Nishikata Film Review

17 May 2012

Animafest Zagreb 2012

Atsushi Wada's birthday card to Animafest

Animafest Zagreb is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year. The renowned festival has been held biannually since 1972, and annually since 2005. After Annecy, Animafest is the second oldest animation festival in the world and an important cultural event in Croatia. The guests of honour at this year’s festival, which runs from May 29^th until June 3^rd, are the “godfather of Animafest” Yoji Kuri and winner of three Animafest grand prizes Priit Pärn (Breakfast on the Grass, 1895, and Divers in the Rain). Pärn will be on this year’s Grand Prize jury.

Kuri is being presented with the Animafest Lifetime Achievement Award. Most of his films will be screened at the festival including many which have never been screened before in Croatia or in Europe. There will also be a rare opportunity to see Ryo Saitani’s documentary Here We Are with Yoji Kuri (2008). Animafest will also be hosting a Q+A with Kuri. Events: Yoji Kuri 1, Yoji Kuri 2, Yoji Kuri 3,

Evolution (Yoji Kuri,1976)

Among the wide array of programmes on offer this year is Grand Prix 1972-2012, a nostalgic look back at past winners of the festival. It is a wonderful cross-section of world animation from Canada to Russia. I saw Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Yuri Norstein’s The Battle of Kerzhenets (1971), which won the first Animafest, at the Kawamoto-Norstein event in Paris and if they are showing it on film than it is worth travelling a long way to see 14^th-16^th century Russian frescoes and paintings come to life. The programme includespast Japanese winners of the grand prizeOsamu Tezuka’s Jumping and Koji Yamamura’s Mount Head.

This festival will also feature an exhibition entitled 40 Years of Animagest Zagreb, 1972-2012 at the ULUPUH Gallery. Historical documents and letters, documentary videos, festival trailers, awards, photographs, birthday and other cards by world-acclaimed authors, graphic identities and objects made from 1972 until present will be on display. The exhibition will also feature works by renowned artists from former Yugoslavia and Croatia, who contributed to the festival identity such as Nedeljko Dragić, Pavao Štalter, Miroslav Šutej, Zvonimir Lončarić, Borivoj Dovniković, and Zlatko Bourek. This year’s festival logo, designed by Damir Gamulin and Tina Ivezić, is a reinterpretation of the most iconic posters from past festivals including designs by Nedeljko Dragić, Zvonimir Lončarić, Pavao Štalter, Borivoj Dovniković and Vladimir Straža (1978), Zvonimir Lončarić (1980), and Borivoj Dovniković and Mihajlo Arsovski (1998).

Koji Yamamura's birthday card to Animafest

In addition to Yoji Kuri, several Japanese animators are screening works at this year’s festival. Mirai Mizue’s Modern No. 2 (2011), Atsushi Wada’s The Great Rabbit (2012), Shin Hashimoto’s Beluga (2011) are in the grand prize competition. Alimo’s Island of Man (2011) and Masaki Okuda’s A Gum Boy (2011) are in the student competition. In addition, Mizue’s music video AND AND (2011) is in the commissioned films competition. Koji Yamamura’s Muybridge’s Strings (2011) and Isamu Hirabayashi’s 663114 (2011) are both showing as part of the Grand Panorama and Okuda’s Uncapturable Ideas (2011) and Ryo Orikasa’s Scripta Volanta (2011) will feature in the Student Panorama. Good luck to all.

10 May 2012

The Curious Animated World of Ryo Hirano

With so many young animators coming out of art colleges these days, it is only those who have a truly unique vision or aesthetic that stand out from the crowd. Ryō Hirano (ひらのりょう, b.1988) is fast becoming known at home and abroad for his weirdly wonderful animated shorts. Born in 1988 in Kasukabe, Saitama, Hirano is a graduate of the Information Design programme at Tama Art University and he is managed by Foghorn.

In 2009, Hirano was one of a group of students selected to participate in the creation of the collaborative project “music video orchestra” for the experimental collaborative group Omodaka at the 13^th Japan Media Arts Festival. Last year, he won the Japan Media Arts Festival “New Face Award” for his animated music video for Omodaka’s latest song “Hietsuki Bushi”. He has also recently done a music video for OvertheDogs, a young band also represented by Foghorn.

According to Yuki Harada’s interview with Hirano last year, Hirano began experimenting with animation during the summer holidays of his first year of university. He took courses in photography and programming at Tamabi, but felt that he didn’t really excel in those areas. He also picked up basic training in the use of animation software while at Tamabi (source: public-image.org). The first film Hirano ever made was an amusing short-short called “Udara Udara” which features cute little hand-drawn creatures on photographs of natural habitats. He did the sound for this film himself (read review and watch video).

His next film was Future Man which he made as a project for a university course where they were asked to make something about living beings. In preparation for this film, he read up on ant ecology and used this knowledge as the basis of his film. One of the details that struck him as remarkable was that scientists who study ants found that their behaviour is not driven by sympathy or love for the ant queen but that it is the evolutionary drive to maximize one’s DNA. In Future Man, he substitutes humans for the ants. The many drawings that he did resulted in a 7 minute animation, which gave him a great feeling of accomplishment (read review and watch video).

His third work was Midnight Zoo. It was based on a dream he had had where he was sucked into a zoo. In this animation, Hirano wanted to show the connection between humans and animals. Hirano is drawn to the grotesque (guro) tradition of art in Japan and elsewhere. The manga of Hideshi Hino has been a major influence on him. In his interview with Harada, Hirano states that he has always been drawn to the fantastic and the grotesque. Other major artistic influences that he cites are the manga-ka Shigeru Mizuki of GeGeGe no Kitaro fame, the independent animation of Igor Kovalyov, and Garo (ガロ) manga.

Themes that interest Hirano are the transformation of the body – which is perhaps why he is drawn to the grotesque and to yōkai (supernatural creatures). He has said that he is “interested in the fact that even if you change the body, the essence doesn’t change” and this is a theme that he explores in his works. Another theme is “boy meets girl” love. He has tried to express this type of romantic feeling in both Midnight Zoo and Holiday.

Interestingly, Hirano says that he wants to make things that are sugoku guroi (super-grotesque), but that it is sometimes difficult not to overdo it. In his desire not to overdo the grotesque elements in his work, the result often turns out more cute than grotesque. When I read this I immediately thought of Hirano’s The Kappa’s Arms which is quite grotesque – I mean a kappa has his arms torn out and bleeds all over the place – but remains quite a cute animation on the whole.

In terms of method, Hirano tends to plan just the first and last scene in his animated shorts and the in-between part just comes naturally. As a result of this relaxed approach, things that he experiences in his everyday life during the production process often get reflected in the finished film. For example, The Kappa’s Arms was impacted by the death of a friend during the animation process (read review and watch film). His work is also heavily influenced by what he reads. The Kappa’s Arms was initially based on a kappa folktale Hirano discovered in a book, and Ichigwankoku (One-Eyed Country) was based on an old rakugo tale (read review).

Hirano’s animation has a unique look because of his use of collage. Drawn elements are mixed with photographed images and sometimes even real objects. He apparently prefers watching documentaries to watching animation but as an artist prefers animation to live action because he can control the final results more. Also, with animation the audience is much more willing to go on a journey into the fantastic. In a way, animation is Hirano’s jibun no documentary – a documentary of his inner self. He can express what he wants to say without any uneasy feeling (iwakan).

We showed Ryo Hirano’s film Holiday at Nippon Connection this year. It is his graduate film from Tamabi and the themes are once again love and the body. He made the film based upon memories of the summer holidays (read review and watch trailer). Holiday has raised Hirano’s profile as an animator as the film has been picked up by many international festivals. In order to make a living, he continues to do commercial work such as music videos and the Space Showa TV station ID. I hope that he finds the funding to continue making indie fare because he shows a lot of promise as an artist.

A great deal of the information for this article was gleaned from an interview with Hirano by Yuki Harada (source: public-image.org) and through correspondence with Hirano himself. To read more click on hyperlinked the titles below.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

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)

Ryo Hirano’s Holiday (ホリデイ, 2011)

Holiday (ホリデイ, 2011) is Ryo Hirano’s graduate film from Tama University of Art and the theme is one that he has explored before: love and the body. Hirano has said that the concept was based on memories of the summer holidays (source: public-image.org) – and if you’ve ever experienced a swelteringly hot summer in central Japan you will understand how it might inspire a trippy, fantastical such as this one.

The film opens with an iris shot of a romantic lakeside resort with multicoloured gondolas quietly passing over the stretch of water. It is as if we are viewing the scene through a telescope. The idyllic scene abruptly ends with the next cut as we are suddenly confronted with an imori (an akahara imori / Japanese fire belly newt to be precise) stuck in a pipe. The stuggle of the imori is in stark contrast to the idyllic sound of piano playing. A rush of water sends the imori flying out of the tap and into a young woman’s drinking glass. The woman drinks as she walks across the room and we see that she is in a Japanese room with tatami floor and the sliding doors wide open to reveal the lush landscape rising from the lake. A naked man painted gold plays a miniature piano on his lap. The girl chokes on the imori and falls to the floor, the idyll of the scene interrupted as she crawls to the toilet to throw up. The imori walks out of the bathroom covered in puke – as he wipes it off himself we are treated to the revolting inducing image of a three-dimensional, realistic looking sick pile hitting a drawn tatami floor. The girl lies prone on the floor as the gold man tries to help her recover and the imori beg her forgiveness by bowing.

Holiday Trailer:

The next scene really does say Japanese summer holiday: the imori in a hotel yukata stands smoking under a tree in front of the Lake View Hotel with a glorious view of the lake marred by a road cutting right through it. Typical. The naked gold man pulls up in a red car with the girl looking ill, but somewhat recovered and they take the imori on a journey with them. The unlikely threesome put on a concert in a band shell in the forest. Their only spectator is a naked, well-endowed cat who philosophizes about love. The girl coughs until she collapses on stage and metamorphoses into an ear. The imori – possibly enraged with guilt – attacks the cat. The cat made me think of Kenji Miyazawa, but I do not know it this was Hirano’s intention.

Back in the Japanese hotel room, the ear sits on the table as the gold man cries. He comes up with the ingenious idea of descending the imori into the ear by tying a rope to his tail. At first, this seems to go well, until the imori gets stuck and the gold man rips off his tail in a futile effort to pull him out. The imagery from here on out gets more and more dreamlike with piano music played from the ear like a radio, the girl running in the dark and crying, the red car floating in the air and rain falling in slow motion, and lovely landscapes. It is a strange tale of love and loss blurred together like hazy memories of a lakeside holiday during Obon.

While working on this animation, Hirano saw a woman interviewed on TV who was upset by the suicide of the Korean actor and singer Park Yong-ha (1977-2010). Through her tears, the woman said that the rain that fell that day was the rain of Park Yong-ha. (source: public-image.org) This notion of a deceased person being turned into rain made a strong impression on Hirano and he incorporated it into this unusual animated tale of love and friendship between a man, a woman, and an imori.