Princess From the Moon

 

"Princess From the Moon" is a 1987 movie by Kon Ichikawa based on an old Japanese folk tale. I first read "The Moon Maiden" as a young child in "Green Willow and Other Japanese Fairy Tales" by Grace James, a 1912 collection (available in its entirety on Google Books, btw). I loved it because it was so different from the familiar European fairy tales, but at the same time there were a lot of similarities. "The Moon Maiden" has a bit in common with "Thumbelina," which came later. 

Anyway, the movie departs quite a bit from the story, but keeps a very traditional feel, which makes the choice to make the moon maiden an alien, rather than a god, an interesting one.

Kon Ichikawa started his career as an animator and I kept thinking this movie would have been amazing as an anime (or in the hands of Miyazaki! He would have certainly leaned even harder into the ridiculous social climbers and the folly of war - though this version gives us the sight of 10th-century warriors shooting wooden arrows at a spaceship, which is really striking). An animated version, though, would have kept us from the always wonderful Toshiro Mifune, who plays the caring adoptive father of the moon princess. The most anime thing about the movie is the gorgeous spaceship design - it looks like a high-tech jellyfish and I love it. There isn't actually a ton of space stuff so I don't want to be misleading. It's mostly feudal Japanese action. There is also a dragon. 

Like the fairy tales, I appreciated that this movie didn't follow all of the Western tropes we have come to expect. It let its strange tale be what it was. And the color was dark and beautiful, like the whole thing was filmed by moonlight. Also - Kon Ichikawa is the guy who made "Milo and Otis" and "47 Ronin," among a lot of others (those are the two probably best known here). He knows how to tell a story. This one is appropriate to watch with kids who do not mind reading subtitles.

A highlight of the movie is the moon jelly-esque appearance of the spaceship.