Princess from the Moon
Princess from the Moon (竹取物語, Taketori monogatari) is a 1987 Japanese film directed by Kon Ichikawa. It is based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (The Tale of Princess Kaguya), a 10th-century Japanese fairy tale about a girl from the Moon who is discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant.
| Princess from the Moon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Kon Ichikawa |
| Produced by | Masaichi Nagata |
| Written by | Kon Ichikawa Shinya Hidaka Mitsutoshi Ishigami Ryûzô Kikushima |
| Based on | The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter |
| Starring | Toshiro Mifune Kyōko Kishida Ayako Wakao Kiichi Nakai |
| Music by | Kensaku Tanikawa |
| Cinematography | Setsuo Kobayashi |
| Edited by | Chizuko Osada |
Production company | Toho Fuji Television |
| Distributed by | Toho |
Release date | September 14, 1987 (US) September 26, 1987 (Japan) |
Running time | 121 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | ¥2 billion[1] |
| Box office | ¥2.47 billion[2] |
Background
The film was released as Toho's 55th Anniversary Film in 1987. Ichikawa noted that he had wanted to make this film for many years, and said his intention was to make it a "film of pure diversion".[3] The film was selected as the opening film of the Tokyo International Film Festival, where it was not well received by critics.[4] Toho promoted the film heavily, and it had the second highest theatrical returns of any film that year, but its financial performance did not equal that of Ichikawa's 1985 release Harp of Burma.[3]
Plot
One day bamboo cutter Taketori-no-Miyatsuko (Toshiro Mifune) discovers a baby girl while he is out in the forest, visiting his daughter's grave. Not wanting to leave the infant to die and because of her resemblance to his dead daughter, he takes the child home with him- only to discover that the child grows at an extraordinarily fast rate. Incredibly beautiful, the now grown child Kaya (Yasuko Sawaguchi) attracts the attention of everyone around her, including the land's Emperor. Unwilling to accept their advances, Kaya gives the men a list of increasingly difficult tasks. By the film's end Kaya returns to outer-space by way of a space ship.
Staff
- Executive Producers: Tomoyuki Tanaka, Shigeaki Hazawa
- Planning by: Yasushi Mitsui
- Producers: Masaru Kakutani, Hiroaki Fuji, Junichi Shinsaka
- Screenplay: Ryozo Kikushima, Mitsutoshi Ishigami, Shinya Hidaka, Kon Ichikawa
- Wardrobe Supervisor: Hiroshi Saito
- Costume Design by: Emi Wada
- In Cooperation with: Kanebo
- Sponsored by: Nippon Life
- Wardrobe in Cooperation with: MIMATSU
- Photographed by: Setsuo Kobayashi
- Art Director: Shinobu Muraki
- Lighting Technician: Kazuo Shimomura
- Articulation by: Tetsuya Ohashi
- Recording by: Teiichi Saito
- Editor: Chizuko Osada
- Assistant Directors: Kazuo Yoshida, Masaaki Tezuka
- Production Manager: Shigekazu Hirama
- Data in Cooperation with: Kazuo Baba
- Assistant to the Crew: Yoshinori Sekiguchi, Tsuneo Shimura, Mitsuhiro Ogata, Tadatoshi Kitagawa
- Assistant Editor: Hirohide Abe
- Negative Editor: Chie Aoki
- Lighting Equipment: Kosei Nakatani
- Special Machine: Mitsuo Miyagawa
- Set Decorator: Kazuo Suzuki
- Set Dresser: Tadamitsu Nishida
- Prop Masters: Haruaki Miyauchi, Koichi Hamamura
- Still Photography by: Naomi Hashiyama
- Mixing by: Yoshiko Harada
- Wardrobe by: Suzuo Kawakami
- Hairdressing by: Kazuko Numata, Sakae Nakao
- Hair Art by: Seiji Arai
- Makeup by: Kimi Yoneyama
- Music Engineer: Akihiko Ono
- Music Office Work: Masao Iwase
- Effects by: Yoshio Kojima
- Fight Choreography by: Shinpachi Miyama
- Casting Director: Shosei Kitta
- Production Assistants: Satoshi Fukushima, Akira Matsueda
- Music by: Kensaku Tanikawa
- Conductor: Michiyoshi Inoue
- Orchestrator: Junosuke Yamamoto
- Performers: Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
- Chorus by: The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo
- Koto Player: Setsuko Yamada
- Theme Song "STAY WITH ME—Song for Princess KAGUYA"
- Performed by: Peter Cetera
- Soundtrack: Warner-Pioneer Records
- (Special Effects)
- Miniatures Unit
- Photographed by: Kenichi Eguchi, Toshimitsu Oneda
- Art Director: Yasuyuki Inoue
- Lighting Technician: Kohei Mikami
- Producer: Masao Suzuki
- 1st Assistant Director: Eiichi Asada
- Wire Operation by: Koji Matsumoto
- Special Effects: Tadaaki Watanabe
- Modeling by: Nobuyuki Yasumaru
- Compositing by: Takeshi Miyanishi, Kazunobu Sanpei
- Drawing by: Yoshio Ishi, Takeaki Tsukada
- 2nd Assistant Director: Kiyoshi Kameo
- Assistants to the Crew: Toshio Yamaga, Hiroshi Komura, Genichi Ichikawa, Soichiro Yamazaki, Yasunobu Katori, Toshitaka Watanabe
- Still Photography by: Kazutoshi Sasada
- Recording by: Hisae Yoneyama
- Assistant Editor: Sae Higashijima
- Negative Editor: Kazuyo Oasa
- Set Decorator: Yasuo Nomura
- Set Dresser: Heizo Kamoshida
- Production Assistant: Masahiko Shiraishi
- Optical Effects by: Nippon Effects Center, CINEBOY, Hyodo Productions, T.B.S. Optical
- Director of Special Effects: Teruyoshi Nakano
- Toho Eizo & Art Co., Ltd.
- Toho Pictures, Inc.
- Tokyo Laboratory Ltd.
- Toho Music Publishing
- Mixing by: Toho Recording Center
- Title by: Den Film-Effects
- Processing by: Tokyo Laboratory
- In Cooperation with: The Kyoto Hotel, Kanebo Cosmetics Institute, SUNTORY HALL, Otari digital recorder DTR-900
- Panavision
- Dolby Stereo in Select Theatres
- Technical Cooperation: Continental Far East Inc., Mikio Mori
Cast
- Toshiro Mifune as Taketori-no-Miyatsuko
- Yasuko Sawaguchi as Kaya, the Princess Kaguya
- Ayako Wakao as Tayoshime
- Koji Ishizaka as Mikado
- Kiichi Nakai as Otomo-no-Dainagon or Minister of the Military
- Megumi Odaka as Akeno
- Katsuo Nakamura as Lise
- Takeshi Katō as Fujiwara-no-Okuni
- Kyōko Kishida as Kougo
- Jun Hamamura as Sakanoue-no-Dajo-Daijin
- Koasa Shunpitei as Kuramochi-no-Miko or Minister of Culture
- Takatoshi Takeda as Abe-no-Udaijin or Minister of Finance
- Shirō Itō as Sojo-no-Doson
- Fujio Tokita as Shonin-no-Uda
- Hirokazu Yamaguchi as Metal Carver
- Gen Idemitsu as Mura-no-Choja
- Michiyo Yokoyama as Lise's Wife
- Hirokazu Inoue as Ono-no-Fusamori
- Miho Nakano as Kaya
Reception
Awards and nominations
- 1988, won Japanese Academy Awards Newcomer of the Year for Megumi Odaka[1]
- 1988, won Japanese Academy Awards Best Art Direction for Shinobu Muraki[1]
- 1988, won Japanese Academy Awards Special Award for Teruyoshi Nakano, Kenichi Eguchi, Yasuyuki Inoue, Takeshi Miyanishi, Kazunobu Sanpei, Eiichi Asada, Kohei Mikami, and Hiroshi Shirakawa[1]
- 1988, nominated Japanese Academy Awards Best Film[1]
- 1988, nominated Japanese Academy Awards Best Director for Kon Ichikawa[1]
- 1988, nominated Japanese Academy Awards Best Cinematography for Setsuo Kobayashi[1]
- 1988, nominated Japanese Academy Awards Best Editing for Chizuko Osada[1]
- 1988, nominated Japanese Academy Awards Best Lighting for Kazuo Shimomura[1]
- 1988, nominated Japanese Academy Awards Best Music Score for Kensaku Tanikawa[1]
- 1988, nominated Japanese Academy Awards Best Sound for Teiichi Saito and Tetsuya Ohashi[1]
- 1988, nominated Japanese Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor for Toshiro Mifune[1]
See also
- From the Towers of the Moon, an opera inspired by the film
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, a 2013 anime film by Studio Ghibli also directly retelling the folk tale
References
- Japan Academy Prize Association website
- "邦画興行収入ランキング". SF MOVIE DataBank (in Japanese). General Works. 2008. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- James Quandt, ed., Kon Ichikawa (Indiana University Press, 2001), ISBN 978-0968296936, pp. 91–92, 388–393. Excerpts available at Google Books.
- Kazuhiro Tateishi, "The Tale of Genji in Postwar Film: Emperor, Aestheticism, and the Erotic", in Haruo Shirane, ed., Envisioning the Tale of Genji: Media, Gender, and Cultural Production (Columbia University Press, 2013), ISBN 978-0231513463, p. 326. Excerpts available at Google Books.
External links
- Princess from the Moon at IMDb
- Princess from the Moon at AllMovie
- Princess from the Moon at the TCM Movie Database
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