The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will host the North American premiere Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and director Mami Sunada's The Kingdom Of Dreams And Madness documentary about Studio Ghibli next month.
Princess Kaguya will premiere with English subtitles on September 5 with Takahata present for the screening. The Kingdom Of Dreams And Madness will premiere on Monday, September 8.
TIFF describes the story:
Okina (voiced by Takeo Chii) is a bamboo cutter in ancient rural Japan. One day in the forest, he finds a tiny baby in the folds of a bamboo shoot. He brings the creature home to his wife Ounaa (Nobuko Miyamoto) and they decide to keep her and raise her as a princess. She is clearly not of this world. Kaguya (Aki Asakura) grows at an unnatural rate, soon maturing into an uncommonly beautiful young woman. Since Okina has now also found a cache of gold and treasure in the forest, every suitor wants Kaguya. But this is not a fairytale of courtship and marriage. True to the Studio Ghibli that brought us Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya follows this strange young female as she creates her own identity.
The film is slated for release in North America on October 17. Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, The 5th Wave) will star as the title character. The dub cast will also include James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges, James Marsden, Oliver Platt and Dean Cain.
The film won the Animation Film Award at the 68th Mainichi Film Awards. The film was screened at Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight but did not receive any awards.
American distributor GKids acquired the rights to release theStudio Ghibli documentary Kingdom of Dreams and Madness(Yume to Kyōki no Ōkoku) in the United States and Canada in June.
Yomiuri Documentary award-winning director Mami Sunada (Ending Note: Death of a Japanese Salaryman) directed the film, and it follows Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki as he worked on the Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) film, director Isao Takahata as he worked on the film Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya), and producer Toshio Suzuki as he worked on both projects. The documentary opened in Japanese theaters last fall.
Director Mamoru Oshii will also be present at the festival for an on-stage interview. The festival will also screen Sion Sono's Tokyo Tribe, Takashi Miike's Over Your Dead Body, Tetsuya Nakashima'sThe World of Kanako, Ryuichi Hiroki's Kabukicho Love Hotel, Naomi Kawase's Still the Water,Shinya Tsukamoto's Fires on the Plain, Atsuko Hirayanagi's "Oh Lucy!," and Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth.
