Studio Ghibli Announce Next Film, Plus Two More In The Works From Hayao Miyazaki Himself
After a nice ten year hiatus since he completed My Neigbours The Yamadas, Isao Takahata is back at work directing the next feature film from Studio Ghibli. Taketori Monogatari, which translates as The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, will be an adaptation of the story considered to be the oldest surviving Japanese folktale. It is an incredibly well known story, at home, much as Grimm’s Fairy Tales are in the West.
I recall that Kon Ichikawa made a live action version of the tale with Toshiro Mifune and, according to my Google Research, Big Bird witnesses a telling of the story by schoolchildren in the TV movie Big Bird in Japan but I dare say most renditions will become ancillary to the Ghibli version, if not outright forgotten in its shadow. I suspect this toon is likely to become a definitive version in Japan much in the way Disney have laid claim to Snow White or Pinocchio for Western audiences. You only have to imagine how deeply entrenched a Pixar version of
I find the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter to be quite a bitty and episodic story. I’ll rattle it off in synopsis, but - obivously - you might want to be aware of spoilers:
A baby girl from the moon is found in a stalk of bamboo and adopted by a bamboo cutter and his wife. The girl grows up and sets challenges for the many princes who come seeking her hand in marriage, a series of tasks which they find impossible. She then meets the Emperor but rebuffs his amorous advances without even bothering to test him. This is not enough to discourage him, however, and he keeps trying to woo her until she is visted by other moon beings who want to take her home. She can’t resist her fellow moon folk, and is taken away from her parents and her royal suitor. She leaves the Emperor an elixir of eternal life, though he refuses to drink it as he’d rather die than live without her.
Well, that’s what I’ve been able to put together from around and about the web and that Ichikawa film, anyway. He had a UFO turn up at the end, though I’m sure the original version of events invoked more angelically celestial imagery to its 10th century audiences.
The film is reported to be set for release next year.
Also reported in the same post at Asian Movie Pulse is that Hayao Miyazaki, Takahata’s Studio Ghibli co-founder and probably the most cherished animator in the world, is “in discussions with studio staff to make two more feature-length films in the next 3 years”. I’m assuming that means he’s negotiating to direct two pictures, not to find directors for them, but I don’t think we can be entirely sure. He has (once again) been threatening to retire, after all.
So cool:
"A baby girl from the moon is found in a stalk of bamboo and adopted by a bamboo cutter and his wife."
This was in the Yamadas.
I really hope Miyazaki is directing these new pics. I hope he directs until he dies. Then I hope they build a robot and put his brain into it so he can keep directing.
gamingeek said:So cool:
"A baby girl from the moon is found in a stalk of bamboo and adopted by a bamboo cutter and his wife."
This was in the Yamadas.
And very similar to the moon girl in Okami
Want
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These are from here:
http://logozo.timduru.org/chihiro/
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Foolz said:If only that was master chief instead of an astronaut.
Now that would be an awesome reveal of the chief 
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileI just read this and found it interesting.
http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/09/22/studio-ghilbli-to-go-out-of-business-if-next-film-fails-at-the-u/
As with nearly all Studio Ghibli productions, 'The Borrower Arrietty' scored well at the Japanese box office after its recent release, but it's not yet been confirmed that it will receive a theatrical release in the U.S.
Studio Ghibli's 'Tales From Earthsea,' which finally got a very limited U.S. release this summer, received little publicity and earned less than $50,000, compared to $68 million in worldwide grosses. The previous year, Miyazaki's 'Ponyo' made more than $15 million in the U.S., the studio's best performance to date, yet made more than $185 million worldwide. In 2005, 'Howl's Moving Castle' earned less than $5 million in the U.S. versus more than $230 million worldwide. In 2002, 'Spirited Away,' which was the beneficiary of a big publicity push, still made barely $10 million in the U.S., compared to nearly $265 million worldwide.
In other words, Studio Ghibli's earnings from the U.S. have been only a small percentage of the worldwide gross. So what, exactly, is Studio Ghibli expecting from their next release? It's understandable that the studio may be disappointed that the films have not penetrated mainstream consciousness in the U.S., but something is seriously wrong if they're banking on a windfall that, based on the evidence of the past eight years, may never happen.
I am in the process of gradually introducing a lady friend of mine to the awesomeness that is Studio Ghibli and Japanes animation on the whole, and in the process watching some things I may have missed or just revisiting everything.
I suggested we start with one of the heavyweights in the cannon, like Nausicaa, Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle but she said ... "No, I want to watch everything. Let's start at the beginning and work our way forward".
So we did. We watched the earliest Miyazaki work I had. Panda! Go Panda! from back in 1972 - 1973.
It's very much a TV thing. Comprised of two short movies made for TV in 1972 and 1973 when Japan was apparently going through panda fever. It's very much a children's film. I enjoyed it though. It's whimsical and innocent and a lot of fun, and the animation and drawings are wonderful. My friend said she also enjoyed it, so there. I didn't think she would.
Next up for us will be the earliest Isao Takahata work I have, Little Norse Prince from 1968!
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Eh, I tried to watch Go Panda. I managed to endure 10 nonsensical minutes before turning it off.
Little Norse Prince is good. Takahata making a Miyazaki type film before Miyazaki.
Well, we didn't keep with the chronological order after all, so we didn't see Little Norse Prince this time but we did see another Isao Takahata one.
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It was my choice. It had been a while since I last saw it and I also wanted my friend to watch it even though I knew it would leave us both feeling uncomfortable and lost for words. Not sure where to go next. I think it will be one of either Little Norse Prince or Lupin III
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gamingeek said:Eh, I tried to watch Go Panda. I managed to endure 10 nonsensical minutes before turning it off.
Little Norse Prince is good. Takahata making a Miyazaki type film before Miyazaki.
You really hate Asian humour.
What the hell?
Yo, you are weird.