Watch The Tale of Princess Kaguya Movie Streaming Free

Watch The Tale of Princess Kaguya Movie Streaming Free,  But Kaguya hates the mannered, artificial life of a noblewoman of the Heian period (794-1185 C.E.). She rebels against the tutoring of Lady Sagami, who attempts to teach her to walk, stand and sit formally, and to pluck her eyebrows and blacken her teeth (which was fashionable at the time). Instead of the simple cotton clothes that allowed her to run and climb in her native hamlet, she’s weighted down in layers of silk and brocade kimonos. She also misses Sutemaru, a character Takahata added to the story. A handsome, good-natured young peasant, he and Kaguya shared adventures and friendship in their rural village.

Although she fulfills her adopted father’s dream by attracting noble suitors, Kaguya rejects their offers of marriage, recognizing the flawed characters their exquisite manners conceal. Despite the efforts of Sanuki and the other mortals, Kaguya must eventually fulfill her destiny by returning to her true home, the moon. In the court of the Moon King, she will forget everyone and everything she knew on Earth.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a ravishingly beautiful film. The characters, who look like they were drawn with traditional ink brushes, are colored in delicate pastels. Instead of hyper realistic CG landscapes or fully realized paintings, the backgrounds suggest minimal watercolor sketches. A small of area of lavender may suggest the crest of a distant mountain or the petals of a flower, framed by empty white paper.
 Like the other recent Studio Ghibli features, the animation is more polished than most Japanese films. Kaguya initially moves with the delightful clumsiness of a real infant. But as she learns aristocratic postures, she subtly swings her long sleeves to keep the layers of fabric correctly positioned. The grace of the animation makes the news about restructuring at Ghibli all the more worrisome: to break up the talented crew they’ve assembled would be a loss to the Studio and to the art of animation.

Princess Kaguya moves at a deliberate pace, very different from the whizz-bang tempo of American animation. Takahata breaks that measured rhythm once: When her frustration with the formal sterility of urban life overcomes her, Kaguya escapes to the village where she grew up, leaving a trail of torn finery in her wake. The animation is rougher, faster and more dynamic, reflecting the wretched Kaguya’s sense of imprisonment. Like a real-time gesture in a hypnotically slow Noh play, the escape sequence seems more exciting in contrast to the quieter movements surrounding it.

US audiences may grow impatient with the stately rhythm of  The Tale of Princess Kaguya. But viewers who accept the film on its own terms will enjoy a rewarding viewing experience that reminds them just how protean and beautiful the art of animation can be.