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Princess Raccoon
I watched Princess Raccoon today after work. It was recommended to me (in that "This is weird in a way you'll find interesting" way) by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kate_nepveu, I think
It's a musical about a romance between a human prince and a tanuki (an animal often translated as "raccoon," but it's not a raccoon) princess, and the best word I can think of to describe it is "conceptual." It's that sort of story that makes you think it was originally a stage play, and it's filmed like it's a stage play with props and settings that are representational, rather than literal, and with lots of overacting by everyone involved. But I think it tended to reach a bit too far into the realm of the conceptual and left the audience behind.
However, as it's in Japanese with English subtitles, and pulls quite heavily from Japanese legend and stage tradition, I can't tell when I'm missing something because of the cultural disconnect and when I'm missing something because the director was INSANE.
Basic story: We get a short intro by a Japanese peasant explaining that humans and tanuki should never fall in love, but that it's the 13th moon and anything could happen. Scene changes to the castle of the great human lord Azuchi Momoyama, who fancies himself the most beautiful thing on earth. His court is dressed in 16th century European fashion, except for him. He beseeches the Virgin Hag to tell him who the most beautiful person of all is (yes, this should sound familiar *coughSnowWhitecough*). She prays to the Virgin Mary* and confirms he's the fairest, but wait! No! His son, Amechiyo, will soon be the fairest! So Azuchi, being a reasonable human being, decides the thing to do is kill Amechiyo.
Azuchi sends the Ostrich Monk, who claims he's a ninja, to get Amechiyo. The Ostrich Monk drugs Amechiyo, but takes him through the tanuki forest and gets harassed by a shapeshifting tanuki and drops Amechiyo (I've skipped 2 or 3 songs by this point). Amechiyo wanders off into the forest, and the Ostrich Monk gets kidnapped by a bunch of peasants who are convinced he's a tanuki and are going to make him into tanuki soup and eat him.
Amechiyo runs into a beautiful maiden - the Tanuki Princess, played by Zhang Zhiyi who, according to the Behind the Scenes video, doesn't actually speak Japanese. The Tanukin Princess is referred to a couple of times in the show, including in song, as having come over from Cathay for unspecified reasons. Anyway, they flirt and fight a little, and fall in love. As they approach the Tanuki Palace, he's taken prisoner.
Inside the Palace, it's party time as the tanuki, who are reputed to love drinking and partying and playing tricks in Japanese lore, celebrate it not being the Princess' birthday.** Amechiyo is in a cell. The Princess moons about the palace for a while until her attendants decide that they'll sneak over and release Amechiyo to make her happy. Cue love songs.
The Virgin Hag shows up to kill Amechiyo, but it killed herself in a duel with Hagi, whose status in court I couldn't quite figure out, but who's fairly important and is devoted to the Princess. Hagi tells Amechiyo that his father will kill him and all the tanuki, so he takes off to fight his father. She tells the Princess that, who cries a lot but doesn't go after Amechiyo. For a while, at least. She eventually takes off, and meets him, plus Azuvchi, his insane father, on a beach. Azuchi stabs at Amechiyo, but the Princess intercepts the blade and she's gravely injured. Azuchi went into bizarre paroxysms and staggered off at this point, and I figured out later that he got somehow scarred with acid or tanuki blood or *something*, but it wasn't clear to me at the time.
The Princess is taken back to the palace and the healers can't heal her. One of them sings a song that would fit right into a rock opera about how they have to get the Frog of Paradise as its the only thing to heal her and who's brave enough to go? The entire court ostentatiously sneaks off, leaving Amechiyo who naturally volunteers.
He takes off for the local holy mountain, which has been sort of looming over the whole production, as Amechiyo's "infidel" mother was exiled there by his dad.
... Have I mentioned that Amechiyo carries a cross and rosary?
At any rate, he goes off to find the Frog. Hagi goes after him, determined that *she'll* save the Princess. Amechiyo hallucinates it's hot and throws off all his clothes, but then realizes he's still in snow and puts them back on. And does it again. Going in and out of hypothermia, I guess. Eventually someone credited as the Lady of Light appears to him in a vision and indicates a ladder. He climbs it and finds the Frog. He's attacked by the shapeshifting Hagi, and falls off the ladder.
Hagi staggers around the snowfield a few times, then finds an injured and dying Amechiyo, who begs her to take the Frog to the Princess. She does so, although feeling regret at her treatment of him. She gets back, the Princess is healed and reapplies her Lipstick of Good Health. And then Hagi tells her that Amechiyo's dead and she shrieks in agony.
Back to Azuchi's palace - he's crazy (well, *more* crazy). A not-dead-but-close Amechiyo inexplicably descends in a cage and confronts him. Azuchi catches sight of his scarred reflection in the blade Amechiyo's holding and goes even crazier, killing him. The Princess inexplicably shows up and fights Azuchi with magic, throwing him into the vat of liquid the Virgin Hag used to prophesy. She then sees Amechiyo and takes his blade and cuts her throat and collapses, then gets up and staggers around a bit, then dies in the arms of her attendants, who show up late.
Cue big funeral song with lots of grieving tanuki. Then the Lady of Light shows up again, insubstantially, reveals she's actually Amechiyo's mother, and sings a song about Kwannon and how love turns tears into joy. The funeral image of Amechiyo and the Princess comes to life, and they kiss.
And then everyone's happy, and the tanuki party down again, because ... the Princess and Amechiyo are alive but floating somewhere in some bubble or in Heaven looking down or something. Just not there with them.
And then all teh tanuki get a chance to say "I'm one!" and put a tanuki mask on.
So, yeah: a bit overly conceptual. The above is what I figured out from it, and there's lots of little thigns here and there that made me go "what?" Periodically it would cut back to teh Ostrich Monk, captive of the peasants, who wanted to wait for him to turn back into his tanuki form - althougn he's human - before eating him. He's trapped in a bucket and at one point a small boy pees on him. And he escapes when a bunch of stuffed tanuki jump off the rafters and bounce up and down on string for a while. Yeah. That was about as much sense as a lot of it made.
So, if you're in the mood for a lot of WTF? and some interesting stuff otherwise, in a movie that's about 20 minutes too long, I'd say Netflix it.
* Presumably this is terribly exotic to the intended audience. Also, presumably, there's something deeper with the Christian symbolism that I'm not getting since I only know the bare facts about the rocky history of Christianity in Japan, and quite a lot of those I got from Samurai Champloo. Amechiyo carries around a cross and rosary, the Virgin Hag prays to Mary, and Azuchi prays to the Lord by the cross later on, when he goes insane. I'd assume it was meant to be the We're Not Japanese Enough To Be The Heroes except that Amechiyo carries the cross with him all the time.
** To answer the obvious question, no we don't learn what they do when it *is* her birthday.
kate_nepveu, I thinkIt's a musical about a romance between a human prince and a tanuki (an animal often translated as "raccoon," but it's not a raccoon) princess, and the best word I can think of to describe it is "conceptual." It's that sort of story that makes you think it was originally a stage play, and it's filmed like it's a stage play with props and settings that are representational, rather than literal, and with lots of overacting by everyone involved. But I think it tended to reach a bit too far into the realm of the conceptual and left the audience behind.
However, as it's in Japanese with English subtitles, and pulls quite heavily from Japanese legend and stage tradition, I can't tell when I'm missing something because of the cultural disconnect and when I'm missing something because the director was INSANE.
Basic story: We get a short intro by a Japanese peasant explaining that humans and tanuki should never fall in love, but that it's the 13th moon and anything could happen. Scene changes to the castle of the great human lord Azuchi Momoyama, who fancies himself the most beautiful thing on earth. His court is dressed in 16th century European fashion, except for him. He beseeches the Virgin Hag to tell him who the most beautiful person of all is (yes, this should sound familiar *coughSnowWhitecough*). She prays to the Virgin Mary* and confirms he's the fairest, but wait! No! His son, Amechiyo, will soon be the fairest! So Azuchi, being a reasonable human being, decides the thing to do is kill Amechiyo.
Azuchi sends the Ostrich Monk, who claims he's a ninja, to get Amechiyo. The Ostrich Monk drugs Amechiyo, but takes him through the tanuki forest and gets harassed by a shapeshifting tanuki and drops Amechiyo (I've skipped 2 or 3 songs by this point). Amechiyo wanders off into the forest, and the Ostrich Monk gets kidnapped by a bunch of peasants who are convinced he's a tanuki and are going to make him into tanuki soup and eat him.
Amechiyo runs into a beautiful maiden - the Tanuki Princess, played by Zhang Zhiyi who, according to the Behind the Scenes video, doesn't actually speak Japanese. The Tanukin Princess is referred to a couple of times in the show, including in song, as having come over from Cathay for unspecified reasons. Anyway, they flirt and fight a little, and fall in love. As they approach the Tanuki Palace, he's taken prisoner.
Inside the Palace, it's party time as the tanuki, who are reputed to love drinking and partying and playing tricks in Japanese lore, celebrate it not being the Princess' birthday.** Amechiyo is in a cell. The Princess moons about the palace for a while until her attendants decide that they'll sneak over and release Amechiyo to make her happy. Cue love songs.
The Virgin Hag shows up to kill Amechiyo, but it killed herself in a duel with Hagi, whose status in court I couldn't quite figure out, but who's fairly important and is devoted to the Princess. Hagi tells Amechiyo that his father will kill him and all the tanuki, so he takes off to fight his father. She tells the Princess that, who cries a lot but doesn't go after Amechiyo. For a while, at least. She eventually takes off, and meets him, plus Azuvchi, his insane father, on a beach. Azuchi stabs at Amechiyo, but the Princess intercepts the blade and she's gravely injured. Azuchi went into bizarre paroxysms and staggered off at this point, and I figured out later that he got somehow scarred with acid or tanuki blood or *something*, but it wasn't clear to me at the time.
The Princess is taken back to the palace and the healers can't heal her. One of them sings a song that would fit right into a rock opera about how they have to get the Frog of Paradise as its the only thing to heal her and who's brave enough to go? The entire court ostentatiously sneaks off, leaving Amechiyo who naturally volunteers.
He takes off for the local holy mountain, which has been sort of looming over the whole production, as Amechiyo's "infidel" mother was exiled there by his dad.
... Have I mentioned that Amechiyo carries a cross and rosary?
At any rate, he goes off to find the Frog. Hagi goes after him, determined that *she'll* save the Princess. Amechiyo hallucinates it's hot and throws off all his clothes, but then realizes he's still in snow and puts them back on. And does it again. Going in and out of hypothermia, I guess. Eventually someone credited as the Lady of Light appears to him in a vision and indicates a ladder. He climbs it and finds the Frog. He's attacked by the shapeshifting Hagi, and falls off the ladder.
Hagi staggers around the snowfield a few times, then finds an injured and dying Amechiyo, who begs her to take the Frog to the Princess. She does so, although feeling regret at her treatment of him. She gets back, the Princess is healed and reapplies her Lipstick of Good Health. And then Hagi tells her that Amechiyo's dead and she shrieks in agony.
Back to Azuchi's palace - he's crazy (well, *more* crazy). A not-dead-but-close Amechiyo inexplicably descends in a cage and confronts him. Azuchi catches sight of his scarred reflection in the blade Amechiyo's holding and goes even crazier, killing him. The Princess inexplicably shows up and fights Azuchi with magic, throwing him into the vat of liquid the Virgin Hag used to prophesy. She then sees Amechiyo and takes his blade and cuts her throat and collapses, then gets up and staggers around a bit, then dies in the arms of her attendants, who show up late.
Cue big funeral song with lots of grieving tanuki. Then the Lady of Light shows up again, insubstantially, reveals she's actually Amechiyo's mother, and sings a song about Kwannon and how love turns tears into joy. The funeral image of Amechiyo and the Princess comes to life, and they kiss.
And then everyone's happy, and the tanuki party down again, because ... the Princess and Amechiyo are alive but floating somewhere in some bubble or in Heaven looking down or something. Just not there with them.
And then all teh tanuki get a chance to say "I'm one!" and put a tanuki mask on.
So, yeah: a bit overly conceptual. The above is what I figured out from it, and there's lots of little thigns here and there that made me go "what?" Periodically it would cut back to teh Ostrich Monk, captive of the peasants, who wanted to wait for him to turn back into his tanuki form - althougn he's human - before eating him. He's trapped in a bucket and at one point a small boy pees on him. And he escapes when a bunch of stuffed tanuki jump off the rafters and bounce up and down on string for a while. Yeah. That was about as much sense as a lot of it made.
So, if you're in the mood for a lot of WTF? and some interesting stuff otherwise, in a movie that's about 20 minutes too long, I'd say Netflix it.
* Presumably this is terribly exotic to the intended audience. Also, presumably, there's something deeper with the Christian symbolism that I'm not getting since I only know the bare facts about the rocky history of Christianity in Japan, and quite a lot of those I got from Samurai Champloo. Amechiyo carries around a cross and rosary, the Virgin Hag prays to Mary, and Azuchi prays to the Lord by the cross later on, when he goes insane. I'd assume it was meant to be the We're Not Japanese Enough To Be The Heroes except that Amechiyo carries the cross with him all the time.
** To answer the obvious question, no we don't learn what they do when it *is* her birthday.
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I'd have assumed this was a stage play first, for kids, and perhaps almost in the realm of English panto, but I think it wasn't, just designed that way.
And the recap above is WAY more coherent than the actual movie! XD
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bittersweetmovie about tanuki, the dub refers to their magical shapeshifting scrotums as "raccoon pouches". But it's fairly obvious what they are.no subject
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I can't tell when I'm missing something because of the cultural disconnect and when I'm missing something because the director was INSANE.. I think that about sums it up.
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I guess it makes a little more sense with what I know of Japanese history and whatnot, but not a LOT more sense. :P I think it's supposed to be insane. After all, the director is famous for ludicrously over the top splatter films or something, I think. (I wouldn't know; I hate that kind of thing.)