The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter And Tale Of Princess Kaguya

Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and Tale of Princess Kaguya Comparison The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter constitutes as the earliest example of a monogatari text. A focus on vernacular tales, and fictional stories characterize the literary form monogatari. This tale’s popularity led to several adaptations including, the Studio Ghibli film, The Tale of Princess Kaguya. The ability to convey a story, change with the use of different mediums along the lines of text and film. As so, the text uses various character interactions with Princess Kaguya and character action to exemplify the theme of impermanence and loss. Moreover, the film uses various shot compositions, and recurring symbols to represent the theme of clinging to the past as well as loss. Impermanence, …show more content…
Throughout the film, Princess Kaguya struggled between pressure of becoming an actual princess and a member of the aristocracy, and longing for her rural life. In one scene she overhears two men at her party, where she receives her formal name, gossiping she received nobility only through money. This rumor caused Princess Kaguya to escape her party and the capital. The composition of the shot included constant depiction of the moon and Princess Kaguya running through grass and gates to return to the mountains. The inclusion of a long shot of the moon during her getaway, where her origins lie, exemplifies her attempt to hold onto her past and avoid stark changes bestowed upon her. In addition, the inclusion of a long shot of the moon that takes up majority of the scene show an overwhelming disdain for nobility as opposed to nature. Above all, another key scene includes Princess Kaguya picking up a rock with bugs underneath at the garden in the capital. An important aspect of the scene includes her impulse to sing the song starting as “birds, bugs, beasts”. This song reappeared throughout the movie originating as a song between Princess Kaguya and her friends in the village. As so, her immediate reaction and remembrance of the song shows Princess Kaguya clinging onto her life in which she connected with nature and did not focus …show more content…
Paradoxically, The Tale of Princess Kaguya’s plotline depict the struggle between saying goodbye and coping with adjustment. Despite the film rendition losing original aspects of the text, the cultural context rectify this dissent. At the time of the film, high value for the aristocracy fails to compare at the time of the text. However, the composition of the film’s shots and dialogue show contention common with having part ways with people and places. Still, the character exchanges in the text depict the persistence of impermanence in life. Despite the different messages in the film and text both overlap with buddhist properties that nothing lasts including life, and home. Ultimately, during the Heian period, the state religion manifested as Nara buddhism. The adoption of this religion elucidate why in both mediums another celestial race overrides that capital importantly showing a shift in the dynamics who held ultimate power according to Japanese