Kaguya Hime sells apartments (Video)

Have you heard the story of Kaguya Hime (Princess Kaguya)? If you don’t here’s a short version of it:

Once upon a time, there lived a kind old man and his wife in a village. One day, when the old man went to the bamboo forest, he found a shining bamboo. Upon cutting it, he found inside a baby girl. The old man and woman decided to bring her up because they had no children. They named the baby “Kaguyahime.” Whenever he went to cut bamboo after that, the old man found money in the bamboo. They became rich.

Kaguyahime grew steadily and became a beautiful lady. She had a lot of young men who wanted to marry her. But she didn’t show interest. She always looked up at the night sky.

Her father asked her, “What makes you so sad? What’s the matter?”

She said, “I’m all right. But, to tell the truth, I was born on the moon. I must return to the moon on the night of the 15th of November when angels will come to meet me.”

“That’s nonsense,” said the father, very embarrassed and angry.

The next day was the 15th. The father hoped she would never return to the moon. On that day, the moon was appearing over the mountain, when a gold light flashed. An angel came down. Kaguyahime couldn’t help following the light. She slowly flew up into the sky hand in hand with the angel. Nothing could stop them.

The old man and his wife could do nothing but watch her departure.

The story has recently been remade in the form of a commercial:

In the commercial, Kaguya Hime refuses to be taken back to the moon. Her Gold Crest apartment is far too nice to give up for whatever cruddy living arrangements exist back on the moon. In the second commercial, her friends from the moon come over to visit her Gold Crest apartment and party. It also has random English narration, which is sure to catch the attention of any foreigner watching TV…