Nice to See You (ナイス・トゥ・スィ・ユー, 1975)

Taku Furukawa is best known for his doodling style of drawn animation in films like Phenakistiscope (1975) and Tyo Story (1999) and his much loved contributions to the NHK’s Minna no Uta series.  He has also played with other techniques of making animation such as direct animation (painting directly onto the film stock) in Calligraphiti (1982) and Direct Animation (1987) and he was one of the first indie animators to experiment with early computer animation in Mac the Movie (1985) and Play Jazz (1987).

Nice to See You (ナイス・トゥ・スィ・ユー, 1975) is a silent film that Furukawa made early in his career.  At the beginning, it appears to be an abstract animation that plays with black shapes drawn on a colourful background.  Shaky black squares shot on 16mm dance on a green background, their blotchy edges occasionally blurring into one another.  The black squares then transform into green circles on black and then back again as if the two patterns were fighting against each other for control of the screen.  The movement of the shapes is such that it is hard to determine whether or not the shapes are moving across the screen or the camera is moving across the paper on which it has been drawn.  The patterns shift and move with the ease of a kaleidoscope. 

All of a sudden the shapes get smaller and the camera moves back to reveal that the pattern of dots and squares were not random, but together make up the image of an eye.  The message of the film is clear: how we interpret images – and by extension how we see the world – is determined by our perspective.  The closer we are to something does not necessarily mean that we see it more clearly.  Sometimes we need to step back in order to see the bigger picture.

Nice to See You appears on the Anido DVD Takun Films and can be ordered through their website.

Taku Furukawa re-made Nice to See You in collaboration with video game producer and CG animator Noriyuki Boda  and called it TAKU BODA (2009).

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed/もんぜん, 1999)

Brothers Uwe (Uwe Ochsenknecht) and Gustav (Gustav-Peter Wöhler) have very little in common with each other apart from their bad marriages.  Uwe is a self-absorbed kitchen salesman with four children whose wife Petra (Petra Zieser) gets fed up with him and walks out on their marriage.  Meanwhile, Gustav is in a sterile, childless relationship with his wife Ulrike (Ulrike Kriener).   Unlike chaotic Uwe, Gustav makes a concerted effort to find inner peace in his life, working as a Feng Shui expert, raking his miniature Zen Garden, memorizing Asian proverbs, and practicing meditation.

Consumed by grief over his failing marriage, Uwe crashes Gustav’s planned Zen Buddhist retreat to the Monzen monastery on the Noto Peninsula.  When the brothers arrive in Tokyo, Gustav’s façade of inner peace is torn away as both men find themselves overwhelmed by their new environment.  After a night on the town, the men are unable to find their hotel again and have run out of cash because they spent it all on booze.  Their inability to communicate with a taxi driver lands them in an unfamiliar neighbourhood,  and they wander aimlessly through the darkened city streets.  They eventually end up in the Taito ward where they follow the example of the homeless people there by spending the night sleeping in cardboard boxes.

The next morning, their situation does not improve and they manage to lose each other while crossing Shibuya’s famous scramble crossing in the middle of the day.  With Uwe armed only with his video camera, which he uses to record a video diary of his journey, and Gustav armed only with a book of Zen sayings, the two men must take on this next phase of their journey alone.  Eventually the brothers find each other again and make their way through a series of misadventures to the Monzen monastery where they are given the opportunity to see their lives from a new perspective through a regime of hard work and meditation. 

Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed/もんぜん, 1999) was shot entirely on digital video and has an intimate feel to it.  I enjoyed this film more than Doris Dörrie’s other Japan-themed feature Kirschblüten– Hanami (Cherry Blossoms, 2008) which was much hyped in the German media the year after I moved here from Tokyo.  The journey of self discovery in Cherry Blossoms seemed forced, whereas the story of Uwe and Gustav seems so effortless.  There is a realness and a spontaneity to the characters which reminded me of the works of Mike Leigh.  Above all, the humour that Uwe Ochsenknecht and Gustav-Peter Wöhler bring to their roles keeps the film from taking itself too seriously.  It's a great film for people reevaluating their own lives and in need of a good laugh at the inanities of human nature. 

Enlightenment Guaranteed is one of five films that I wrote about for World Film Locations: Tokyo (ed. Chris MaGee, 2011).  I chose the Yanaka Cemetary as the location to focus on.  Support independent film critics by ordering the book today:

The film is available on DVD in the States:



. . . in Germany:



.  .  .  and even in Japan:

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Sawako Decides (川の底からこんにちは, 2010)

Hollywood has lost the plot when it comes to romantic comedies. Back in the genre’s golden years, actresses with solid acting chops and modest looks (Rosalind Russell, Katharine Hepburn) won over audiences by playing terrific characters that female audiences could identify with.  These days, female leads in romantic comedies tend to be cookie-cutter beautiful with shallow, egocentric issues that have little to do with the day-to-day concerns of real women.

This is not the case in Sawako Decides (川の底からこんにちは / Kawa no soko kara konnichi wa, 2010), where the main leading lady ranks herself as “lower middle” in the spectrum of women.  Sawako has average looks, meagre self esteem, and is lacking in professional ambition.  In the five years since she left her home town for Tokyo after a falling out with her widowed father, she has suffered through five dissatisfying jobs and is in her fifth disappointing relationship after being dumped by her previous four boyfriends.  She seems to be stuck in a cyclical rut when she gets word that her father is terminally ill with cirrhosis brought on by heavy drinking. 

Sawako resists moving back to her home town to support her dying father and his wayward brother because it means having to face up to unresolved problems from her past, but her recently divorced boyfriend Kenichi coerces her into going.  Kenichi is looking for a fresh start for his life with his young daughter and sees potential in Sawako’s family business of packing freshwater crabs.  His daughter Kayoko, with her big mournful eyes, is more cautious than her father, but ultimately will be the first person to really connect with Sawako.

The choices that Sawako faces in this film are difficult and her decisions are not predictable, which only serves to make her character all the more human and likable.  Hikari Mitsushima (Love Exposure, Kakera) brings her trademark shy charm to the role and contrasts well with the more brash female characters such as her old childhood friend with a grudge and the gaggle of crab-packing women who are determined to make Sawako suffer a bit for her past sins before welcoming her back into the fold.  The wacky, screwball aspects of Yūya Ishii’s film keep it from wallowing too long in self-doubt and misery – though the unlikely subplot of a random Tokyo graduate student seducing a married fisherman should have been left on the cutting room floor.  

All in all it is an enjoyable film that reminds us that no matter how average a person is, they need only work hard and look out for others in their community to enjoy a successful life.  As Sawako's family vegetable patch demonstrates, sometimes the most beautiful flowers can grow in the biggest dung heap.

Sawako Decides recently came out on DVD in the UK.  The distributor Third Window Films has been struggling to get back on top since they lost their stock in the Sony warehousefire during the London riots this summer.  Please support them by ordering their films on DVD or, if you like in the UK, watching them on MUBI.  The DVD includes an interview with the director as an extra.

Director and Screenwriter

Yūya Ishii

Cinematographer

Yukihiro Okimura

Original Music

Chiaki Nomura

Cast

Sawako

Hikari Mitsushima

Kenichi

Masashi Endo

Kayoko

Kira Aihara

Tadao

Kotaro Shiga

Nobuo

Ryo Iwamatsu

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011