Nishikata Film Review 西片映画レビュー

The World of Kato Kunio

2012-02-11T13:17:00.002+01:00

Hachioji Yume Art Museum Special Exhibition: The World of Kato Kunio

八王子市夢美術館特別展　加藤久仁生展

Hachioji Yume Art Museum

10 February – 25 March 2012

On Friday, the Hachioji Yume Art Museum launched its special exhibition celebrating the career so far of Oscar-winning animator Kunio Katō (加藤久仁生, b. 1977). Since winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for La maison en petits cubes (つみきのいえ/Tsumiki no ie, 2008), Katō has keep a relatively low profile internationally. He has; however, indeed kept busy creating an animation campaign in celebration of the 40^th anniversary of Sekisui Heim (セキスイハイム) among other projects for his company ROBOT. There have recently been rumours that Katō may be involved in the production of the animated adaptation of Khalil Gibran’s poetry collection The Prophet (Roger Allers, Sylvain Chomet, et al., 2013).

still from Sekisui Heim animated CM

A graduate of Tama Art University, where Katō was introduced to animation by the influential animator Masahiro Katayama, Katō quickly became the darling of Japan’s indie animation scene with his short films The Apple Incident (2001), Fantasy (2003) and his web series The Diary of Tortov Roddle (2004). Before winning the Oscar, he had already been the recipient of many laurels including twice winning the Yuri Norstein Prize at Laputa as well as top awards at international festivals including the Japan Media Arts Festival, Hiroshima, and Annecy.

The exhibition, which was put together in collaboration with the designer Makoto Koizumi (小泉誠), features sketches, storyboards, and original illustrations from the production of La maison en petits cubes. One can follow the production process step-by-step and learn about how this exceptional animated short came to life. In addition, the exhibition features work Kato has done since winning the Oscar – sketches from Atogaki (あとがき/Postscript) a regular feature by Kato published in the animation magazine MOE.

The highlight of the exhibition is Katō’s latest animated short Jōkei (情景, 2012) which he made especially for this event. In addition, Kenji Kondo, the composer of the La maison en petits cubes soundtrack, and the Kuricorder Quartet (栗コーダーカルテット) will perform music from the film at nearby Ichō Hall on February 16^th.

For more information and a slideshow of images from the event, go to Yumebi.com (JP only).

Hachioji Yume Art Museum

2F View Tower Hachiouji

8-1 Youkamachi, Hachioujishi

Tokyo 192-0071

Tel. 0426-21-6777 Fax 0426-21-6776

10:00-19:00

For directions to the event see Tokyo Art Beat (EN/JP)

Order Tsumiki no Ie (La Maison en Petits Cubes)

Kawamoto – Norstein: The Puppet Master and the Painter-Animator

2012-02-11T10:51:00.000+01:00

Kawamoto – Norstein: The Puppet Master and the Painter-Animator

Kawamoto - Norstein, le marionnettiste et le peintre-animateur

Forum des images, Paris

23-25 March 2012

Last month, I learned from ZewebAnim that the Forum des images was putting together a tribute to the friendship between the late puppet animator Kihachirō Kawamoto (1925-2010) and his friend and colleague, the great Russian animator Yuri Norstein (b. 1941). I am planning on attending this event.

Kawamoto– Norstein: The Puppet Master and the Painter-Animator has been coordinated by Forum des images programmer Isabelle Vanini and Japanese animation expert Ilan Nguyen (Tokyo University of the Arts). Yuri Norstein will be in attendance at many of the events and will discuss his craft as an artist as well as his unique relationship with Japan. In Nguyen’s introduction to the programme, he quotes Norstein as saying that attending the event will be “a double pleasure because it is for my friend Kawamoto Kihachirō, a man with whom I could communicate without being aware of language barriers.”

Kawamoto himself had actually been to the Forum des images on three occasions (1999, 2003, 2005) as part of their festival Nouvelles images du Japon (New images of Japan). Although Kawamoto’s works appear on the surface as being very “Japanese”, he actually was inspired by animation from around the world – particularly that of Czech puppet animato Jiří Trnka, whom he visited in Prague in 1963. I write about this in a chapter on Kawamoto in the forthcoming book Directory of World Cinema: Japan 2 (Intellect Books, ed. John Berra, 2012). Available for pre-order:

Kawamoto was very active in the animation community. His works won awards around the world including the Noburo Ofuji Award (6 times!), the prestigious Winsor McCay Award 1988), and he was the winner of the very first ASIFA Prize in 1985. Kawamoto was also president of the Japanese Animation Association (JAA) from 1988 until 2010 (the first president was Osamu Tezuka, the current president is Taku Furukawa).

The indisputable master of puppet animation in Japan, this event will showcase most of Kawamoto’s directorial oeuvre, except for that rare film Rennyo and his Mother (蓮如とその母, 1981) and Restaurant of Many Orders (注文の多い料理店, 1991), which Kawamoto completed for his friend Tadanari Okamoto when he died of cancer. Briar Rose, or The Sleeping Beauty (いばら姫またはねむり姫, 1990) is also not on the programme, but as this film is widely available on DVD this is no great loss.

Other rare treats on the programme include Tadanari Mochinaga’s Little Black Sambo and the Twin Brothers (1958), which features puppets made by Kawamoto. This was one of the last short films Mochinaga made before establishing MOM Productions in 1961 and doing the puppet animation for Rankin/Bass. In addition to screening all of Norstein’s major works, the programme features works that Norstein worked on as an animator or co-director such as Roman Kachanov’s The Mitten (1967) and Ivan Ivanov-Vano’s Seasons (1969).

It is a must-see event for all fans of animation. I look forward to dusting off my rusty French and seeing some of my French readers there!

I have translated the main details of the programme into English - minus the film descriptions and with the addition of a few editorial comments of my own. All films will have their original soundtracks and French subtitles. I have put links to Nishikata Film reviews when available. More details and ticket information here (FR only).

23 March 2012 - 20:00

Opening Night: Kawamoto – Norstein: The Puppet Master and the Painter-Animator

Soirée d’ouverture « Kawamoto - Norstein, le marionnettiste et le peintre-animateur »

Special Guest : Yuri Norstein

Self Portrait (セルフポートレート, Kawamoto, 1988, 1’)

Autoportrait de Kawamoto Kihachirô (1988, 1min)

read review

Winter Days (Kawamoto, et al., 2003, 65’, 35mm)

Jours d’hiver (Fuyu no hi) de Kawamoto Kihachirô, et al.

read my Midnight Eye review / French DVD review

The Poets of Winter Days (Toshikatsu Wada, 2003, 65’, 35mm)

Les Poètes de Jours d’hiver (‘Fuyu no hi’ no shijin-tachi)

24 March 2012 – 14:30

The Art of Puppet Animation: A Programme of Short Films by Kihachirō Kawamoto

"L’art des marionnettes animées" Programme de courts métrages de Kawamoto Kihachirô

Inspired by Japanese puppet traditions, these films adapt literary and theatrical classics and have won awards at major festivals around the world.

The Demon (鬼, Kawamoto, 1972, 8’, 35mm)

Démone (La) l Oni l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

read review

Dōjōji Temple (道成寺, Kawamoto, 1976, 19’, 35mm)

Temple Dojoji (Le) l Dôjôji l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

read review

House of Flame (火宅, Kawamoto, 1979, 19’, 35mm)

Maison en flammes (La) l Kataku l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

To Shoot without Shooting (不射之射, Kawamoto, 1988, 25’, 35mm)

Tirer sans tirer l Fusha no sha l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

read review

24 March 2012 – 16:30

"The Major Works": Programme of Short Films by Yuri Norstein

« Les travaux majeurs » Programme de courts métrages de Youri Norstein

Special Guest: Yuri Norstein

The Heron and the Crane (Цапля и журавль, Norstein, USSR, 1974, 10’, 35mm)

Héron et la cigogne (Le) l Tsaplia i juravl l de Youri Norstein

The Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане, Norstein, USSR, 1974, 10’, 35mm)

Hérisson dans le brouillard (Le) l Lojik v toumane l de Youri Norstein

Tale of Tales (Сказка сказок, Norstein, USSR, 26’, 1979, 35mm)

Conte des contes (Le) l Skazka skazok l de Youri Norstein

The Overcoat ((Шинель, Norstein, 1980, 30’, black and white, video)

Manteau (Le) l Shinel’ l de Youri Norstein

For more than 30 years, Norstein and his wife Franceska Yarbousova have been working on an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat. 30 minutes of this unfinished film will be screened.

24 March 2012 – 19:00

An Evening with Yuri Norstein, hosted by Ilan Nguyen and Isabelle Vanini

Rencontre avec Youri Norstein animée par Ilan NGuyên et Isabelle Vanini

Introduced to Japan in the early 1980s, the œuvre of Yuri Norstein attracted an unparalleled level of critical acclaim in that country. Over the years, he has been a frequent guest to Japan with the Norstein Prize for animation being handed out semi-annually at the Laputa International Animation Festival in Tokyo as well as various books and exhibitions devoted to his life’s work.

This special event will be include the presentation of a number of documents and is advertised as an opportunity to better understand this singular filmmaker through the prism of his relationship with Japan.

24 March 2012 – 21:00

Book of the Dead (死者の書 , 2005, 70’, 35mm)

Livre du mort (Le) l Shisha no sho l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

25 March 2012 – 14:30

"Early works and collaborations": Programme of Short Films by Yuri Norstein

«Les débuts et les collaborations» Programme de courts métrages de Youri Norstein

Special Guest: Yuri Norstein

The Mitten (Варежка, Roman Kachanov, USSR, 1967, 10’, 35mm)

Moufle (La) l Varezhka l de Roman Katchanov coanimé par Youri Norstein

25th October, the First Day (25-е — первый день, Norstein/Arkadiy Tyuin, USSR, 1968, 35mm)

25 octobre - premier jour l 25-e - pervyi den’ l de Youri Norstein

The Battle of Kerzhenets (Се́ча при Ке́рженце, Ivan Ivanov-Vano/Norstein, USSR, 1971, 10’, 35mm)

Bataille de Kerjenets (La) l Secja pri Kerjenetz l de Youri Norstein et Ivan Ivanov-Vano

Seasons (Времена года, Ivan Ivanov-Vano, USSR, 1969, 9’, 35mm)

Saisons (Les) l Vremena goda l d’ Ivan Ivanov-Vano / codirigé et animé par Youri Norstein

The Fox and the Hare (Лиса и заяц, Norstein, USSR, 1973, 10’, video)

Renarde et le lièvre (La) l Lisa i zayets l de Youri Norstein

38 Parrots (38 Попугаевые, Ivan Ufimetsev, USSR, 1976, 8’ video)

38 perroquets l 38 popugaev l D’Ivan Ufimtsev / animé par Youri Norstein

Autumn (excerpt) (Andrei Khrjanovsky, USSR, 1992, 8’, video)

Automne (extrait) l Osen’ l d’ Andreï Khrjanovski / animé par Youri Norstein Khrjanovski

25 March 2012 – 16:30

The Oeuvre of Kihachirō Kawamoto: A Lecture by Ilan Nguyen and Serge Ségura

L’oeuvre de Kawamoto Kihachirô: Conférence d'Ilan NGuyên et Serge Ségura

Special Guest: Yuri Norstein

Illustrated by previously unpublished documents, photographs and film excerpts, this lecture aims to present a wide overview of Kawamoto’s life’s work. From his debut as an animator to the 2007 opening of the Iida City Kawamoto Kihachirō Puppet Museum in southern Nagano Prefecture, the presentation will include information about his little known work included illustrated books, commercial work, theatrical puppet shows, and more.

25 March 2012 – 19:30

Living with Puppets (Takashi Namiki, documentary, 1999, 52’, video)

Une vie avec les marionnettes l Ningyô to ikiru l de Namiki Takashi

This rare documentary was made by Takashi Namiki of Anido, who has made it his life’s work to document the animation history of Japan. This film is about the Kawamoto + Okamoto Puppet Anime-Shows which were designed by Kawamoto and his friend and colleague Tadanari Okamoto as a showcase for their unique puppet films.

25 March 2012 – 21:00

"Puppets and Other Techniques": A Programme of Short Films by Kihachirō Kawamoto

« Marionnettes et autres techniques » Programme de courts métrages de Kawamoto Kihachirô

Little Black Sambo and His Twin Brothers (ちびくろさんぼとふたごのおとうと, Tadahito Mochinaga, 1957, 17’, video)

Chibikuro Sambo et les deux jumeaux l Chibikuro Sanbo to futago no otôto l de Mochinaga Tadahito

The sequel to Mochinaga’s Little Black Sambo (ちびくろさんぼのとらたいじ, 1956) sees Sambo rescuing his twin younger brothers from a vulture. The puppets for this film were designed and handmade by Kawamoto.

Anthropo-Cynical Farce (犬儒戯画, Kawamoto, 1970, 8’, 35mm)

Farce anthropo-cynique l Kenju giga l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

cutout animation /puppet animation

Travel (旅, Kawamoto, 1973, 12’, 35mm)　

Voyage (Le) l Tabi l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

cutout animation

A Poet’s Life (詩人の生涯, Kawamoto, 1974, 19’, 35mm)

Vie d'un poète (la) l Shijin no shôgai l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

cutout animation

The Breaking of Branches is Forbidden (花折り, Kawamoto, 1968, 14’, 35mm)

Ne cassez pas les branches l Hanaori l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

puppet animation

Three Came Home (三人の帰宅, 1950)

2012-02-09T15:49:00.001+01:00

In 2001, I was writing a paper on Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), and decided to find out if any American films had tried, as I feel Oshima did, to understand the horror of Pacific War from both the Japanese and the Allied perspectives. Among the predictable John Wayne war films like They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945) and Back to Bataan (Edward Dmytyk, 1945), I discovered the remarkable 1950 film Three Came Home (Jean Negulesco, 1950).

The story is an adaptation of Agnes Newton Keith’s memoir Three Came Home (1948) about her experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II in North Borneo (today called Sabah) and Sarawak. An American writer married to British forester Harry Keith, Agnes made a name for herself shortly before the war with her bestselling memoir Land Below Wind (1939) which painted a idyllic portrait of her early married life, the land and the people of Sandakan – then the capital of British North Borneo.

The film begins with the growing unease of the British inhabitants of Sandakan as they hear radio reports about the escalating war. After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the fall of Singapore, many husbands begin sending their wives and children back home. Agnes; however, refuses to leave her husband’s side. When the Japanese invade British North Borneo, Agnes, Harry, and their young son George become prisoners-of-war.

Agnes and George are separated from Harry and imprisoned first on Berhala Island and then they are shipped to the Bau Lintang camp near Kuching. The women and children do not receive any special treatment and are forced to live on the edge of starvation in primitive conditions. A Hollywood film of that era could not really capture the horror of the living conditions in the camp (lack of clothes and diapers, lack of hygiene and clean water, widespread disease) as Agnes does so movingly in her book, but the film does not sugar coat the situation either. It is a rare look at the Pacific War from the perspective of an American mother. The film was also shot on location as much as possible which gives it an air of authenticity.

Husbands and wives separated by a trench.

Although Nunnally Johnson’s screenplay embellishes some parts of the story (a massacre of horny Australians, the stereotyping of the brutal Nekata as a hulking oaf) and leaves out some important aspects (the complexity of Anges’ relationship with Lieutenant Colonel Tatsuji Suga, how she made toys for her son, how she buried notes that she dug up later in order to keep a record of her ordeal), on the whole the film captures the essence of Agnes Newton Keith’s wartime experience. She went through hell on earth in that prisoner-of-war camp, but emerged from the war with a surprising lack of bitterness. Somehow, despite having had a miscarriage brought on by the stress of detainment and witnessing/experiencing torture and other cruel behaviour from the Japanese soldiers, Agnes did not learn to hate the Japanese. She learned to hate war and what war does to humanity. The film retains her sense of balance by showing the small gestures of good will made by some Japanese soldiers (such as the doctor secretly giving Agnes medicine) in contrast to the cruelty and inhumanity of others (Nekata, the anonymous soldier who assaults her).

The casting of Three Came Home was really key to making this work for Jean Negulesco. Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night, The Gilded Lily) plays Agnes – ideal casting because the women were about the same age and Colbert had a great range as an actress. Colbert was nearing the end of her peak as an actress as there were (and still are) few good roles written for older women in Hollywood. She unfortunately was injured during the Three Came Home shoot and lost out on the role of Margo Channing in All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) – a role which Mankiewicz had written with her in mind.

Col. Suga weeps - a man broken by the horror of war

The real success of the film hinges on the casting of Sessue Hayakawa (The Cheat, The Bridge on the River Kwai) as Col. Suga. Hayakawa had been a major Hollywood star during the silent era, but his star had waned with the coming of sound and he was stuck in France for the duration of the war under the German Occupation having gone there to star in French films directed by Max Ophüls, Marcel L'Herbier, and others. Humphrey Bogart’s production company tracked him down to have him star as Baron Kimura in Tokyo Joe (1949). As a seasoned actor, Hayakawa brings sense of humanity to the role of Suga – without giving this depth of character to the enemy, Negulesco would not have been able to really capture the core message of Agnes’ memoir:

“If there are tears shed here, they are for the death of good feeling. If there is horror, it is for those who speak indifferently of ‘the next war’. If there is hate, it is for hateful qualities, not nations. If there is love, it is because this alone kept me alive and sane.” (Three Came Home, p.9)

Reel Cuisine: Blockbuster Dishes from the Silver Screen

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000+01:00

The films of Naomi Ogigami (Seagull Diner, Glasses) turned me into a fan of the food stylist Nami Iijima (飯島奈美, b. 1969). As I wrote in Nami Iijima: Food Stylist Extraordinaire, in addition to her work styling food for great films like Chef of the South Pole and Villon’s Wife, Iijima has made a name for herself in Japan as a celebrity chef. She has written many wonderful cookbooks such as Breakfast Menu (Asagohan no Kondate) and Life: Iijima Nami’s Homemade Taste (LIFE Nandemonai Hi, Omedetou! Gohan).

I was delighted to discover late last year that Iijima’s recipes have become available in English via the American publisher Vertical – an imprint that I associate with manga. They publish English translations of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack and Buddha. It turns out that Vertical also translates cookbooks, novels, and other miscellanea.

Reel Cuisine: Blockbuster Dishes from the Silver Screen is based on Nami Iijima’s column Cinema Shokudo (シネマ食堂) which she wrote for AERA magazine between 2007-9. Many of the recipes also featured in the Japanese book based on this column and also called Cinema Shokudo (2009). Both books feature photography by Elina Yamasaki.

When it first came in the post I was initially disappointed by how slim the volume is – I collect cookbooks and I like them big and bulky and full of lovely illustrations or photographs. There is no introduction explaining who Iijima is, which clearly confused one reviewer of the cookbook. This would have been useful as the films that Iijima has worked on have only played at festivals in North America and have not been released there on DVD.

The first section of the book consists of recipes from films that Iijima worked on. Each recipe is accompanied by a brief explanation of the context of the food in the film. At the back of the book, there is some text from Iijima’s “Work Diary” that explain how she works with food and give an idea of the thought process that goes into designing food and settings for the food during film production.

The rest of the book contains recipes from world and Hollywood cinema. In them Iijima recreates meals that she has seen in movies. In her short introduction (which is more like a preface) she writes that her favourite genre of film is the “slice of life” movie. Her cinematic tastes are varied from quirky independent cinema to classics to popular Japanese and Hollywood fare. As I associate her with modern Japanese cuisine, it was fascinating to learn that Iijima delights in the challenges of world cuisine from zha jiang mian (Chinese fried noodles in sauce) to pot-au-feu (French beef stew).

To the North American reader, some of the recipes may seem quite ordinary – scrambled eggs from Misery and sandwiches from The War of the Roses – but one must recall that these recipes were originally written for a Japanese readership who would be more likely to have a bowl of rice with grilled salmon for breakfast and onigiri (rice balls) for a packed lunch. Those staples of Japanese cooking are also here – with wonderful little notes from the chef. For example, the recipe for onigiri from Iijima’s first movie Seagull Diner features the little note: “My name, Nami, apparently means ‘delicious’ in Finnish. Rice balls filled with herring and crayfish were very ‘nami’ indeed.” (p. 16)

Apart from the lack of introduction to Iijima herself, my only criticism of the book is that it doesn’t include more of Iijima’s commentary on the films and the reasons why she chose a particular dish from each film. The best recipes are the ones that have this additional text. For example, the Comics Worth Reading reviewer of this book wondered why Iijima gives us a recipe for fried chicken instead of the titular fried green tomatoes of the popular 1991 film starring Mary Stuart Masterson, Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, and Mary-Louise Parker. Reel Cuisine only gives a mini film synopsis with the recipe. However, in her AERA column, Iijima explains that due to the lack of commercial availability of green tomatoes in Japan she decided to teach her readers about fried chicken – a staple of the southern United States. Fried chicken is a popular treat in Japan as well – but the spices used in the recipe would be different.

Iijima’s recipes are not authentically from the movies she has selected – each one has her own particular take on the dish. So the fried chicken recipe calls for sake – which I am sure was not on set during the filming of Fried Green Tomatoes. If you want the original recipe, I advise purchasing the original novel by Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg as it contains recipes (or even the accompanying cookbook). I recall trying those recipes when the movie came out and failing miserably as I did not have the ingredients or the technique needed. Iijima has simplified the fried chicken recipe and made it easy for the average home cook.

This book a tribute to food in the movies written by a movie lover and chef. The recipes have been adapted to North American measuring standards and are written in a clear and concise manner. There are lots of practical tips and interesting ideas that I would never have thought of myself. It's a fun little book for cinephiles like me.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Here is a list of the food/movies included:

Food for Film

Chirashi sushi (Glasses, Naoko Ogigami, Japan, 2007)

Napoli Egg (Handsome Suit, Tsutomu Hanabusa, Japan, 2008)

Chicken Nuggets (Chef of the South Pole, Shūichi Okita, Japan, 2009)

Boiled Tripe (Villon’s Wife, Kichitaro Negishi, Japan, 2009)

Rice Balls (Seagull Diner, Naoko Ogigami, Japan, 2006)

Cinamon Rolls (Seagull Diner, Naoko Ogigami, Japan, 2006)

Noriben (Nonchan Noriben, Akira Ogata, Japan, 2009)

Travel the World

Fried Chicken (Fried Green Tomatoes, Jon Avnet, USA, 1991)

Hamburgers (Transamerica, Duncan Tucker, USA, 2005)

Hummus (Tuesdays with Morrie, Mick Jackson, USA, 1999)

Norimaki (The Man Without a Past, Aki Kauismäki, Finland, 2002)

Silken Crab with Vegetables (Eat Drink Man Woman, Ang Lee, Taiwan, 1994)

Pot-au-Feu (Overboard, Gary Marshall, USA, 1987)

Mojito (Volver, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2006)

Fish and Chips (Dear Frankie, Shona Auerbach,UK, 2004)

Water Spinach Stir Fry (The Scent of Green Papaya, Tran Anh Hung, Vietnam/France, 1993)

Paella (Blame it on Fidel!, Julie Gavras, France, 2006)

Yakiniku Korean BBQ (Rough Cut, Jang Hun, South Korea, 2008)

Jeon and Porridge (The King and the Clown, Lee Jun-ik, South Korea, 2005)

Popcorn (Welcome to Dongmakgol, Park Kwang-hyun, South Korea, 2005)

Happy Brunch

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce (The Godfather Part III, Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1990)

Ratatouille (Ratatouille, Brad Bird, USA, 2007)

French Toast (Kramer vs. Kramer, Robert Benton, USA, 1979)

Quiche (Waitress, Adrienne Shelly, USA, 2007)

Scrambled Eggs (Misery, Rob Reiner, USA, 1990)

Pancakes (The Notebook, Nick Cassavetes, USA, 2004)

Baked Potatoes (Juno, Jason Reitman, USA, 2007)

Green Salad (Cinema Paradiso, Guiseppe Tonatore, Italy, 1988)

Yakisoba with Clams (The Shoe Fairy, Yun Chan Lee, Taiwan, 2005)

Egg Over Rice (Kabei: Our Mother, Yoji Yamada, Japan, 2008)

Fried Rice (Tampopo, Juzo Itami, Japan, 1985)

Spaghetti Risotto (Mostly Martha, Sandra Nettelbeck, Germany, 2001)

Zha Jiang Mian (Shower, Zhang Yang, China, 1999)

Vegetable Potage (Rinco’s Restaurant, Mai Tominaga, Japan, 2010)

Penne in Cream Sauce (The Unknown Woman, Guiseppe Tornatore, Italy, 2006)

Spaghetti Vongole (The Big Blue, Luc Besson, France, 1988)

Kidney Bean Soup (Red Like the Sky, Cristiano Bortone, Italy, 2006)

Delicious Family Dinners

Risotto (Big Night, Campbell Scott/Stanley Tucci, USA, 1996)

Guacamole (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Sharon Maguire, UK, 2001)

Sautéed Salmon (Life is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni, Italy, 1997)

Loco Moco (Finding Forrester, Gus Van Sant, USA, 2000)

Roasts Chicken (Miracle on 34^th Street, George Seaton, USA, 1947)

Sandwiches (The War of the Roses, Danny DeVito, USA, 1989)

Roast Beef (The World According to Garp, George Roy Hill, USA, 1982)

Macaroni and Cheese (Soul Food, George Tillman, Jr., USA, 1997)

Steak (My Date With Drew, Jon Gunn/Brian Herlinger/Brett Winn, USA, 2004)

Mushroom Dumplings (The Road Home, Zhang Yimou, China, 1999)

Burritos (The Jane Austen Book Club, Robin Swicord, USA, 2007)

Grilled Fish (Paris, Cédric Klapisch, France, 2008)

Samosas (The Namesake, Mia Nair, USA/India, 2006)

Spring Rolls (Happily Ever After, Yvan Attal, France, 2004)

Oden (Tora-san Plays Daddy, Yoji Yamada, Japan, 1987)

Sukiyaki (Always: Sunset on Third Street, Takashi Yamazaki, Japan, 2005)

Curry (All Around Us, Ryosuke Hashiguchi, Japan, 2008)

Corn Fritters and Edamame Rice (Still Walking, Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan, 2008)

Ochazuke (The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1952)

Cinematic Sweets

Apple Pie (The Shawshank Redeption, Frank Darabont, USA, 1994)

Banana Cake (Stanger than Fiction, Marc Forster, USA, 2006)

Chiffon Cake (The Secret Life of Bees, Gina Prince-Blythwood, USA, 2008)

Love Cake (Donkey Skin, Jacques Demy, France, 1970)

Truffles (Chocolat, Lasse Hallström, USA/UK, 2000)

Crème Brûlée (Amélie,Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France, 2001)

Birthday Cake (Kitchen Stories, Bent Hamer, Norway/Sweden, 2003)

Iced Azuki (Glasses, Naoko Ogigami, Japan, 2007)

Wild Berries (蛇イチゴ, 2003)

2012-02-06T08:14:00.001+01:00

There are many theories as to how the Asian variety of mock strawberry hebi ichigo (Duchesnea chrysantha) – quite literally “snake strawberry” got its name. The name is so old – the Japanese adopted the name from the Chinese – that no one knows its origin for certain. This pretty little flowering plant of the rose family is found growing in the wild all over Japan. It resembles a wild strawberry, but disappoints when eaten for it is bland. After watching Miwa Nishikawa’s debut feature film Hebi Ichigo (Wild Berries/蛇イチゴ, 2003), I had to think of the English idiom “snake in the grass”, for in her film the members of the Akechi family are like the hebi ichigo: on the surface they appear as lovely as wild strawberries but it is all a façade. In fact, the more we learn about their true personalities, the more they appear to be a den of venomous snakes.

The Akechi family have mastered the art of tatemae (建前, the public face one is expected to uphold for the sake of family/work) to such a high degree that not even other members of the family are aware of each other’s honne (本音, one’s true feelings and desires). The father, Yoshiro Akechi (Sei Hiraizumi), has lost his job as a salaryman but puts on a pretense of going off to “work” each day in the desperate hope of finding a job so that he does not lose face with his family. His wife, Akiko (Naoko Otani) plays the role of dutiful housewife, taking care of the household and her increasingly senile father-in-law Kyozo Akechi played with terrific comic timing by the great rakugo storyteller Matsunosuke Shofukutei. Akiko never complains, despite the fact that her situation has become intolerable.

When their daughter, the straight-laced school teacher Tomoko (Miho Tsumiki), brings her boyfriend Kamata (Toru Tezuka) home to meet the folks, he is totally taken in by the Akechi family’s apparent normalcy. Having been raised in a privileged family of inherited wealth, Kamata thinks that he has found a potential wife from the ideal family in which the mother and father selflessly sacrifice themselves by working hard for the good of the family. This public façade (tatemae) comes crashing down at the grandfather’s funeral when one-by-one the members of the Akechi family begin to reveal their true selves (honne). The greatest family secret of all is Tomoko's disowned brother Shuji (Hirayuki Miyasako), the proverbial black sheep of the family, whose unexpected return brings even more chaos.

On the surface, this sounds like an absolutely depressing tale, but Nishikawa has written a brilliant black comedy on par, in my opinion, with the classic Alec Guinness vehicle Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949). It’s the kind of humour that has one cringing and laughing at the same time. On the Japanese DVD release of Hebi Ichigo the acerbic dialogue has been excellently translated by Linda Hoaglund (director of ANPO: Art X War) for the English subtitles. It is rare for a debut feature film to look and sound so terrific, but Nishikawa was fortunate to have the guiding hand of Hirokazu Koreeda (After Life, Still Walking) as her producer. Not only did the film go on to win Nishikawa the Best New Director award at the 2004 Yokohama Film Festival, but it marked the beginning of a directorial career that has been brilliant so far with Sway (2006) and Dear Doctor (2009) bringing her much critical praise.

Hebi Ichigo is available via cdjapan:

Hebi Ichigo (English Subtitles)

Gestalt (部屋/形態, 1999)

2012-02-01T13:24:00.001+01:00

Gestalt
n. [PSYCHOLOGY] an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts; origin 1920s: from the German Gestalt, literally ‘form, shape’

Gestalt (Heya/Keitai, 1999) is an early work by the installation artist Takashi Ishida (石田高志, b. 1972). I first saw it when I acquired Image Forum’s Thinking and Drawing DVD at a screening of Tokyo Loop in early 2007. Ishida’s explorations of shape and form through animated installations have become increasingly sophisticated and bold over the years, yet somehow Gestalt is the work that has made the biggest impression on my subconscious mind. On sunny days like today, when I see patterns on my wall created by the sunlight coming into contact with the with the textures of the wall and the patterns of grain on surfaces of wood, I imagine Ishida’s paint strokes transforming the walls of this unremarkable room into something quite magical.

The film opens with a plain wood frame on a non-descript wall. A black line paints itself around the frame, then bursts free of the confines of the picture frame to create dramatic patterns of black lines against the white background. Black lines paint over white, white lines paint over black, and so on until the bold white on black title card appears reading “部屋/形態 gestalt”

部屋= heya = room

形態 = keitai = form/shape

Ishida introduces us to the room with a shot of part of the old window flecked with paint and years of grime, but still allowing some amber light into the room. He then shows us the rough surface of the wall, focusing in on it bit by bit, the rest of the room left unfocused. The camera is then placed with the window on screen right and the wall that will be the central “canvas” for the animation on screen left.

There are several different camera set ups in this 7 minute animation. Each one explores shape and form through a pattern of colouring dark on light, filling in space and emptying it again. The artist reprises the shape of the window, his signature swirling lines, and plays with the flickering light, exploring all the possibilities this deceptively simple space offers the creative mind. Gestalt was shot over the course of one year in a Tokyo dormitory. Each day, Ishida would paint on the wall and photograph it using the available light from the window. The flowing lines and play of geometric patterns result in a contemplative piece that is stylistically reminiscent of early experiments with music and animation by artists like Norman McLaren and Oskar Fischinger.

At one point, a lone sphere traverses the wall, recalling the classic work Spheres (Norman McLaren/ René Jodoin, 1969), which was composed to accompany Glenn Gould playing Bach. J.S. Bach is also a favourite of Ishida, whose later work The Art of the Fugue (2001) was commissioned by the Aichi Culture Center to commemorate the 250^th anniversary of Bach’s passing. The soundtrack of Gestalt features one of Bach’s Great Eighteen Choale Preludes, the hauntingly ethereal BWV 659 “Nun, komm’ der Heiden Heiland” (Come now, Saviour of the heathen) performed on an organ.

Gestalt can be seen on Thinking and Drawing:

Thinking and Drawing

Nishikata Kids: Anna on Nausicaä

2012-01-28T21:37:00.002+01:00

An interview with Anna

Age: almost 7

Film: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ, Hayao Miyazaki, 1984)

Tell me about Nausicaä.

Nausicaä is brave. She wants to save the world.

What does she need to save the world from?

The bad fungus.

Most hysterical moment in the film for Anna.

What is your favourite part of the anime?

I like Nausicaä’s fox squirrel Teto. Actually, I like all the animals because they are interesting.

There is a lot of fighting in the movie. How did you feel about that?

Bad. They should be normal and nice to each other.

What were the most exciting parts?

For me it was exciting when the Ohmu came up from the water.

The movie isn’t just serious. I noticed that you were laughing sometimes.

What did you find funny?

When the man said “She’s still alive. . . that was a short-lived dream”

[This is the moment when Kushana returns and takes control back from Kurotowa. Anna thought he was hysterical. We were watching the German dub, so my quote might not match the English dub/subs.]

What did you think about Kushana, the Princess of Tolmekia?

She was dumb.

If you could be any character in the film, which one would you be?

I would be all the insects and ummmmm. . . the fox squirrel.

Let’s play Mama Ohmu, Baby Ohmu.

interview abruptly ends ;)

Nishikata Kids: A Child's Perspective on Japanese Culture

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ, 1984)

2012-01-28T17:27:00.000+01:00

When I was a girl there were few heroines in animation with whom I could identify. Snow White and Cinderella were too good and unattainably beautiful. I was a bit of a tomboy, so I recall doing some Wonder Woman and She-Ra: Princess of Power role playing, but I found their sexy costumes a bit off putting. It is such a shame that Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ, 1984) was not dubbed and released in North America in its original version, for I suspect my then ten-year-old self would have fallen in love with the gutsy young heroine Nausicaä.

My suspicions were confirmed when I watched the film on DVD with my two children. Both Lukas and Anna loved the film, but my young daughter really warmed to Nausicaä. Her heart melted in the scene where Nausicaä adopts her furry fox-squirrel companion Teto. She cheered during the fight scenes and both children were excited by the dynamic animation of the scenes in which Nausicaä is flying her Mehve jet glider. They had no great love for Kushana, the Princess of Tolmekia but warmed to the buffoonery of her aide-de-camp Kurotowa .

My children are also both nature-lovers and Nausicaä appealed to their interest in the environment. The environmentalist message of Nausicaä is even more important today than it was in the 1980s, and is so well executed that it won the film the seal of approval of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Nausicaä is set in a future world in which is facing an environmental apocalypse. Humanity clings to survival on a planet that is being taken over by the polluted “Sea of Corruption.” The few communities (the Valley of the Wind, the Pejite, the Tolmekia, and the Dorok) that are left have begun to fight each other for the dwindling resources. Nausicaä is one of the few who recognizes that in order for people to survive, they need to find a way to live in harmony with the other creatures of the world such as the Ohmu – giant crustaceans that resemble pillbugs – whereas others see violence and warfare as their only means of survival.

Flashback sequence animated in a different style.

This is not a film that one can just pop into a DVD player and leave kids to consume alone. There is a lot of violence, including the murder of innocents / the defenceless both human and non-human, and challenging themes (senseless destruction of the environment, warfare, and so on). I think the part that upset my children the most was the cruel torture of the Ohmu by the Pejites. Although these are difficult topics, I found the film really invigorated my kids to talk about how the lessons of the film can be applied to their own everyday lives. From discouraging their friends from harming insects and other small creatures to the day-to-day things we can do to better the natural world around us, Nausicaä inspired my children to stand up for what they believe in.

In addition to being a terrific story, Nausicaä is also a fine example of animation. It won Miyazaki his second Noburo Ofuji Award for innovation at the Mainichi Film Concours. Particularly notable are the exhilarating flying sequences with Nausicaä on the Mehve and the God Warrior sequence animated by Hideaki Anno (of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame). My favourite sequence was the flashback / dream sequence of Nausicaä's youth (image above), which was animated in a completely different style than the rest of the film.

This review is part of Nishikata Film's series on the Noburo Ofuji Award.

Isamu Hirabayashi’s 663114 wins the Noburo Ofuji Award

2012-01-27T13:08:00.000+01:00

At the Mainichi Film Concours earlier this month, Isamu Hirabayashi (平林勇, b. 1973, Shizuoka) was awarded the prestigious Noburo Ofuji Award, which celebrates innovation in animation, for his latest short film 663114 (2011). I was disappointed last year that no award was given out when there are so many innovative animators working deserving of recognition by their peers. Hirabayashi is a worthy winner and I am delighted that the Mainichi saw fit to honour him.

Hirabayashi is a graduate of Musashino Art University. He initially worked as a graphic designer after graduation, but left his job to become an independent filmmaker. His film Textism (2003) won the Grand Prix at the Image Forum Festival and his following short films have won prizes at festivals around the world. A Story Constructed of 17 Pieces of Space and 1 Maggot 2007) made my list of Top 40 Animated Shorts of the Noughties. His international profile was raised in 2010 when Shikasha was invited to the Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight and last September, along with Mirai Mizue’s Modern No. 2 (2011), 663114 was invited to the Biennale in Venice.

The 8-minute short was made in response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami which struck the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011. The story is told by a cicada (セミ) which has been gestating for 66 years. During the press conference at the Biennale (see video), Hirabayashi explained that he chose the cicada because they when they are nymphs (newly hatched) they must live for a long time underground (usually 2-5 years, but in some species even longer). When the nymph metamorphosizes into a full-fledged cicada, it lives for only a week. As we all know, the earthquake of March 11 triggered many more disasters including the tsunami and the nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima. The cicadas of the region are now living in polluted earth, and Hirabayashi feels that they represent “the destiny of Japanese people.”

Hirabayashi, an interpreter, Watanabe, and Iijima at the 68th Biennale

The music for the film was composed by Osaka-based sound producer Takashi Watanabe. (渡辺崇, b. 1976, Hiroshima). He explained that they approached the soundtrack as if it would be an offering at a temple. He looked to Buddhism and Shintoism in his desire to create a new kind of sacred music. Keitarō Iijima (Studio 301), the sound producer on 663114, explained that they used Japanese food for making the soundtrack including nattō (fermented soybeans), dried Japanese noodles and also cabbage. He echoed Watanabe’s sentiments about the sacredness of the project for them, emphasizing that he tried to have a sense of respect for the food that they used throughout the production.

The title is made up of the age of the cicada ‘66’ and the date of the disaster ‘3/11’, but a member of the Biennale panel is confused by the number ‘4’ at the end of the title and asks Hirabayashi to explain the logic behind it. It turns out that the choice of 66 was not random. Hirabayashi points out that when the disaster struck on March 11^th, Japan had been rebuilding its society for 66 years after the devastation of World War II, and the number 4 refers to the four reactors that were damaged in Fukushima.

Hirabayashi was also asked to explain the meaning of the newly formed cicada that appears the black rain in 663114 as well as about the language of the cicada. He replies that cicada that is born after the black rain, 66 years later, is polluted by radioactive rain. Thus, the cicada is altered by the radioactivity. The language of the cicada is artificial, but they intended for it to have a spiritual, prayer-like meaning.

The most important message that Hirabayashi wanted to get across with the film is about the saving of children. The children whose lives have been dramatically altered by Fukushima should be our first priority. “This is our first prayer: to be able to save children.”

(source: BiennaleChannel)

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Check out Hirabayashi’s work on his YoutubeChannel, his official website, or follow him on twitter.

Isamu Hirabayashi Filmography

Cockroach (2001, 2’)

Penis (2002, 3’)

Helmut (2003, 11’)

Textism (2003, 11’)

VS (2004, 11’)

Conversations with Nature (2005, 5’)

Doron (2006, 16’)

A Story Constructed of 17 Pieces of Space and 1 Maggot (2007, 14’)

BABIN (2008, 30’)

aramaki (2009, 26’)

Shikasha (2010, 10’)

5+ Camera (2011, 15’)

663114 (2011, 8’)

Maya Yonesho’s Top 20 Animated Films

2012-01-23T11:33:00.001+01:00

Ever since I got my hands on a copy of the published version of Laputa’s Top 150 Japanese and World Animation (2003) in autumn 2010, I have been writing off and on about individual animators responses to the 2003 survey. There were quite a range of responses, all of which tell us a great deal about the animators themselves. The first generation of postwar "anime" animators - like Yoichi Kotabe, Reiko Okuyama, Eiichi Yamamoto, and Takashi Yanase, were influenced by a wide range of both domestic and foreign animation both popular and artistic. Animators who followed in the footsteps of this first wave of anime like Keiichi Hara, tend to be strongly influenced by domestic anime of the 70s and 80s.

Independent animators (ie. Keiichi Tanaami, Masahiro Katayama, Shigeru Tamura) who practice what some in Japan call "art animation" tend to be influenced by both Japanese artistic traditions and the best of world animation. The stop motion animator Maya Yonesho has one foot firmly planted in Japan and the other in Europe and her lyrically beautiful films explore the idea of animation as a universal language, as you can read in my 2008 profile of her as an artist. In the 2003 survey, Yonesho lists a wide range of animation from around the world whose animation techniques are as varied as their cultural origins. Yonesho's selection could easily make up the course contents of an introduction to world animation. If you haven't seen the films in her list, you have really been missing out on some pretty remarkable art.

Almost all of the animation on Yonesho's list falls under the vague category of independent or alternative animation. The biggest exception is Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940). This is an interesting choice because the most animators tend to choose Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) or Fantasia (1940) as their nod to the influence of Disney animators Animation fans who only recall seeing Pinocchio as a child should get a hold of a copy and take another look, for it is a fascinating film in terms of its use of animation technique. In a addition to using the novel technique of rotoscoping stop motion animation miniatures (a technique invented by Disney's competition, the Fleischer Brothers), Disney even had Oskar Fischinger contribute to the sparkle effect of the blue fairy's wand. I think Fischinger's influence is quite obvious in the screen-cap I have chosen below. Fischinger, of course, famously worked on the "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" animation sequence for Fantasia - which was released nine months after Pinocchio, and had a massive row with Disney over stylistic choices.

You can support Maya Yonesho by ordering a DVD of her Abstract AnimationWorks from Anido today.

Learn more about her by visiting her official website.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Here is Yonesho's unranked list:

Crac!

(クラック！, Frédéric Back, 1981)

Swamp

(スワンプ, Gil Alkabetz, 1991)

Divertimenti

(ディヴェルティメント, Clive Walley, 6 shorts, 1991-94)

Frank Film

(フランク・フィルム, Frank Mouris, 1973)

The Magic Ballad

(おこんじょうるり, Tadanari Okamoto, 1982)

Briar Rose or the Sleeping Beauty

(いばら姫、またはねむり姫, Kihachiro Kawamoto, 1990)

Words, words, words

(コトバ、コトバ、コトバ, Michaela Pavlatova, 1999)

The Mitten

(手袋, Roman Kachanov, 1967)

Kirikou and the Sorceress

(キリクと魔女, Michel Ochelot, 1998)

The Fantastic Planet

(ファンタスティック・プラネット, René Laloux, 1973)

Hotel E

(ホテルE, Priit Pärn, 1992)

Study No. 7

(スタディNo.7, Oskar Fischinger, 1932)

Begone Dull Care/Caprice en couleurs

(色彩幻想, Evelyn Lambart/Norman McLaren, 1949)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

(真夏の夜の夢, Jiří Trnka, 1959)

Black Dog

(ブラック・ドッグ, Alison de Vere, 1987)

Linear Dreams

(Richard Reeves, 1998)

The Cowboy’s Flute

(牧笛, Te Wei, 1963)

Pinocchio

(ピノキオ, Ben Sharpsteen et al., 1940)

Hedgehog in the Fog

(霧につつまれたハリネズミ, Yuri Norstein, 1975)

Nightangel / L'heure des anges

(ナイト・エンジェル, Jacques Drouin/Břetislav Pojar, 1986)

Source: Laputa Top 150 World and Japanese Animation

On DVD in Japan:

Mitten [Regular Edition]

Puppet Animation

Frederic Back Collection

Shanghai bijutsu denei sakuhin shu Vol.1

Sway (ゆれる, 2006)

2012-01-23T01:42:00.000+01:00

Is all that we see or seem

But but a dream within a dream?

- Edgar Allen Poe

The human mind loves to try to bring order to chaos. That is why readers are drawn to classic detective fiction like that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie where we marvel at the ability of Sherlock Holmes or Hercules Poirot to solve the mystery conclusively by bringing together threads of clues and witness testimonies. The modern detective; however, will tell you that such eyewitness testimony is often not very reliable. Not only can it be coloured by prejudice, but the human mind can sometimes play tricks on us.

The first sign in Sway (ゆれる, 2006) that Takeru Hayakawa (Joe Odagiri) is not a reliable witness comes when he returns to his home town for his mother’s funeral. The self-anointed black sheep of the Hayakawa family, Takeru barges late into the funeral services dressed head to toe in red, inciting his father (Masatō Ibu) into a rage over his lack of filial piety. The root of the bad feeling appears to be Takeru’s decision to reject joining the family business – a non-nondescript gas station – to become a big shot photographer in Tokyo. Yet, Isamu Hayakawa’s extreme reaction to his son suggests the strife runs even deeper into the family’s history.

The older brother Minoru (Teruyuki Kagawa), tries to bridge the yawning chasm between them by giving Takeru their mother’s Fujicascope projector and old 8mm home movies she took when they were little. One of the 8mm reels contains footage of a family outing to Hasumi Gorge, where Minoru recalls fondly fishing there with their father. Takeru does not remember ever going to the gorge and Minoru teases him, telling Takeru prophetically that he has selective memory made cloudy by the Tokyo smog.

Sway (Yureru) (English Subtitles)

Order from cdjapan

The camaraderie between the brothers sours when Takeru decides to seduce his old girlfriend Chieko Kawabata (Yōko Maki). Chieko has been working for the Hayakawas since the company she used to work for went under. She had a friendly, flirtatious relationship with Minoru and he’d been hoping she might take a fancy to him. Chieko joins the brothers on a trip to visit Hasumi Gorge, and her shocking sudden death at the old suspension bridge is the mystery that sets into motion the remainder of the film. However, whether or not Minoru was responsible for Chieko's death is really just a red herring. The true question is whether or not this tragedy will bring the brothers closer together or tear their tenuous relationship apart forever.

Director Miwa Nishikawa has a deft hand for creating dramatic tension in her screenplays. Whereas the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, would create it by showing the audience more than what the characters know, Nishikawa creates suspense by withdrawing visual information from us. We only see as much of the events on that fateful day as Takeru can remember, and we are drawn into his struggle to find a way to help his brother avoid being sentenced to prison for murder while remaining true to himself. We share Takeru’s frustration at not knowing all the details of what led to Chieko falling from the bridge.

Sway is an extraordinary film which at turns recalls the themes of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashōmon (1950), the mysterious beauty of Peter Greenaway’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and the withholding of information narrative structure of Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (1994). The colours in Sway are muted, but beautifully done and like Hitchcock and Kurosawa one has the impression that every frame of the film was carefully composed ahead of the filming. It’s the type of film one needs to watch more than once in order to appreciate the subtle nuances of expression and meaning.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

The Japanese DVD release of Sway has excellent English subtitles for the feature, no subs for the extras. The film was so well received at festivals that it also got a US release.

Directed and Written by Miwa Nishikawa

Cinematography by Hiroshi Takase

Original Music by the Cauliflowers

Cast

Joe Odagiri as Takeru Hayakawa

Teruyuki Kagawa as Minoru Hayakawa

Masatō Ibu as Isamu Hayakawa

Hirofumi Arai as Yohei Okajima

Yōko Maki as Chieko Kawabata

Japan in Germany 7: Oshima (大島, 2010)

2012-01-22T22:52:00.000+01:00

“This story makes no sense,” a frustrated German police officer says at the beginning of Lars Henning’s dark tale Oshima (大島, 2010), and asks the Japanese language interpreter to have the haggard and bruised-looking salaryman before him to repeat his story one more time from the beginning. The man introduces himself as Taburo Oshima and says that he just arrived from Tokyo on business.

The opening credits are positioned over the clouds and a girl’s voice tells us that this is the story of her father, who in October 2002 came to Germany on business with plans of continuing on to the United States. The tale that he told to the police is the last official record of his existence. He disappeared without a trace. The girl mysteriously goes on to explain that while her mother never told her what happened that night, she nevertheless knows what happened that night.

Oshima, played by Japan-born/Germany-raised actor Yuki Iwamoto, arrives in Germany in a haze. In addition to jet lag, Oshima may be experiencing extreme side effects from the depression medication Opipramol that he consumes on the flight. He passes out upon arrival at the airport, and is looked after by an airport employee (Hakan Orbeyi). He somewhat recovers and stumbles out of the baggage retrieval area into the arms of an eager-to-curry-favour German businessman, Herr Kleinschmidt (Devid Striesow), and his interpreter, Frau Izumi (Nina Fog).

Oshima’s wooziness continues in the car journey to the hotel and over the course of this half hour dramatic short, he passes in and out of consciousness due to a mixture of over-medication, alcohol consumption, and just plain exhaustion. Oshima seems disinterested in his business dealings with Herr Kleinschmidt and barely even aware of his surroundings for most of the film. In an off-hand comment to Frau Izumi, which she curiously does not translate to her boss, Oshima reveals that he has lost his entire family in an accident. Izumi is drawn to him, but at the same time suspicious that this man may not be who he says he is. Are we witnessing the mental collapse of a salaryman or is there something more going on here? Oshima’s vision of a white unicorn on the darkened streets of this anonymous German city suggest deeper layers to this man’s story which the viewer must unravel for him/herself.

The ambiguity of the storyline could have been disastrous if not for the sensitive and subtle acting performances of Iwamoto and Fog. Their faces are very expressive and hint at a deeper emotional story than is implicit in the dialogue and narration. Lars Henning (b. 1976, Hamburg) is the director of the much acclaimed short Security (2006) which won prizes at the Avanca Film Festival and Lübeck Nordic Film Days. He pursued a postgraduate degree in television and film at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln) between 2006 and 2010. This is his fourth short film. It is a melancholic tale with beautifully executed transitions. The cinematographer, Carol Burandt von Kameke, and crew have done a remarkable job of lighting these very dark night scenes with great skill. Many scenes have a masterful chiaroscuro look. With most young filmmakers today opting to go digital for budgetary reasons, it is a real delight to discover a short film shot beautifully on 35mm funded by cultural institutions. Oshima is a rare gem that showed on arte before Christmas and at Japan Week in Frankfurt in November. Looking forward to seeing more work by this director.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Credits

director: Lars Henning

screenwriter: Lars Henning

cinematographer: Carol Burandt von Kameke

production company: Radical Movies / Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln

producer: Ulrich Otto

34 minutes / 35mm

shot on location in North Rhine Westphalia

Cast

Yuki Iwamoto Taburo Oshima

Nina Fog Frau Izumi, the Interpreter

Devid Striesow Herr Kleinschmidt, the Businessman

Karolina Porcari Laika, exotic Dancer

Hakan Orbeyi Momo, man in airport

Jens Wachholz Police Officer 1

Markus Haase Police Officer 2

Remo Hofer Night Porter

Tanja Desen Airline Staff

Rosa Bergmann Girl with Wings / Naoko / voice over narration

Melanie Kühn Exotic Dancer

Pia Passion Exotic Dancer

Marie Iguchi voice over

Lars Henning Filmography

2005 Koslowski (15‘)

2006 Security (13‘)

2009 Driving Elodie (19‘)

2010 Oshima (35mm, 34‘)

Mirai Mizue’s Tatamp (2011)

2012-01-16T13:31:00.000+01:00

“One living thing. One sound. Becomes chaos. Becomes melody.”

“This living thing has one sound but a thousand forms.”

Mirai Mizue continues his experimentation with music and movement in his latest “cell animation” Tatamp. Not to be confused with the animation technique of “cel animation”, Mizue’s unique style of “cell animation” is hand-drawn and coloured on paper then scanned onto the computer for editing. The name refers to the fact that the creatures that he draws resemble amoeba and other minute organic creatures one might find under the lens of a microscope.

As the onomatopoetic title Tatamp suggests, sound designer twoth (aka Shinichi Suda) employs a number of different percussive sounds (shakers, synth, snare drum, etc.) in this piece in addition to harp, whistle, loon calls and other experimental noises. As with Jam (2009), the film begins in a minimalistic fashion with one sound being represented by a moving shape or shapes. The cells splash onto the screen and disappear like fireworks exploding in the sky. The appearance and movement of the shapes is directly related to the timbre and duration of each sound.

The more full the soundtrack, the more full the screen is with shapes, and as the tempo increases, so too the movement of the shapes. The score follows a pattern of rising and falling with the screen alive with abstract shapes and a chaos of movement at each peak. The grand finale is an explosion of colour and movement with the individual “cells” layered densely on the screen. Another fantastic film from Mizue in the tradition of visual music.

Learn more about Mirai Mizue and order his DVD from CALF. The DVD is also available from British Animation Awards.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Lord of Chaos: The Cinema of Sono Sion (2011)

2012-01-16T00:23:00.000+01:00

Lord of Chaos: The Cinema of Sono Sion

Il signore del chaos: Il cinema di Sono Sion

In December, the 29th Torino Film Festival (TFF, 25 November – 3 December 2011) honoured Sion Sono by featuring his oeuvre in their Rapporto confidenziale (Confidential Report) section. This annual programme aims to take note of emerging auteurs, genres, and other trends in international cinema.

In honouring Sono, TFF describes him as an “eccentric and mesmerizing Japanese poet, novelist and director” whose works had never before been screened in Italian cinemas. They go on to call him a “visionary” and a “provocative and dynamic filmmaker. . . [who] mixes mixes psychoanalysis and Grand Guignol, melodrama and pop culture, horror and politics, serial killers and dark ladies.” (source)

In addition to presenting almost all of Sono’s films, TFF teamed up with the Italian blog Sonatine: Appunti sul cinema giapponese contemporaneo (Sonatine: Notes on contemporary Japanese cinema) to publish a book of essays and film reviews called Il signore del chaos: Il cinema di Sono Sion (Lord of Chaos: The Cinema of Sono Sion).

The book is edited by Dario Tomasi and Franco Picollo and features the writing of not only the editors but also Claudia Bertolè, Matteo Boscarol, Luca Calderini, Giacomo Calorio, Emanuela Martini, Grazia Paganelli, and Fabio Rainelli. The cover features a photograph of the director taken at TFF. The book includes a complete filmography with titles in Japanese/romaji/English/ Italian

For non-Italian speakers, I recommend checking out the Sonatine website using Google Translate. As Italian sentence structure is very similar to English it is quite readable – unlike the bizarre world of Google JP to EN!! Check out the following reviews on Sonatine:

1984 Rabu songu (Love Song)

1985   Ore wa Sono Sion da! (I Am Sono Sion!)
1986   Ai (Love)
1986   Otoko no hanamichi (Man's Flower Road)

1988   Kessen!Joshiryō tai danshiryō (Decisive Match! Girls Dorm Against Boys Dorm)
1990   Jitensha toiki (Bicycle Sighs)
1992   Heya (The Room)

1997 Keiko desu kedo (I Am Keiko / It's Me Keiko)
1998 Dankon - The Man (Dankon: The Man)

2000 Utsushimi (Utsushimi)

2002 Jisatsu sākuru (Suicide Club)

2005 Yume no naka e (Into a Dream)
2005 Kimyōna sākasu (Strange Circus)

2006 Hazard (Hazard)

2006 Noriko no shokutaku (Noriko's Dinner Table)

2006 Kikyū kurabu, sono go (Balloon Club).

2007   Exte (Exte: Hair Extensions)
2009   Ai no mukidashi (Love Exposure)
2009   Chanto tsutaeru (Be Sure to Share), 2009

2010 Tsumetai nettaigyo (Cold Fish)

2011 Koi no tsumi (Guilty of Romance)

2011 Himizu (Himizu)

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Yuri Norstein’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

2012-01-13T13:04:00.001+01:00

The great Russian animator Yuri Norstein (aka Yuriy Norshteyn, b. 1941) is widely admired in Japan by both mainstream and independent animators alike. His works The Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) and The Tale of Tales (1978) topped the Laputa Top 150 Japanese and World Animation poll done in 2003. His work is so beloved that even his unfinished adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story The Overcoat entered the list at #92. Norstein himself participated in the 2003 poll and his picks are listed below.

But first, a bit of background information:

Yuri Norstein has close ties to the Laputa International Animation Festival. The festival began in 2000 and semi-annually presents the Yuri Norstein Award (ユーリ・ノルシュテイン大賞) – with, I believe, Norstein himself acting as the head of the jury. The prize was jointly awarded in its inaugural year to Hiroyuki Tsutita for his film Mutate and to Hiroshi Okuda for Prisoner. Oscar-winner animator Kunio Katō won the Yuri Norstein Award twice: first in 2001 for The Apple Incident and again in 2004 for The Diary of Tortov Roddle. Hosokawa Susumu won the award in 2005 for Demons and Yusuke Sakamoto won in 2006 for The Telegraph Pole Mother. In 2008, the award was given to a non-Japanese for the first time. Latvian animator Vladimir Leschiov took the prize for Lost In Snow. It was my understanding that the award would be given out again in 2010, but I have been unable to find any evidence of this happening – though they did show a retrospective of Norstein’s works at the festival that year. The next festival will have an activist theme as they put out a call for “Fukushima Animation” last autumn. It is unclear when the 11^th festival will take place.

2007 saw the establishment of the Laputa Art Animation School – a “small school” where they teach the art of making animation by hand (puppet, cutout, drawn, etc.). The school creation is credited to Norstein’s insistence that Japan needed its own school of animation in the vein of the great Eastern European centres for training animators. The school even uses Norstein’s iconic hedgehog as their logo. At Laputa, indisputed masters of the art of animation including Fumiko Magari and Sumiko Hosaka – puppet masters who worked for Tadanari Okamoto and Kihachirō Kawamoto – and the avant-garde legend Yōji Kuri teach students the tricks of the trade.

There are no surprises in Yuri Norstein’s top 20. He lists a cross-section of some of the very best in world animation with nods to both early animation pioneers (Ladislaw Starewicz, Alexandre Alexeieff, Claire Parker, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, Norman McLaren, David Hand, Jiří Trnka) and terrific contemporary work (Nick Park, Aleksandr Petrov, Michael Dudok de Wit). He even gives a nod to his Japanese hosts in recognizing the work of Osamu Tezuka and Kihachirō Kawamoto. If you were teaching a course on world animation of the 20^th century and could only show 20 films – this list would suit nicely. Though you would be hard-pressed to find a copy of Frantisek Vystrcil’s The Place in the Sun.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Night on Bald Mountain / Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve

(禿山の一夜, Alexandre Alexeieff/Claire Parker, 1933)

The Street / La rue

(ストリート, Caroline Leaf, 1976)

Crac!

(クラック！, Frédéric Back, 1981)

Bambi

(バンビ, David Hand/Disney, 1942)

Hand / Ruca

(手, Jiří Trnka, 1965)

Blinkity Blank

(線と色の即興詩, Norman McLaren, 1955)

Father and Daughter

(ファーザー・アンド・ドーター, Michaël Dudok de Wit, 2000)

Ali Baba

(アリババ, Giulio Gianini / Emanuele Luzzati, 1970)

The Substitute / Surogat

(代用品, Dušan Vukotić, 1961)

10.

The Cow / Корова

(雌牛, Aleksandr Petrov, 1989)

11.

De Facto/ De fakto

(デファクト, Donyo Donev, 1973)

12.

The Lady and the Cellist / La demoiselle et le violoncelliste

(お嬢さんとチェロ弾き, Jean-François Laguionie, 1965)

13.

Post / Почта

(郵便, Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, 1929)

14.

The Island / Остров

(島, Fyodor Khitruk, 1973)

15.

The Place in the Sun / O misto na slunci

(太陽の下の場所, Frantisek Vystrcil, 1959)

16.

Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers

(ウォレスとグルミット〜ペンギンに気をつけろ!, Nick Park, 1993)

17.

Tango

(タンゴ, Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1980)

18.

Jumping

(ジャンピング, Osamu Tezuka, 1984)

19.

Dōjōji Temple

(道成寺, Kihachirō Kawamoto, 1976)

20.

The Cameraman’s Revenge

(カメラマンの復讐, Ladislaw Starewicz, 1912)

Source: Laputa Top 150 World and Japanese Animation

Norstein's complete works is available to order from Japan:

Yuri Norstein Sakuhin shu (collection)

Russian with Japanese subs

A-AIR×CALF World of Independent Animation (世界のインディペンデント・アニメーション)

2012-01-12T23:06:00.000+01:00

Sunday, January 22, 2012

日時　2012年1月22日（日曜日）　14:00-18:00

Location: Aoyama Gakuin A Studio

会場　青山学院アスタジオ

Admission: 300 yen

The Japan Image Council (JAPIC) has sponsored three animation artists for a 75 days of residency in Tokyo for from December 2011 until March 2012. The Animation Artists in Residence (A-AIR) include Ewa Borysewicz (エヴァ・ボリセヴィッチ) from Poland, Immanuel Wagner (イマニュエル・ワーグナー) from Switzerland, and London-based filmmaker and animator Mikey Please (マイキー・プリーズ). On the 22^nd of January, JAPIC will be joining forces with the Japanese independent animation label CALF to celebrate the coming together of talented young animation artists from around the world.

14:00

Introduction to the Animation Artist in Residence (A-AIR) project

Speaker: Mr. Saeki / Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs

Programme 1

A-AIR 2010-2011 Playback

Works by last year’s participants

Chen Xi チェン・シー (China/中国)

Chrisophe Gautry クリストフ・ゴートリー　 (France/フランス)

Jospeph Pierce ジョゼフ・ピアス　(UK/イギリス)

14:55 Break

15:00

Programme 2

A-AIR 2010-2011

Screening + Presentation

Who Would Have Thought (Ewa Borysewicz, 2009, 11’)

Baka! (Immanuel Wagner, 2010, 8’)

The Eagleman Stag (Mikey Please, 2010, 9’)

With discussion moderated by animation scholar and critic Nobuaki Doi

16:55 Break

17:00

Programme 3

Recent Japanese and International Independent Animation

Playground (Mirai Mizue, 2010)

Yuki-chan (Kei Oyama, 2006)

Round Table discussion with Ewa Borysewicz, Immanuel Wagner, Mikey Please, Mirai Mizue, and Kei Oyama

Event will conclude at 18:00

A-AIR Profiles ＜A-AIR招へいアーティストプロフィール＞

エヴァ・ボリセヴィッチ　Ewa BORYSEWICZ（ポーランド）

Born in 1985, Ewa Borysewicz grew up in Podlachia, Poland. In 2009 she graduated from Kracow Academy of Fine Arts. Her graduation animated film “Who would have thought?” has been acclaimed both by audiences and critics alike. She has received important festival awards in Poland and abroad. She’s working now on her debut animated film. She’s also a graphic artist and illustrator.

http://ewaborysewicz.blogspot.com/

イマニュエル・ワーグナー Immanuel WAGNER（スイス）

Born in 1984, Immanuel Wagner was raised in Switzerland. After studying for 3 semesters of Fine Arts at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), he graduated from their animation programme in 2010. His graduation film has been shown in over 20 International Short Film Festivals and has also won 2nd Prize at Animator Festival in Poznan, Poland. He is currently working as a freelancer working on several Swiss commercial and non-profit art projects. http://imma.tv/

マイキー・プリーズ　Mikey PLEASE（イギリス）

Born in 1984. Mikey Please graduated with a BA in Special Effects from the University of Arts London (UAL) and then went on to direct animated promotional material for Virgin, Transgressive Records, Rough Trade, Ninja Tune and Universal Records before doing an MA in Direction at the Royal College of Art. He is now represented commercially by Agile Films, Independent Talent and developing long form projects with Warp Films for 2012. http://mikeyplease.co.uk/

Learn more about the Animation in Residence programme at the JAPIC website.

Please support CALF by ordering their DVDs today.

The full Japanese programme is also on the JAPIC website including a map to the event.

RSVP to the Facebook Invite here.

CALF(info@calf.jp)　JAPIC(03-6670-5676)

Immanuel Wagner's artwork has been used for the cover of Christian Gasser's new book about Swiss animation:

Tsutomu Shibayama’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

2012-01-08T12:55:00.000+01:00

Tsutomu Shibayama (芝山努, b. 1941) admits that he is patting himself on the back by listing his own films in the Animation Top 20 questionnaire that he filled out at the Laputa Animaton Festival in 2003. He uses the expression “temae miso” (手前味噌) – which literally means “home-made miso” but is colloquially used to express that one is singing one’s own’s praises. Shibayama’s entire list but two are all movies from the popular Doraemon franchise which Shibayama has been involved with since the 1970s.

Despite his long history as an animator and director in the anime industry, Shibayama writes that he does not feel that he is particularly discerning when it comes to the quality of animation and doesn’t really feel that he is suited to the task of ranking animation.

Paul Grimault’s The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep (1953) – which later became the basis of his Grimault’s feature film masterpiece The King and the Mockingbird (1980) – was the film that inspired Shibayama to become an animator himself. Before this film, Shibayama had only seen Disney animation for children and the contrast between Grimault’s work and that of Disney made a great impression on him.

Frédéric Back’s The Man Who Planted Trees was so highly recommended to Shibayama by a friends that he finally “lifted his heavy bottom” and went to see it and it did impress him very much.

The rest of Shibayama’s list ranks what he feels are the best Doraemon feature films. I did not have the impression that Shibayama was listing his own series out of mere egotism, but more out of a place of being proud of the work that he has done. Some animators who work for big franchises grow weary of the limitations they set upon creativity. It is nice to see someone who seems to truly enjoy what he does, even after all these years.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep / La Bergère et le ramoneur

(やぶにらみの暴君, Paul Grimault, 1953)

The Man Who Planted Trees / L'Homme qui plantait des arbres

(木を植えた男, Frédéric Back, 1987)

Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan

(ドラえもんのび太の日本誕生, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1989)

Doraemon: Nobita and the Wind Wizard

(ドラえもんのび太とふしぎ風使い, Tsutomu Shibayama, 2003)

Doraemon: Nobita and the Robot Kingdom

(ドラえもんのび太とロボット王国, Tsutomu Shibayama, 2002)

Doraemon: Nobita and the Winged Braves

(ドラえもんのび太と翼の勇者たち, Tsutomu Shibayama,2001)

Doraemon: Nobita and the Legend of the Sun King

(ドラえもんのび太の太陽王伝説, Tsutomu Shibayama, 2000)

Doraemon: Nobita Gets Lost in Space

(ドラえもんのび太の宇宙漂流記, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1999)

Doraemon: Nobita's South Sea Adventure

(ドラえもんのび太の南海大冒険, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1998)

10.

Doraemon: Nobita's Adventure in Clockwork City

(ドラえもんのび太のねじ巻き都市冒険記, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1997)

11.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Galaxy Super-Express

(ドラえもんのび太と銀河超特急, Hiroshi Fukutomi, 1996)

12.

Doraemon: Nobita's Genesis Diary

(ドラえもんのび太の創世日記, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1995)

13.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Fantastic Three Musketeers

(ドラえもんのび太と夢幻三剣士, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1994)

14.

Doraemon: Nobita and Tin-Plate Labyrinth

(ドラえもんのび太とブリキの迷宮, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1993)

15.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Kingdom of Clouds

(ドラえもんのび太と雲の王国, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1992)

16.

Doraemon: Nobita in Dorabian Nights

(ドラえもんのび太のドラビアンナイト, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1991)

17.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet

(ドラえもんのび太とアニマル惑星, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1990)

18.

Doraemon: Nobita's Parallel "Journey to the West"

(ドラえもんのび太のパラレル西遊記, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1988)

19.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Knights of Dinosaurs

(ドラえもんのび太と竜の騎士, Tsutomu Shibayama, 1987)

20.

Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops

(ドラえもんのび太と鉄人兵団, Tsutomu Shibayama,1986)

Source: Laputa Top 150 World and Japanese Animation

The Doraemon films are available via cdjapan:

Doraemon Shin, Nobita to Tetsujin Heidan - Habatake Tenshi Tachi Blu-ray [Regular Edition]

Eiichi Yamamoto’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

2012-01-08T12:45:00.000+01:00

Back by popular demand, individual questionnaire responses from Laputa Animation Festival’s publication of the Top 150 Japanese and World Animation (2003).

Biographical information about the great animator Eiichi Yamamoto (山本暎一, b. 1940) in English is unusually sparse on the internet considering that he is one of the top anime directors of his generation. It is somehow fitting that he was born the same year that Fantasia was completed by Disney, for his contributions to animation have been equally bold and groundbreaking as the work done by James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, et al.

Born in Kyoto during the Pacific War, Yamamoto’s father was called up for service and as an infant Yamamoto’s mother and her family moved to Shōdoshima where they stayed for the duration of the war. The island is famous for its olives, soy sauce, and wild monkeys. . . as well as being the setting of Keisuke Kinoshita’s classic film Twenty-Four Eyes (二十四の瞳, 1954). As a school boy, Yamamoto already dreamed of becoming an animator and upon graduation from high school he got work at Otogi Pro under the anime pioneer Ryūichi Yokoyama (横山隆一, 1909-2001). He worked on the productions of Fukusuke (ふくすけ, 1957) and Otogi's World Tour (おとぎの世界旅行, 1960) before meeting Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫, 1928-89) in 1960.

In 1961, Yamamoto became one of the founding members of Tezuka’s Mushi Productions and he took on the task of animating Story of a Certain Street Corner (ある街角の物語, 1962) which won much acclaim including the first ever Noburo Ofuji Award at the Mainichi Film Concours. He worked with Tezuka on the original Astro Boy Series and directed the Kimba the White Lion series (1965-7) and feature film (1966).

Yamamoto is perhaps best known for his work on the Animerama (アニメラマ) trilogy of films: A Thousand and One Nights (千夜一夜物語, 1969), Cleopatra (クレオパトラ, 1970), and Belladonna (哀しみのベラドンナ, 1973). Although these adult themed films may have been conceived and co-directed by Tezuka, Yamamoto is generally credited as the main creative force behind these unique films. Yamamoto was also the supervising director of Leiji Matsumoto’s influential anime series Space Battleship Yamato (1974-5).

The 20 films that Yamamoto selected for the 2003 Laputa survey reflect his love of both popular and avant-garde forms of animation. . . not to mention a taste for the eclectic and unusual. Yamamoto’s generation were hugely influenced by the extraordinary cell animation produced by Walt Disney in the 1930s and 1940s. Although they emulated Disney to a certain extent, with the Animerama films Mushi Productions also sought to move animation in a completely new and different direction than Disney. The avant-garde spirit of these films was influenced by Yōji Kuri and the Animation Sannin no Kai, which is doubtless why Two Grilled Fish made Yamamoto’s list.

On the surface it may seem egoistic for two of Yamamoto’s own works to appear on this list, but it is not uncommon among the Laputa lists. Puppet animation pioneer Katsuo Takahashi mentions his own work Nobara (野ばら, 1967) and Tsutomu Shibayama lists 18 Doraemon movies in his Top 20 List. I enlisted my husband to help me translate Yamamoto’s comments about his selection which I have included below. They reveal his quirky sense of humour. Although the list is numbered, Yamamoto claims the order is random. I am fascinated by the inclusion of The City of Lost Children which is not animation at all, but he suggests the aesthetics have an “anime taste” to them.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Fantasia

(ファンタジア, 9 Disney directors, 1940)

The film that inspired Yamamoto to become an animator.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

(白雪姫, David Hand et al., Disney, USA, 1937)

“The dark beauty in Snow White reminds me of kabuki” - EY

Two Grilled Fish

(二匹のサンマ, Yōji Kuri, 1960)

“Scary, terrible and disturbing to envision the progress of humanity in this way.” - EY

One Thousand and One Nights

(千夜一夜物語, Eiichi Yamamoto, Japan, 1969)

Yamamoto claims that it was the first animation to be have an “Eirin cut”

(Eirin is the Japanese film classification – some would say “censorship” board)

Belladonna

(哀しみのベラドンナ, Eiichi Yamamoto, Japan, 1973)

“Because I made it!” - EY

Night on the Galactic Railroad

(銀河鉄道の夜 Gisaburo Sugii, 1985)

“Because a friend of mine made it!” - EY

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

(天空の城ラピュタ, Hayao Miyazaki, 1986)

“It has such a great chase scene!” - EY

My Neighbor Totoro

(となりのトトロ, Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)

“It succeeded wonderfully in turning Japanese folklore into entertainment.” - EY

Renown “Ye-Ye” Girls Commericals

(レナウンのイエイエ娘CM, 1960s)

http://www31.ocn.ne.jp/~goodold60net/yeye.htm

“Oh those were fun, weren’t they!” - EY

10.

Ugo Ugo Lhuga series

(ウゴウゴルーガ, Toshio Iwai, 1992-1994)

http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2005/08/ugo-ugo-lhuga-j.php

“This series was great because it turned poo into a character.

Iwai took animation to a new level. I watched it every day when it was on TV.” - EY

11.

Minna no Uta series

(みんなのうた, various, NHK, 1961-present)

“I congratulate the NHK on this series. Please continue it forever!” - EY

12.

Hedgehog in the Fog

(霧につつまれたハリネズミ, Yuri Norstein, 1975)

“Well, I listed it because everybody says it’s great.” - EY

13.

The Mighty River / Le fleuve aux grandes eaux

(大いなる河の流れ, Frédéric Back, 1993)

“I like it better than The Man Who Planted Trees” - EY

14.

American Pop

(アメリカン・ポップ, Ralph Bakshi, 1981)

Yamamoto enjoyed the combination of rotoscoping with human drama.

15.

Heavy Metal

(ヘヴィメタル, Gerald Potterton, 1981)

“Hmmmm… this one is ugly and beautiful at the same time (醜悪美).” - EY

16.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

(ナイトメアー・ビフォア・クリスマス, Henry Selick, 1993)

“A grotesque doll with an exceedingly beautiful heart.” - EY

17.

Beavis and Butt-head Do America

(ビーバス・アンド・バットヘッドDo America, Mike Judge/ Yvette Kaplan, 1996)

“Very queer characters, very strange story, knee-slappingly hilarious.

On the one hand there’s Disney, and on the other hand there’s this odd, queer stuff.

America produces such diverse [animation].” - EY

18.

Death Becomes Her

(水遠に美しく, Robert Zemeckis, 1992)

puppets and special effects Guy Himber, Alec Gillis, Don Elliot, et al.

“Fantastic animation techniques used with ‘humans’” - EY

19.

Run Lola Run / Lola rennt animation sequences

(ラン・ローラ・ラン, Tom Tykwer, 1998)

Animation designed by Gil Alkabetz

“The animation is good, as is the beauty of the camera work.

The construction is also great.

Lola with the tattoo on her belly is really kawaii” - EY

20.

The City of Lost Children / La Cité des enfants perdus

(ロスト・チルドレン, Jean-Pierre Jeunet/Marc Caro, 1995)

“There’s no “anime” in it at all, but it has an anime flavour to it.

(he uses the katakana term アニメテイスト literally “anime taste”)

Their debut film Delicatessen was also good.” - EY

Source: Laputa Top 150 World and Japanese Animation

Face To Face (お向かいさん, 2007)

2012-01-08T09:03:00.000+01:00

The animated films of Kansai artist Mika Seike (清家美佳, b. 1975) are a rare treat. Information about her is even harder to come by as she has very little web presence. As far as I am aware, Face to Face (Omukaisan/お向かいさん, 2007) is the most recent animated work released by Seike. As in her previous films, she uses scanned objects and photographs of her actors (in this case Natsuko Miyata and Yoshiro Togami) for the basic forms of her animation, which she manipulates, colours, and animates on her computer. As in her previous films, the people and backgrounds in Face to Face have a grey, textured tone similar to that of newsprint. In contrast to the grey and black of the human forms, elements of the natural world, such as leaves, butterflies, and flowers have been vividly coloured.

2 films by Seike appear on Thinking and Drawing

A female hand enters from screen left and puts a green leaf down on a flat surface and it grows roots and transforms into a small tree that leans to the left. Then a male hand enters from screen right and places a red leaf on the tree. This leaf sprouts into a branch giving the tree a more balanced shape. The camera then cuts to a wider angle and we see that the surface on which the tree is growing is not earthen, but a small wooden card table. A man and woman sit at the table, hands on their laps, heads bent forward in rapt concentration as if they were playing chess with one another.

The woman raises her head, and a green leaf pops out of her mouth, like a ticket out of a vending machine and she places it on the tree, causing a new branch to form. The man does the same with a red leaf. And so the “game” continues, with the man and woman staring intently at one another across the branches of the tree. Their faces have a rough quality to them as if they were made out of corrugated paper.

When the tree is full with entangled branches of green and red, one of the green leaves suddenly pops off the tree and begins to fall. The man looks surprised and the woman’s expression suggests that she is crestfallen by this – her eyes lower to watch it fall. When the green leaf touches the table, it begins growing into a vine which rapidly wraps itself around the woman’s neck and head. Another leaf comes out of her mouth and she places it on the tree. As the green leaves grow higher, close ups show us that the leaves are now almost blocking out eye contact between the woman and man.

Two red leaves fall to the ground and transform into vines that wrap themselves around the neck and face of the man. Another red leaf comes out of his mouth, but instead of placing it on the tree, he plants it on the woman’s side of the table, where it grows into a red-leafed vine that wraps around the woman. She opens her mouth and a green vine grows out of it, wrapping itself around the man’s face. He releases another red leaf, but instead of planting it, holds it up defiantly between their lines of vision and it transforms into a red flame. He sets the vine alight, and the flame travels, as if up a dynamite cable, to the woman’s mouth. Consuming the flame causes a small stone to fall out of the woman’s mouth. She then raises her head and a stone shoots out of her mouth, hitting the man on his forehead.

Seike's Fishing Vine (2006) appears on Tokyo Loop

The woman looks over the man’s shoulder at a butterfly fluttering past the window, set against a red sky. Her gaze then shifts to the floor, where there are three stones – suggesting that this has happened before. She then removes the vines from her face. She walks to the window to peer outside. As she does so, the red butterfly comes to greet her on the windowsill and a rumble of thunder can be heard. Outside, there are some of flower-boxes – some full of colour, some empty – and a giant stone appears to have fallen at some point on the ground causing fissures in the concrete. The woman’s gaze follows the butterfly as it soars into the sky, joining other butterflies against a ruddy sky. This establishing shot reveals a landscape of dull grey apartment buildings, each with flowerboxes giving the scene some colour. In some of the apartment windows other people can be seen sitting at tables performing the same ritual of planting leaves on tables.

As the butterflies continue their soaring, the sound of leaves rustling in the wind joins the low rumble of a distant thunderstorm. Eventually, the butterflies plant themselves on the floor of a small wood of red-leafed trees, causing another red-leafed tree to sprout. This tree also produces a fruit, out of which is born another butterfly.

The butterfly flies to the woman and lands on her hand, then journeys into the sky. The camera pulls back to reveal that the urban landscape seems to be walled. The camera pulls back further to show that these walls are actually the walls of a box that juts out from the chest of the man. Back inside the apartment, the woman returns to the table. The sky is now green and the red butterfly has joined them. The man looks down, then removes the vines from himself, stands and closes the box into his chest, as if it were a bureau drawer. He walks to gaze out the window on the opposite side of the room, where a green butterfly lands on the window sill. Between the apartments out this window is a much less bleaker scene: a garden full of greenery and colour. Some purple butterflies plant themselves in the grass causing a stone to grow out of the earth. The green butterfly returns to the man who looks at it intently before watching it fly away again. The camera then pulls back to reveal more of this garden community, and then to show that it too is inside a box, but this one is jutting out of the woman’s chest. When she closes it into her chest, a green butterfly escapes from it and joins the red butterfly on the tree on the table. The red butterfly then lands on the woman’s forehead, then enters the woman’s mouth.

Inside the woman, the butterfly flies downwards and arrives in the garden where the man is gazing out the window. It plants itself in the ground in front of the man and sprouts into a red-leafed tree. The green butterfly then flies to the man’s forehead, then into his mouth and appears on the stormy side of the house, where it plants itself in the empty flower-box. Unlike the red butterfly, which sprouted a tree of its own colour, the tree that the green butterfly creates has both green and red leaves. The man returns to the table and the couple stare at each other over the original tree. Each pulls a leaf from their mouths and plants them on the tree, causing butterflies to emerge – the red butterfly lands on the woman’s forehead and the green on the man’s forehead. As the camera pulls silently away, we see the butterflies then enter their mouths again. The camera continues to pull back, out of the window. The final image is of the man and woman, framed in a window, staring at each other over the green and red tree on the table.

Seike’s characters inhabit a monochrome world and the only signs of nature – the leaves and the butterflies – seem to represent communication between men and women. But, instead of being a beautiful organic process, the relationship between the two sexes has been reduced to a game of strategy. It is a bleak vision of the modern world with the vibrant butterflies being the only signs of a possible transformation of the relationship into something more beautiful.

Departures (おくりびと, 2008)

2012-01-02T09:25:00.000+01:00

In the modern world we have become quite estranged from the natural process of death. When my grandmother was growing up in rural Ontario death was accepted part of life and bodies were laid out on the dining room table to be cleaned and dressed before being laid in a simple coffin in the living room for visitation. Today, when loved ones die strangers take care of preparing the body for funeral services. People who work in funeral services are often stigmatized for it, as was revealed on the US program The Bachelor when a beautiful young funeral director vied for the prize.

In Japan, the stigma is even greater because of the history of people who worked with the dead being ostracized as burakumin (untouchables). The descendants of the burakumin are still the victims of oppression in Japan and people who work with the dead still risk being stigmatized in their community as “unclean.” Yōjirō Takita’s Oscar-winning film Departures (おくりびと, 2008) tenderly explores this issue with the tale of Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a young cellist who suddenly loses his job in a Tokyo orchestra. He decides to return to his home town in Yamagata prefecture with the support of his wife Mika (Ryōko Hirosue) to look for work.

Soon after their arrival, Kobayashi answers an advertisement in the newspaper for a company looking for someone to assist with “tabi” (旅) which he interprets as “travel”. However, the “travel” that is meant in the ad is not to do with a physical journey but a spiritual one and Kobayashi finds himself employed as the apprentice of a man called Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who ceremonially prepares the dead for their journey into the next life.

Okuribito Sheet Music for Piano and Cello

The pay for this work is generous so Kobayashi gives it the old college try, but it takes some getting used to and his emotional turmoil is amplified by the fact that he is afraid to tell his wife the truth about what his new job entails. It turns out that Kobayashi is an ideal candidate for the job because he understands what it means to suffer loss. His father walked out on his family when he was six and he missed the funeral of his mother two years earlier because he was too busy to return home. The film follows Kobayashi’s acceptance of his new work as his vocation with warmth and depth and his story is bolstered by cleverly written subplots concerning his lost father, the family that runs the local bath house, and Kobayashi’s co-workers.

Okuribito Original Soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi

Cinematically, the film does not really stand out from the crowd, which is why it was such a shock to many that it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film over the Israeli animated documentary Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008). In terms of subject matter, it was very brave of the filmmakers to take on the taboo subject of preparing bodies for death. The strong storyline and superb acting is complemented by the glorious location shooting in Sakata, Yamagata. If I were still living in Japan I would be immediately planning a getaway to the region for some hill walking. I am also quite partial to the violoncello and the score by Joe Hisaishi is beautifully written and performed (available from cdjapan).

I watched the German DVD release of this film Nokan: Die Kunst des Ausklangs which has a 16 minute interview with Takita as an extra.

The DVD is also available in the US, the UK, and elsewhere.

Muybridge's Strings Flip Books (マイブリッジの糸フリップブック, 2011)

2011-12-31T12:26:00.000+01:00

Fans of Kōji Yamamura who live outside of Japan may not be aware that it has become a tradition for the great animator to publish a book tie-in along with his latest film releases. For Kafuka Inaka Isha, he published a slim, hardcover illustrated storybook edition of Franz Kafka's acclaimed short story A Country Doctor in Japanese translation.

For his latest animated masterpiece Muybridge’s Strings (マイブリッジの糸, 2011), Yamamura and his publishers came up with the ingenious idea of creating flip book tie-ins. According to the introduction, Yamamura wanted to create a book that would reflect the temporal themes of the animation. Although I have not yet seen it, I have read that Muybridge's Strings employs a parallel editing structure that interweaves a story from the past (the time of Muybridge) with a story set in the present.

Front covers: book slipcases, flip books, info booklet

There are two complementary flip books available: (マイブリッジの糸I and マイブリッジの糸II). They are published in a format of 13x8cm and consist of a slipcase and flip book in full colour, accompanied by a monochrome paper booklet. When the front covers of both slipcases are pushed together (top photograph) they form the full length poster for the film.

Back covers: book slipcases, flip books, info booklet

Each flip book features a series of images on the right-hand side pages and transcribed music from the film by Normand Roger and J.S. Bach on each facing page. The pages are of two different alternating lengths which means that once you have flipped through one side of the book, you can turn the book over and flip through a different series of images. This forward and backward structure is also drawn from the animated short which references J.S. Bach's Crab Canon - a clever piece of music which is the musical equivalent of a palindrome. It is best scene and heard, so I recommend checking out this helpful explanatory video.

Info booklets

Both flip books are accompanied by the same information booklet. It features an introduction by Yamamura as well as an interview with him about not only the flip books but also the making of this Japanese-Canadian (NFB/NHK/Polygon) co-production. See all photos on Google Plus or Facebook. Even if you cannot read Japanese, these books are a visual delight and a must-have for collectors of independent animation.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

ISBN 978-4-89194-909-9
ISBN 978-4-89194-910-5

Nishikata Film Review 西片映画レビュー

The World of Kato Kunio

Kawamoto – Norstein: The Puppet Master and the Painter-Animator

"L’art des marionnettes animées" Programme de courts métrages de Kawamoto Kihachirô

The Demon (鬼, Kawamoto, 1972, 8’, 35mm)

Démone (La) l Oni l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

Temple Dojoji (Le) l Dôjôji l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

Maison en flammes (La) l Kataku l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

To Shoot without Shooting (不射之射, Kawamoto, 1988, 25’, 35mm)

Tirer sans tirer l Fusha no sha l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

The Heron and the Crane (Цапля и журавль, Norstein, USSR, 1974, 10’, 35mm)

Héron et la cigogne (Le) l Tsaplia i juravl l de Youri Norstein

Hérisson dans le brouillard (Le) l Lojik v toumane l de Youri Norstein

Conte des contes (Le) l Skazka skazok l de Youri Norstein

Manteau (Le) l Shinel’ l de Youri Norstein

An Evening with Yuri Norstein, hosted by Ilan Nguyen and Isabelle Vanini

Rencontre avec Youri Norstein animée par Ilan NGuyên et Isabelle Vanini

Livre du mort (Le) l Shisha no sho l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

The Mitten (Варежка, Roman Kachanov, USSR, 1967, 10’, 35mm)

Moufle (La) l Varezhka l de Roman Katchanov coanimé par Youri Norstein

25 octobre - premier jour l 25-e - pervyi den’ l de Youri Norstein

The Battle of Kerzhenets (Се́ча при Ке́рженце, Ivan Ivanov-Vano/Norstein, USSR, 1971, 10’, 35mm)

Bataille de Kerjenets (La) l Secja pri Kerjenetz l de Youri Norstein et Ivan Ivanov-Vano

Saisons (Les) l Vremena goda l d’ Ivan Ivanov-Vano / codirigé et animé par Youri Norstein

The Fox and the Hare (Лиса и заяц, Norstein, USSR, 1973, 10’, video)

Renarde et le lièvre (La) l Lisa i zayets l de Youri Norstein

38 Parrots (38 Попугаевые, Ivan Ufimetsev, USSR, 1976, 8’ video)

38 perroquets l 38 popugaev l D’Ivan Ufimtsev / animé par Youri Norstein

Autumn (excerpt) (Andrei Khrjanovsky, USSR, 1992, 8’, video)

Automne (extrait) l Osen’ l d’ Andreï Khrjanovski / animé par Youri Norstein Khrjanovski

L’oeuvre de Kawamoto Kihachirô: Conférence d'Ilan NGuyên et Serge Ségura

Living with Puppets (Takashi Namiki, documentary, 1999, 52’, video)

Une vie avec les marionnettes l Ningyô to ikiru l de Namiki Takashi

Chibikuro Sambo et les deux jumeaux l Chibikuro Sanbo to futago no otôto l de Mochinaga Tadahito

Anthropo-Cynical Farce (犬儒戯画, Kawamoto, 1970, 8’, 35mm)

Farce anthropo-cynique l Kenju giga l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

Voyage (Le) l Tabi l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

Vie d'un poète (la) l Shijin no shôgai l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

Ne cassez pas les branches l Hanaori l de Kawamoto Kihachirô

Three Came Home (三人の帰宅, 1950)

Reel Cuisine: Blockbuster Dishes from the Silver Screen

Wild Berries (蛇イチゴ, 2003)

Gestalt (部屋/形態, 1999)

Nishikata Kids: Anna on Nausicaä

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ, 1984)

Isamu Hirabayashi’s 663114 wins the Noburo Ofuji Award

Maya Yonesho’s Top 20 Animated Films

Sway (ゆれる, 2006)

Japan in Germany 7: Oshima (大島, 2010)

Mirai Mizue’s Tatamp (2011)

Lord of Chaos: The Cinema of Sono Sion (2011)

Yuri Norstein’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

A-AIR×CALF World of Independent Animation (世界のインディペンデント・アニメーション)

Tsutomu Shibayama’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

Eiichi Yamamoto’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

Face To Face (お向かいさん, 2007)

Departures (おくりびと, 2008)

Muybridge's Strings Flip Books (マイブリッジの糸 フリップブック, 2011)

Muybridge's Strings Flip Books (マイブリッジの糸フリップブック, 2011)