A clever princess locked in a Tower. A wizard. Magical tools and enchantments. Elements from classic fairy tales are turned inside out and examined in this fascinating fantasy movie called Princess Arete.
Everyone in town knows about Princess Arete, but she has only ever witnessed their lives from above. She lives locked in a tower, awaiting a husband and keeps herself pure from the world. Her suitors come bearing magical treasures from far-distant lands in order to win her hand in marriage. This story sounds vaguely familiar. You’ve heard of it before.
However, the movie opens with animations of a craftsman. A glass-blower at work, a potter at the wheel, dyers making a spectrum of fabric colors from indigo to buttery yellow. A young girl asks the tailor for work, but he dismisses her. ‘Go home and darn your underwear or something’. We watch curiously as she trudges off. We see the castle and now the girl running up an old stone stairwell. Steps are missing and she must leap across wide gaps. In daring heart-stopping moments, she climbs up and up. She goes up a chimney-style air shaft and reaches a room with a bed, a simple table with a chess board and windows looking down at the castletown.
This is where Princess Arete lives.
This movie begins slowly, a masterclass in presenting its themes, its world and the people. Especially the reality of Arete’s life. No one really knows her or what she looks like. Magic is real, but the people who used it freely are gone. They left behind their magic tools, special and rare ones, or merely ornamental trinkets and toys that will fetch a high price when the ministers sell them. (The real reason they keep Arete locked up is quite disheartening.)
Arete is not the Princess that people talk about. She is a quiet girl, mousey and small in stature. But she is clever. She admires a book about magic tools. It is lovingly crafted and filled with images of marvelous architecture, astronomical and mythical creatures made real. “The techniques used were splendid, but what excites me more is thinking about the potential of the people who made them. I also might have such potential. The witches have all gone, but this castle was built by people and someone made this table.” Arete says as she looks at her own hands.
When one knightly suitor climbs the tower in a feat of daring courage just to speak to her, Arete listens with wonder and then concern and despair. He speaks of a monster. “It was horrible with things like bat’s wings flapping on both sides of its head and something like a huge snake on its face wriggling weirdly. She instantly asks, ‘Was it…a nose?’
He doesn’t know, but he is quick to brag of his victory. He slayed the monster, which she has recognized as an elephant. She tells him the animals with the long nose were smart and could be tamed. They eat grass. In a flashback we see the reality of him running in terror from the elephant, beating back spears as he cowers and he doesn’t kill anyone. He was pretending, putting on a brave front to look good, but she sees right through him.
It is only when the Wizard Boax shows up that Arete finds herself in trouble.
The wizard comes like one of her suitors. But he casts a spell on her, changing her into a perfect looking Princess, deceiving everyone. Thus he is able to kidnap her. The magic traps her clever mind, making her obedient and unquestioning. Instead of a girl brimming with curiosity she stands like a doll.
The wizard steals Arete back to his home, where we suddenly meet the real wizard.
This odd twist doesn’t make sense at first. But it is a clue about the world.
The person who kidnapped Arete was a scrawny man with a flat frog-like face, the wizard’s sidekick prone to chattering and cruel remarks. The real wizard is slovenly and lazes about the ruins of his castle.
He drops food, smearing the priceless magic book and makes demands, but he doesn’t do anything. Arete is locked in the dungeon and the key magicked into a frog.
There is something odd about this Tower.
Why did the wizard kidnap Princess Arete if only to lock her up in the dungeon? How will the Princess escape? Will someone come save her?
It is based on a book by Diana Coles, called The Clever Princess, which fits, but naming it after Princess Arete makes the film more surprising, especially if you go into expecting a traditional disneyfied princess story.
The movie recognizes the tropes and cliches, the simplified story of good princess, bad wizard and heroic knight, and then it asks its viewers to look deeper. What does it mean? Where do these tales come from?
The movie Princess Arete was produced by Studio 4C, a Japanese animation company, originally released in 2001.They do limited releases of the film on YouTube. Right now it is available until February 5th, 2024. They have done limited releases before, so if you miss your chance, keep an eye out for the next time. There was a DVD released in the UK, or if I may try to find a Japanese Blu-ray with the English subtitles, so I can own this gem!
I highly recommend watching it. The animation of ordinary everyday people is delightful; the way we learn about their lives as Arete notices them. The medieval trappings of the world, from their clothes to food are in direct comparison to fantastical ruins of the old age of magic.
Let me know if you watch the movie. Or have you seen it before?
What did you think? What surprised you the most?