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| Children watch the freak show. |
The animator Ryo Hirano has a love of the grotesque and the absurd, from the yōkai manga of Shigeru Mizuki to the independent animation of Igor Kovalyov (see his interview with Public Image) Hirano’s
animated short Ichi-gwankoku (The
One-Eyed Country, 2009) was inspired by the rakugo
story of the same name Ichigankoku (一眼国 --- Hirano
just chose a different Romanization method for the title).
Rakugo (落語) is a traditional art of comic storytelling
which dates back many centuries. Many of
the classic rakugo tales contain
elements of the grotesque. One well
known example to fans of indie animation is Atama Yama (Mt. Head), which Kōji Yamamura
adapted in 2002 and tells the tale of a stingy man who has a cherry tree grow
out of his head. In the popular story Ichigankoku,
the owner of a freak show hears from a travelling priest about the existence of
a country of one-eyed people. He sets
out immediately for this land in the hope of capturing a one-eyed child to
bring back and use in his show. However,
the tables are turned against him when he comes to the land of one-eyed people,
for he himself is captured because he has two-eyeds and is caged and put on display
as a freak himself.
Hirano captures the absurdity of the
story right from the get-go with a one-eyed chicken who is almost run over by
the freak show vehicle and the stampede of children that follow in its
wake. The caged two-eyed man is
humiliated even further in his cage because he is naked and shivering. Not only do the one-eyed children stare at
the man in shock, but they also cruelly throw things at him and laugh at his
plight. In a further act of violence, the
freak show owner whips the naked man
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| Collage of drawn and photographic elements |
In contrast to this dark, violent
scene, a priest and a caged tanuki
are sleeping at a roadside shrine. The tanuki –creatures famed for their powers
of transformation – delightedly captures a falling ginkgo leaf and uses his
magic to escape from the cage. From his covered
cage, the two-eyed man peaks through a crack in the curtain to observe the
one-eyed world around him and spots the tanuki walking by with a leaf on his forehead.
The man’s view abruptly comes to an end
when he is further abused by passersby.
He is knocked unconscious by a can to the head and has a vision of a terrifying
giant three-eyed creature. He runs from
this giant but is easily captured and the giant pulls one of his eyes out of
its socket. When the man awakes, he
discovers that he now has only one eye.
His eye, with an odd tail wiggling like a fish out of water, stares at
him from the other side of his cage. He
tries to capture the eye, but it escapes.
He looks out the window and sees the tanuki
with the gingko leaf has captured his wayward eye on stick and is licking it
like a lollypop. The poor naked man sits
in disbelief at his fate, scratching his head.
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| A mix of European and Japanese cultural influences - but they somehow seem to fit this strange land. |
If it weren’t for the Japanese
elements to this story (tanuki, the Jizō bodhisattva statues, etc.), I might
have thought it was by an Eastern European animator because of the look and
feel of the piece. What really makes
Hirano’s work stand out from other young animators is his fearless use of
collage and mixed media. Photographic
images are layered with drawn images in unexpected and interesting ways.
Whereas the original rakugo story is amusing because of the
irony of the fate of the freak show owner, Hirano shows a different side to the
story that shows the value of the story to modern audiences. We as an audience can scratch our own heads
along with the old man and wonder if it is better to be one-eyed and fit in
with the others or to remain oneself in the face of violence and cruelty.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012
Watch the film for yourself on Hirano's official Youtube channel.
Learn more about Ryo Hirano on his official website.
Filmography
2007 udara udara (うだらうだら)
2008 Future Man (蟻人間物語/Ari Ningen Monogatari)
2008 Midnight Zoo (深夜動物園/Shinya Dōbutsuen)
2009 music video orchestra (collaborative work for Omodaka)
2009 The Kappa’s Arms (河童の腕/Kappa no Ude)
2009 Ichigwankoku / One-Eyed Country (一眼国/Ichigankoku)
2009 Guitar (ギター)
2010 Kensaku Shōnen (検索少年, Tabito Nanao music video)
2011 Hietsuki Bushi (ひえつき節/Omodaka music video)
2011 Space Shower TV Station ID
2011 Holiday (ホリデイ)
(1976).
