PRINCESS RACOON (Operetta Tanuki Goten), 2005, Japan, 111 min.
Language(s): Japanese
(Subtitled)
Genre: Drama
Release Data: January, 2007
Selected Recognitions: Kinema Junpo Award, Japan, 2006; Festival Prize for Best Actor (Jô Odagiri), and Best Supporting Actress (Hiroko Yakushimaru), Yokohama, 2006; Blue Ribbon Award, Best Supporting Actress, Tokyo, 2006.
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Director(s): Suzuki Seijun (Yumeiji)
What It's About: An original story, written by the director, but with a very traditional flavour, it tells the tale of Prince Amechiyo (Japan's hottest heartthrob, Odagiri Joe) whose father has abandoned him on a sacred mountain due to a prophecy foretelling that the son would be more beautiful than the father. He is rescued by an enigmatic Mandarin-speaking beauty (Chinese diva Zhang Ziyi Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, Memoirs of a Geisha), a tanuki - a raccoon-like creature known for its shape-shifting - a princess in human guise, who takes him home to Tanuki (Raccoon) Palace. They fall in love only to face one obstacle after another . . .
What to Look For: Japanese director Suzuki Seijun, now eighty-two, is considered a treasure of the cinema in his own country but is really only well-known on the festival circuit in the West. Best-known for his stylist yakusa films, he always wanted to make an "operetta" and has finally done so - but it turns out that it has little to do with the Western operetta tradition. Instead, he's come up with an idiosyncratic musical, which embraces everything from hip-hop to schmaltzy torch songs, alongside spectacular visuals - Kabuki introduced to Gilbert & Sullivan by the Buddha. It owes more to films from the magical realms of "pure spectacle" like Emeric Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffmann than anything else you might have seen. Variety prophesied it would be "dead in the water beyond fest situations…", but we have to say that we found it an enchanting rest from the American chorus girl…and a lot more fun. Lavish and delightfully over-the-top, we think you'll enjoy it too.
Why It Matters: If we relax and allow this film to unspool before our eyes, we might find enjoyment.
"To enjoy Princess Raccoon, viewers locked into logical, orderly plots must relax and open themselves to the flamboyant artifice, surreal logic, and reliably earthy humor, making do with the shreds of myth that support Suzuki's virtuoso imagery. His storytelling rewards not the heart but that pleasure center of the brain that delights in composition and wild flights of fancy..."
. . . Bright Lights Film Journal
Themes: Asian
Source(s): This DVD was previously only available as a specialty item from YesAsia, but it is now on general release in both the US and Canada