Princess from the Moon

is a 1987 Japanese film directed by Kon Ichikawa. It is based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a 10th-century Japanese fairy tale about a girl from the Moon who is discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. Plot One day bamboo cutter Taketori-no-Miyatsuko (Toshiro Mifune) discovers a baby girl while he is out in the forest, visiting his daughter's grave. Not wanting to leave the infant to die and because of her resemblance to his dead daughter, he takes the child home with him- only to discover that the child grows at an extraordinarily fast rate. Incredibly beautiful, the now grown child Kaya (Yasuko Sawaguchi) attracts the attention of everyone around her, including the land's Emperor. Unwilling to accept their advances, Kaya gives the men a list of increasingly difficult tasks. By the film's end Kaya returns to outer-space by way of a space ship. Cast Toshiro Mifune as Taketori-no-Miyatsuko Yasuko Sawaguchi as Kaya, the Princess Kaguya Ayako Wakao as Tayoshime Koji Ishizaka as Mikado Kiichi Nakai as Otomo-no-Dainagon or Minister of the Military Megumi Odaka as Akeno Katsuo Nakamura as Lise Takeshi Katō as Fujiwara-no-Okuni Kyōko Kishida as Kougo Jun Hamamura as Sakanoue-no-Dajo-Daijin Koasa Shunpitei as Kuramochi-no-Miko or Minister of Culture Takatoshi Takeda as Abe-no-Udaijin or Minister of Finance Shirō Itō as Sojo-no-Doson Fujio Tokita as Shonin-no-Uda Hirokazu Yamaguchi as Metal Carver Gen Idemitsu as Mura-no-Choja Michiyo Yokoyama as Lise's Wife Hirokazu Inoue as Ono-no-Fusamori Miho Nakano as Kaya Background The film was released as Toho's 55th Anniversary Film in 1987. Ichikawa noted that he had wanted to make this film for many years, and said his intention was to make it a "film of pure diversion". The film was selected as the opening film of the Tokyo International Film Festival, where it was not well received by critics. Toho promoted the film heavily, and it had the second highest theatrical returns of any film that year, but its financial performance did not equal that of Ichikawa's 1985 release Harp of Burma.