This is a puppet animation that moves like a dream someone had after reading an ancient scroll. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter becomes something that feels older than it is, not because it's faithful to the source but because the stop-motion gives it weight and texture that flat illustration never could. A girl born from bamboo returning to the moon is a folk story, but watching her face carved in wood, watching her move through a hand-built world, makes it feel like you're watching something real leave. It costs forty minutes and gives back something closer to memory than narrative.

Princess Kaguya is the subject of this brief puppet-animated film from 1972. The film adapts The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a folk story whose origins go back to the 10th century, and tells its fantasy tale on screen using puppets rather than drawn animation.