TAAF2019] Isao Takahata Memorial Special 4: I was able to complete this film because I "gave up. The Tale of Princess Kaguya" Screening & Talk Event Report

The Tokyo Anime Awards Festival 2019 (TAAF2019) was held in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, for four days from March 8 to 11, 2019. This year's TAAF2019 featured a "Isao Takahata Memorial Project" in honor of Isao Takahata, one of Japan's leading animation directors, who sadly passed away last year. Here we report on the screening of "Isao Takahata Memorial Project 4: Where Isao Takahata Was Headed - The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" at the Ikebukuro Cinema Rosa on Sunday, March 10, and the talk event that followed.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya" is an animated feature film directed by Isao Takahata, which was released in 2013, his first film in 14 years since "Hohokekyo: My Neighbor Yamada-kun" was released in theaters in 1999, and also his last work, albeit an unexpected one. There are many episodes related to this film. It took eight years from the start of the project, during which time more than 5 billion yen was spent on production, and the entire film is expressed with a light touch as if painted with a brush. The actor Takeo Jii, who played the voice of Okina in the film, passed away during recording, and the actor Yuji Miyake took over the role of Okina, which became a big topic of conversation at the time.

The story is based almost exactly on the classic "Taketori Monogatari" (The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter), a classic familiar to many Japanese people. Princess Kaguya is born from a bamboo and raised by Okina and Ouna, but as she grows into an adult, she is courted by various aristocrats for her beauty. As she grows to adulthood, her beauty leads her to be courted by various aristocrats. In order to rebuff their advances, Kaguyahime poses unreasonable challenges to them that will never succeed, and she is even pressed by the emperor to marry him, but this leads her to discover her own destiny and she eventually returns to the moon.

Based on the classic literature that everyone is familiar with, the film depicts the drama of what Kaguyahime thought at that time, what kind of conflicts she went through, and what kind of ending she chose, all of which were not written in the story. This work is a perfect depiction of Japan itself. As mentioned above, a great deal of time and money went into the production of this film, but what was Director Takahata thinking and doing during that time? After the screening, a free talk session was held with Yoshiaki Nishimura, former Studio Ghibli employee and current Studio Ponoc representative director, and Ilan Nguyen, an animation researcher and specially-appointed associate professor at Tokyo University of the Arts, who worked closely with Director Takahata as producer of this film.

The topic of the talk began with the two men's recollections of their time with Director Takahata. According to Mr. Nishimura, his initial image of Mr. Takahata was that of a "scary person. There were about 80 to 100 animators working at Studio Ghibli at that time, but almost no one would make eye contact with Mr. Takahata. Since Mr. Takahata was not an employee of Studio Ghibli, he would occasionally visit the studio on a whim, chatting only with people he could understand, and then leave. In order to talk with Mr. Takahata, one had to be well educated. This is how Nishimura and the other young employees at Studio Ghibli felt, and that is why they could not easily get close to him.

One episode that illustrates this was when a reporter from a publishing company came to Studio Ghibli to write a book about Mr. Takahata. When the reporter responded to Mr. Takahata's enthusiastic comments with "yes" and "yes", Mr. Takahata asked him, "Did you understand what I just said?　If so, please explain it to me. Mr. Ihlan said that he had a similar experience with Mr. Takahata, and that when he talked with Mr. Takahata, he would start with a denial or question no matter what he said, and that he was very fond of French-style discussions. In such discussions, various reactions would occur, which would bring the discussion closer to the correct answer, and he had acquired such a dialectical way of thinking.

In a conversation with director Mamoru Oshii, Oshii asked, "Director Takahata always depicts everyday life, doesn't he? to which Takahata replied, "What is the everyday life you are talking about? He replied, "What is the everyday life you are talking about? Mr. Takahata is a man who is very particular about the definition of words, and he said that there was a part of him that would not allow him to move forward without clearing that part of his mind. Thus, he would spend hours in discussion and never compromise, which was Mr. Takahata's style.

However, according to Ilan, when he first met Director Takahata, he was very open to discussion, and he felt that this made him accept him, not knowing where he came from. He recalled that the general image of him is that he is a scary person, and indeed there are some aspects of him like that, but on the contrary, he was a very open person and had a great deal of curiosity about the world.

In addition, "The Tale of Kaguyahime" had a number of producers, but the project did not go smoothly, and the production period was as long as eight years. When asked by Mr. Ilan how only Mr. Nishimura was able to bring this film to the world, Mr. Nishimura thought for a moment and then replied, "That's because I gave up. When I work with Mr. Takahata, I get caught up in his pace and my senses become numb. So I had no choice but to give up, thinking that it would be impossible to make a film with him. In other words, he said that he would have been able to complete this film only in a contradictory way, giving up on completing the work and aiming to complete the film.

From the very beginning, he had decided to produce "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" with a small, elite team. However, days went by without even a storyboard. So Mr. Nishimura gave up on the work that Mr. Takahata really wanted to make, and aimed to complete it as a commercial film. The method Mr. Nishimura adopted at that time was to gather more and more staff members and expand his team. One day, Mr. Takahata noticed this and asked, "What does this mean?" Nishimura replied, "I intend to complete the film. I am a producer. With that, they finally started working toward the completion of the film. What I like about Mr. Takahata is that he did not look at people based on their age or anything, but respected their roles and their work. Therefore, he approved of me fulfilling my role as director and I as producer," he recalled.

According to Mr. Ilan, Mr. Takahata is a pioneer who has had a great impact on the history of Japanese animation, yet his work and accomplishments are not properly appreciated because he does not say anything himself. Although he did a great variety of work, there were also many jobs that he did quietly behind the scenes and did not appear in the credits. Moreover, in most cases, I did the work because someone asked me to do it, not because I wanted to do it. Moreover, he would research various things in great detail and come up with answers to the work he was asked to do. This was Mr. Takahata's way of doing things.

In closing the talk, Mr. Nishimura talked about "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya," a film that took eight years to make but is still shown in movie theaters around the world and loved by audiences. He commented that he was once again grateful to Mr. Takahata for the opportunity to be involved in such a work. Mr. Iran said that no matter how many times he watches Mr. Takahata's works, he always finds something new. Iran commented that he hopes people will continue to see Takahata's works in the future, and closed the event with a roaring applause.

Details of "The Tale of Princess Kaguya" on the official website of TAAF2019
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Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2019 (TAAF2019) official website
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