Too Long
I like Miyazaki but this film just went on and on and on. Hey let's try this. Oh that didn't work. Try this. Nope. This? Nope. This? Nope. Surely this? Still no. How about this? No. Give up. The End.
shareIt's an Isao Takahata trademark - his films tend to go on a little too long for their own good (except for his début movie, "Hols, Prince of the Sun" - also known as "The Little Norse Prince" - and "Grave of the Fireflies", which clock in at just the right time). He tends to tell us what is going on instead of showing it to us, and he seems to suffer from Ending Fatigue quite frequently (he doesn't know when or how to end his stories naturally, or he'll trick the audience into thinking it's over when it isn't). This is partly why he's not as well known as Hayao Miyazaki, since Takahata tends to favour realism over escapist fantasy and it (in addition with his weaknesses that I have stated above) makes him look like the Ingmar Bergman of Japan.
shareTakahata and Bergman have no thematic or stylistic similarity. If I had to pinpoint Japanese filmmakers who remind me of Bergman, they would be Kiju Yoshida and Akira Kurosawa. But why Takahata?
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