Impressions: 'The Tale of the Princess Kaguya' and 'Gravity' - The Moon is the Underworld, and the Earth is the Eternal World

Recently on social media, I have seen people talking about director Isao Takahata's Ghibli film
“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”
. As I looked through the various impressions and re-evaluations, I suddenly remembered a certain movie.

That film is

That is, a work also set in “space” with a woman as the protagonist,
the Sandra Bullock-starring
“Gravity”.

■ The Moon and Space as Worlds of Silence

When I watched Gravity in theaters, I was captivated by the overwhelming immersion and spectacle provided by the 3D visuals.

However, looking back on it now, I get the feeling that this film is not just a space survival story, but a tale of a woman standing on the “boundary between life and death.”

And this feeling became clearly defined when I thought about it alongside The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

What both works share is the depiction of places separated from human activity, such as the moon and space.

These are depicted as soundless, calm, harmonious, and flawless worlds, but at the same time, they possess the character of a “land of the dead,” being places severed from human life.

Ryan Stone, the protagonist of Gravity, is a person who has already distanced herself from the world on Earth in some part of her heart due to the loss of her young daughter.

Space, with no sound, no air, and where one cannot even feel the weight of their own body, is depicted as if it were a direct reflection of her inner self. There is no suffering or conflict there, but in exchange, the sense of being alive is also lost.

In the middle of the story, there is a scene where Ryan, having lost hope of returning home, quietly accepts her end.
That is also the moment she tries to surrender herself to the “world of the dead.”

However, what brought her back was not her professionalism as an astronaut or a sense of duty toward her mission.
It was the meaningless “everyday sounds of Earth” that reached her by chance from the ground—just noise.

That sound was not information, but a trace that
“even at this very moment, someone is living somewhere.” Choosing a messy, uncontrollable world over a harmonious silence.

That choice seems to be the core of this film.

■ Those Who Leave the Earth, Those Who Descend to Earth

On the other hand, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya depicts the same structure in reverse.

Princess Kaguya is a being who descended to Earth from the moon—a perfect, harmonious world—the underworld.

What she longed for and loved was the human world, full of imperfection, conflict, and emotion. To laugh, to cry, to be hurt. In other words, it was the very act of living “life.”

However, the moment she felt
“I can no longer endure”
the patriarchal “life” forced upon her on Earth, she was taken back by the messengers from the moon who came to retrieve her.

Peace is prepared for her there, but at the same time, it means letting go of emotions and memories.
The look of regret Princess Kaguya shows on the ship returning to the moon seems to poignantly tell us that a perfect world is nothing but “death” for a human being.

When we layer these two stories, we can read them as the story of a “daughter” who withdraws from an Earth filled with the hardships of living, and the story of a “mother” who, triggered by memories of her child, returns from that place and chooses to live again.

While both have female protagonists, their positions are contrasting.
Kaguya leaves Earth as a daughter, and Ryan returns to Earth as a mother.
In that, the

suffocation and vulnerability of living on Earth—the eternal world—oozes through.

■ Beyond the Saying “Mothers are Strong”

As I continue with this reading, Victor Hugo's words,
'Women are weak, but mothers are strong,'
naturally come to mind.

However, at the same time, I want to turn my attention to the weight that this phrase has left on society for so long.
Does the expectation that 'mothers should be strong' not still, unconsciously, place an excessive burden on women?

The rebirth depicted in 'Gravity' is certainly portrayed with 'being a mother' as one of its pillars.
But there is no need to interpret this as a story where 'one cannot choose to live unless one is a mother.'

Even without using 'children' as a reason,
and without conforming to patriarchal values,
I want the Earth—the eternal world—to be a place where women can choose to live as women,
and still not feel that living is a hardship.

When looking at 'Gravity' and 'The Tale of the Princess Kaguya' together,
by superimposing these two works,
such a wish
emerges quite naturally.

Even if it is an imperfect, noisy place,
a place where conflicts never cease,
it is still
a place worth living in.

On this earth,
I want to live while loving one another.