Gorgeous Trailer for Studio Ghibli's 'The Tale of Princess Kaguya'

The legendary animators at Studio Ghibli may not be producing as many feature films as they used to, but at least they aren't going away for good like many thought. They'll still be around producing animated classics, and the next one to hit U.S. shores is The Tale of Princess Kaguya, and a beautiful new trailer for its U.S. premiere has been released.

Directed by Isao Takahata in an intriguing style reminiscent of Japanese picture scrolls, the film is based on the folk legend "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter." Chloe Moretz, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges and James Marsden lend their voices to the film about a young girl found in a bamboo stalk who "grows into an exquisite young lady, raised by an old bamboo cutter and his wife. From the countryside to the grand capital city, even unseen she enthralls all who encounter her, including five noble suitors.  Ultimately she must face her fate, punishment for her crime."

The American translation is a little vague but essentially there are two version of the 'Bamboo Cutter' story. One has Kaguya sent to Earth as punishment for a crime she committed, while another has her escaping from a war in the Heavens. Based on the synopsis it sounds like the former version is what Studio Ghibli has decided to go with.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya opens on October 17th.

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Kill Bill The Whole Bloody Affair Draws Near!

I was never a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino. When everyone else was singing his praises as the "second coming" or some sort, I was the lone guy in the crowd saying "Eh, he's aiight". Call me crazy but Reservoir Dogs never struck a chord with me, and it took about 10 viewings before I finally like Pulp Fiction. The movie that changed my mind about QT was Kill Bill vol. 1. A perfect revenge caper that stroked every classic kung-fu chord in my body. Then he topped it in a totally different way with Vol 2. It really showed me the depth of his ability as filmmaker to make one complete story told in two polar opposite ways. Awesome stuff. For years QT has been talking about a DVD/Blu-Ray release that puts the entire story together, including added scenes that were left on the cutting room floor. Well, after years of waiting, that complete film is finally getting close to completion.

In an interview with Sci-Fi Wire, Tarantino let loose a few tidbits on what we can expect from the package...

"When I'm through with this, I can actually finish the final Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair," Tarantino told reporters Sunday in a group interview in Beverly Hills, Calif.

"I need to do one thing with it, though," Tarantino said. "I'm not going to monkey around with the movie itself, but we've actually done a whole new section for the anime as the last thing [we added]. I actually wrote a much longer script for the anime section during O-Ren's revenge chapter. Remember the guy with the long hair that kills her father? It's like, what happened to that dude? Well, I wrote it and it was the biggest, most elaborate thing I wrote—her taking him down."

I always felt like the anime sequence was the one spot that needed fleshing out, and apparently QT feels the exact same way. I'm hoping this won't just be a Blu-Ray release because...well, I don't have a blu-ray. Yet. I'm saving for a Panasonic DMP-BD30. But if there's anything that will make me shell out hundreds of dollars for a blu-ray right this second, it's a complete edition of Kill Bill. I can't wait for this. Bet it comes out around Christmas.

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