Movie in one sentence:
A foreigner is tortured by another country's culture.
Movie in more sentences:
An old man finds a tiny girl in a bamboo stick and takes her home with him. He's convinced she's a princess and when his wife expresses eagerness in wanting to raise her, the girl instantly transforms into a normal infant.
The two lovingly raise the quick-growing child, until she's deemed old enough by her foster father to move into a villa and begin her royal training; believing this is what is wanted for her from the divine beings up above, who gifted him riches after having accepted her.
But this life forced upon her brings her no pleasure, and soon she makes a regretful wish.
It always wastes time on showing stuff that would've been better spent on character relationships and explaining matters further. Why do I have to watch people patiently prepare food and eat it if those seconds could've been used on charming dialogue?
The vast majority of Ghibli movies I'd never watch again.
This one had much to tell and had interesting scenes sprinkled in, but just once did I want the girl to say "Why are we at this new house? How am I a princess?", or "Dad, I hate this, I hate what you've become!", or "You're the reason I'm unhappy, dad!", or just a simple and to the point "I want to go home!".
But she only sits there, occasionally depressed, and not even her foster mother explains anything to her or asks her husband to give up. The man deserved a scolding.
At the end of the movie he apologizes to Kaguya, but is it an apology for his annoying control freak behaviour or for failing to keep her on Earth, which she expressed to want? Why does it suddenly matter to him what she wants? Because it affects him this time? Really didn't like this man.
Out of nowhere, the girl remembers where she came from (after roughly 4 years of being alive or so) and we learn she is a supernatural moon resident. Cool, but I don't understand how that explains what we know about her.
She came out of a bamboo stick. How's that relevant to the moon. She was a miniature person when she was found. How is that relevant to these moon people, who show up further in time and are of normal size.
Kaguya does and says nothing throughout the movie that could've helped us guess her strange origin, it's just suddenly thrown at the audience.
"When I got glomped by a man, I suddenly remembered, I'm MOON PEOPLE!". Okey.
Why wasn't she born from the reflection of the moon in a lake, for example. Do the typical shooting star thing, for all I care, have her fall on Earth with a great blast.
Or why not show she has an affinity for going outside on nights with a (full) moon? If this was what the original fairy tale was like, I would've taken the liberty to change it. But.. I understand that's taboo in many cultures.
I liked the tragedy, though. This girl only lived out her childhood for a few months and the rest of her 3 years on Earth was unfiltered misery. Again, don't understand why she didn't blame the one person to blame for this or didn't explain for what reason she still wanted to stay on Earth, as there was nothing left for her in this life. She abandoned her childhood friend when given the one chance to reunite with him, and in those 3 years, he found himself an indifferent woman to produce a child with.
Seriously, how did he end up with her. Must've been a drunken mistake.
There are so many questions still, like; why did it take 3 years for those horny men who wanted to marry her to actually do what she asked of them? There was no reason for this time skip to make that scene work. I have a hard time believing Kaguya would still remember the details of their love proclamations to fire back at them after such a long time.
And if happiness causes Kaguya's growth to speed up, does that mean she could've been an elderly woman within a handful of years in a "better" setting?
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