn't like how the movie just ended with a "Hey, I have to go back to the moon now! Cya" type thing.
All and all, when my emotional issues have resolved, I probably would've enjoyed the movie and the movie itself is great, but right now, I'd probably give it something like a 6/10 haha

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