so what exactly IS Kaguya's 'crime'?
Anyone seen it yet? If so, what did she do?
shareThe original story does not explain what she did, and neither does this movie.
share
MovieChat Forums > Kaguya-hime no monogatari (2013) Discussion > so what exactly IS Kaguya's 'crime'?
This is probably the biggest spoiler of this film, so I should keep it secret.
But this secret is revealed by the princess herself near the last scene.
Please keep in mind that the Japanese word "罪"(tsumi) has 2 meanings: crime and sin.
I think Kaguya's tsumi should be translated into "sin", not into "crime".
Because her sin is something similar to the original sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
"The Tale of Princess Kaguya" is based on a very philosophical / mythological theme and make us think about what the meaning of life is.
That's why I love this film :)
Interesting answers. Simple reply without spoiling. She seems to have 2 mistakes.
1. She requests something, and this request harms others... and since her request was in some parts in jest, it is doubly sinful.
2. She feels deservant of love over others, beyond the bounds of humanity. The film nearly paints itself into a corner with this, and is only able to overcome it because it is based on mythology. If this were disney, it would be boooed at the end.
And to add one thing, it is her parents who truly sin in the film version... while a beautiful film... it is hard to recommend unless you have an interest beyond the film itself... in either Ghibli... or Japan... mythology...etc..
I don't mind spoilers :) go ahead and reveal it. Anyone who doesn't want to see it just won't read it.
share[deleted]
I saw the subtitled version of the film yesterday, and from what I saw and read, her crime is what got her sent to earth in the first place, not what got her sent back to the moon. And it was never explained what that crime was. As MrsShathi said, she requested to return to the moon after too much sadness on the earth.
This is an interpretation, not a literal reading of the plot, and it might "spoil" things for some people (so stop reading if you want to make up your own mind), but one way to look at the film's portrayal of her return to the moon is that she committed suicide. Her parents try to stop her, and she resists until the last moment, and she remembers the good parts about life on earth, but ultimately she joins Buddha and the spirits aboard the cloud-ship and forgets her past and becomes peaceful and serene. Buddha in Japanese spirituality is strongly associated with death. It's a beautiful film and one can read the ending in several ways. This is just one of them.
The princess says that her crime was to run away from home. She saw another Moon person who had come back from the Earth and had apparently not gotten "robed" yet and expressed remorse over having to come back. That piqued the princess' curiousity and she broke Moon law by coming to Earth. She seemed to think she had escaped from the Moonites' sight but the original story suggests that the gold and other objects found in the bamboo were sent from the Moon in order to help her out; in other words, the Moon people let her have her adventure probably knowing that sooner or later she'd want to return, which at the crucial moment she did want as she would have been harassed for the rest of her life on Earth.
shareSPOILERS
I also gathered that her crime was to want to come to earth, which would be an affront to the people in the City of the Moon (and the Buddha), though they continued to observe her and occasionally intervene. However, I'm not so sure that she really wanted to return to the moon. She seemed to tell her earth parents that, when the Emperor tried to carry her off, she momentarily thought that she did not want to be where she was any longer. This was enough to trigger the moon people to come and take her back, whether she truly meant it or not. This contributes to her grief at leaving - the realization that it is the result of her own thoughts or actions, not an unfeeling outside force.
It isn't really explained clearly, but being sent to Earth was the punishment for a crime she committed on the moon, we don't know what the crime was.
shareI saw the Japanese version today in the theatre, and its say she saw someone who had come back, and even after they lost their memories from the robe, they still shed a tear. That was the whole point of the song that is song throughout the story, the last line is unknown on earth but comes from the first moon individual. It was this that made her want to come to earth. Maybe there is something in the original tale, but I don't think she had any crime committed on the moon.
The English dub translation is "I broke the rules and came here", so it must be her decision to be (re)born on Earth and live among humans, experiencing human life and emotions. They certainly make a point of the importance of forgetting all her earthly experiences before she can return to the moon.
shareHer crime was the simple wish of coming to earth, to see what beauty this world might reside that could leave that moon lady melancholic after her memories are wiped (that woman might be from another Japanese tale).
It might not seem much, but to the Moon people, who obviously lead a bounded, hierachy-based life, it's no less than "heretic".
Her punishment is not being sent to earth, which is actually granting her wish. The punishment is allowing her to enjoy the happiness she longed for, but only very briefly. Then, from the moment they sent gold to her stepfather, gradually took it away. That nameless sadness at the end will truly become her eternal torture.
SPOILAR :::::::::::::::::::::::::
The definition of the sin is as Kevin described it above. I will add a bit more of details.
The sin described in the movie is supposed to be the sin in the context of Buddhism in my understanding. For the people in that era in the movie, the moon was not the physical moon which we perceive in this era, but a place with super-naturalistic nature, or a religious concept. IMO the moon is the analogy of other worlds, which is places like heaven or hell, or the nirvana in the Buddhism context. Earth, where we and our ancestors pass our lives, is regarded as a place where ppl stay while in the transmigration phase of life and this transmigration phase is regarded as full of sufferings in Buddhism. Why? It is because the life as peasant in that era was not easy at all. Buddhism told ppl if they practice and pursuit the way of Buddhism then they could get out of the life in real world and live in a place like a heaven, which is the Nirvana, where there are no pains nor happiness, but only peace in the mind. The analogized moon, or the nirvana, is the place ppl can finnally get to after endured with much sufferings of the real life, and the Buddhism is all about getting to there, or the nirvana. So those ones living in the moon, or the nirvana, is who finally get out of the hell, or the life on earth, or in the transmigration. This is the reason why wishing to coming to earth is a sin, and as a consequences, she is punished and sent to live in the real world, which was also her wish, and where deemed to await her much sufferings.
So when she experienced the much sufferings in real life, as the definition of the transmigration, and wished to getting out from there, the sin was redeemed, which means letting her going back to the moon where no sufferings exist.
But as a movie, Buddhism is nothing to do with the main theme of this movie, even though sometimes it might become a bit confusing.
My first answer was going to be that she didn't exactly commit any "crime", that if there was a "crime" it was writing such a misleading synopsis. She did apparently show some unconventional thinking and even some outright disobedience (demonstrating the same unpredictable personality on the moon that she demonstrated on Earth) ...but that's not what a native speaker usually thinks of when one hears the word "crime".
But then I saw this in one of the earlier posts, which makes "crime" simply a translation error:
Please keep in mind that the Japanese word "罪"(tsumi) has 2 meanings: crime and sin.
I think Kaguya's tsumi should be translated into "sin", not into "crime".
(I saw the same things in both the dubbed and the subtitled versions - it doesn't appear to be some accidental version discrepancy.) share
she dint commit any crime....
she wanted to come to earth, to experience emotions... which is actually not entertained by the moon, those moon people hate suffering and emotions.. its kinda buddhist philosophy....
but however, they helped her to come down and take birth. they provide everything to her. so that she enjoys this beautiful planet. but unfortunately all she enjoys is only sufferings.... finally when she calls the moon people back (because the king forces her to marry her).. to take her away... they will take her away.... and she doesnt like it... coz she still likes emotions...... feelings............ which those moon people dont have.