A peasant discovers a little princess in a forest and takes her home.

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Once upon a time, a peasant discovers a tiny princess in the middle of a bamboo forest. Convinced that she is a gift from heaven, the man takes her home and raises her with his wife. But Kaguya has a rare intelligence and grows very quickly. When her foster parents realize that their simple life is not good enough for a princess, they decide to take to the city and get her a proper education. But while others are increasingly fascinated by this mysterious princess from another world, Kaguya dreams of a different life...

More than twenty years after making the whole world cry with Grave of the Fireflies, Japanese director Isao Takahata is back with a new fable that promises to be another tearjerker. Marketed by the press as the next The Wind Rises (by Takahata’s colleague Hayao Muyazaki and released a few months ago), The Tale of Princess Kaguya is in contrast very long and unbalanced. There are certainly a few beautiful ideas and a few moving scenes, but the story lacks depth and depends too much on the clichés of auteur animated film.