The Sparrows’ Lodge (雀のお宿, 1936)

The surviving copy of the 1936 animated short The Sparrows’ Lodge (雀のお宿/Suzume no O-yado) that appears in Digital Meme’s box set the Japanese Anime Classic Collection is on the whole in remarkably good shape apart from missing its original opening credits.  Credits have been digitally added, crediting the film as being directed by Kenzō Masaoka (政岡 憲三, 1898-1988) with drawings by Masao Kumagawa (熊川正雄, 1916-2008) – both men are considered important pioneers of anime and worked together on a number of projects together including Masaoka’s classics Benkei vs. Ushiwaka (1939) and The Spider and the Tulip (1943).

The Story

 The film starts rather abruptly with the rather startling text telling us that the little girl Chunko has had her tongue cut out by her greedy grandmother and has been sent to the Sparrows’ Lodge.  Chunko’s kindly grandfather is concerned about her well-being and travels to the Sparrow’s Lodge to see how she is doing.  A Japanese audience would automatically recognize the tale as an adaptation of the well-known fable The Tongue-Cut Sparrow (舌切り/ Shita-kiri Suzume) which has been translated many times into English.

In Masaoka’s version, the sparrow has been transformed into a little girl who has been sent to some kind of a school or orphanage where the girls and their teacher dress in kimono with a sparrow hood.  Her tongue has not been fully cut out because she can speak.  She and the lodge offer the grandfather hospitality which he receives politely and he watches and enjoys the girls’ dance performance.  When it is time for him to leave, they offer him two trunks as a departing gift.  The grandfather is reluctant to take either one of the trunks, but fearful of being rude he agrees to take the lighter of the two trunks home with him.

When he arrives at home, the man is chastised by his wife for not taking the heavier trunk.  Her irritation grows upon opening the trunk and discovering that it is full of treasure.  She decides to go to the Sparrow’s Lodge herself in order to get the heavier trunk.  Upon arriving at the lodge, the grandmother receives the same hospitality as her husband but her reaction is different.  She rudely scarfs down all the food and drink offered to her, and ignores the dancing.  When it is time to go, she avariciously wants to take both trunks but as she cannot carry them both, takes only the heavy one.  She is so overwhelmed with greedy curiosity that she stops partway home to open the trunk and is given a nasty surprise. 

The Art

As with all of Masaoka and Kumagawa’s early work, The Sparrows’ Lodge has been impeccably drawn.  Apart from the nasty grandmother the characters all have round and friendly faces.  Unlike the full face of the kindly grandfather, the grandmother’s face is lean and scrunched as is fitting her character.  The depiction of interior spaces and landscapes follow a typical Japanese aesthetic.   From an animation perspective, I find the transitions particularly interesting.  In order to collapse time on the walks to and from the Sparrows’ Lodge, Masaoka uses a series of irises.  Dissolves are much more commonly used for this effect, but I suspect the production team went with iris wipes because it creates a similar effect using more paper than expensive celluloid.  The iris wipes drew my attention to the changing scenery – not only is it aesthetically pleasing but it emphasizes the effort involved in walking all the way to the Sparrows’ Lodge.

Another lovely touch is the little sparrow face in the border of the inter-titles.  One of my favourite things about silent movies is the variety of cleverly designed title cards.  The Digital Meme version of this film features the excellent benshi narrator Midori Sawato (澤登翠), whose performance, as  always, enhances this silent movie. There is also musical orchestration.  The film was produced by Oku Shōkai (奥商会) and distributed by Towa Shōji (東和商事映画部).  It’s a delightful little tale with a satisfying conclusion (a positive twist on the gory usual ending) – an excellent example of early anime.

For more films by Masaoka, check out the Anido DVD of his selected works.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Read more reviews of Masaoka’s works:

Benkei vs. Ushiwaka (1939) 

The Spider and the Tulip (1943)

Sakura (1946)

Tora-chan, the Abandoned Kitten (1947)

The Kindly Lion (やさしいライオン, 1969)

Early Sunday morning, the legendary artist Takashi Yanase (やなせたかし, 1919-2013) passed away at the age of 94.  A man of diverse talents from poetry to illustration, Yanase is best known as the creator of the wildly popular animation and character franchise Anpanman.  As a tribute to Yanase I wanted to write about a lovely film he made in 1969 that has been little seen in the west: The Kindly Lion (やさしいライオン / Yasashii Raion).  

See also:  Yanase's Top 15 Animated Films from the Laputa 2003 poll.

Background

The Kindly Lion is a “musical animation” adapted from a children’s picture book written and illustrated by Yanase.  According to the official Tezuka website, Osamu Tezuka initially planned to create an entire animated series from The Kindly Lion story for Mushi Pro, but in the end only one 27-minute film was ever completed.  The website gives the theatrical release date for the film as March 21, 1970; however, the film won the 8^th Noburo Ofuji Award for 1969 at the 24^th Mainich Film Concours, which suggests to me that the film may have screened at festivals in 1969 before getting a theatrical release in 1970.  The Concours is usually held in February (ie.1970) honouring films that were released the previous year (ie.1969).

The Story

Yanase tells a moving story of an orphaned baby lion called Buru-buru (ブルブル) – derived from the sound word for shaking or trembling.  He gets his name from the fact that he is racked with tears at the beginning of the story because he misses his parents and feels so terribly alone.  A friendly rabbit brings Buru-buru together with a friendly dog called Muku-muku (ムクムク) who is grieving the loss of her puppy.  Although it seems an unlikely pairing, the two quickly bond with Muku-muku even nursing the needy lion cub.  Buru-buru is so convinced when he grows up that Muku-muku is his mother that he is shocked one day when he sees his reflection in a puddle and realizes that he is not a dog.

Even when Buru-buru grows into a large lion whose size dwarfs Muku-muku, the two maintain a close mother-child bond until one day when Buru-buru is taken from the zoo where they live to perform in a circus.  Although he is not treated cruelly by the circus, he misses Muku-muku dreadfully.  One night, he is overcome with a desire to see her again and bursts free from his cage.  He reunites with his dog mother, only to be shot by soldiers because of fears for public safety.  The film does not end with tragedy however, for the spirit of Buru-buru continues running up into the heavens like a shooting star.

The Art

Buru-buru’s tale is carefully crafted with a motif of him running repeating throughout the film.  The story is told not only visually, but also with a voice-over dialogue between a mother and a child in the style of a bedtime story.  There is also a chorus throughout the film that acts as both a narrator and a way of increasing the drama.  The lyrics are all written by Yanase himself with the music composed by Toshi Ishobe and arranged and performed by Naohiko Terajima and his orchestra Rhythm Chansonette + Strings.   The chorus is performed by the Bonny Jacks (ボニージャックス), a quartet who formed in 1958 and are still performing today.  The actress and singer Chiharu Kuri performs the female solos including the “Lullaby of Buru-buru”. 

In my introduction I called the film a “musical animation” because the music is an inextricable element of the film, working in harmony from beginning to end with the animation.  Unlike the TV series Anpanman, which aims to entertain and has a definite production line quality about it, The Kindly Lion feels more like a labour of love.  Not only does the film demonstrate how one can love an adopted child/parent just as much as a biological one, but it also shows a love of craft by the animation artists involved in the project.  There are some truly beautiful sequences in The Kindly Lion.  Some of my favourites are the warmly coloured nursing sequence, the dynamic running through the sky over the rooftops sequence, the more roughly drawn circus sequences, and the elegiac winter scenes towards the end.  Even the end credits – a series of still pastel crayon images – are absolutely charming in their execution. 

Like many early classics of Japanese anime, I am really scratching my head about the fact that this film has never to my knowledge been officially released on DVD or for download for Western audiences.  Even in Japan the only DVDs I know of that include the film are long out of print.  With not only Yanase but Tezuka being affiliated with it, there would certainly be an audience for it online if the current copyright holders Tezuka Productions were to release it with subtitles.    

The Production Team

Executive Producer: Osamu Tezuka

Original story, direction, and art: Takashi Yanase

Production Chief: Atsushi Tomioka

Assistant: Jun Shimozaki

Planning Cooperation: Seihoku Production

Original picture and motion: Kanji Akabori, Kazuko Nakamura, Teruto Ueguchi, Akihiro Kanayama, Maya Matsuyama, Yoshiko Watanabe, Takeo Uchiumi, Hiroaki Yamamori

Background: Nobuko Ato, Kuniko Nishimura, Megumi Tanabe

Tracing: Masako Shimano

Coloring: Mariko Abe

Brushing: Tomoii Hashizume

Shooting: Akihiko Mori

Editing: Noriyoshi Matsuura

Film Developing: Toyo Developing Studio

Music: Toshi Ishobe

Lyrics: Takashi Yanase

Arranged by: Naohiko Terajima

Performed by: Naohiko Terajima and Rhythm Chansonette + Strings

Vocals: Bonny Jacks, Chiharu Kuri

Sound: Atsumi Tashiro (TAC)

Effects: Ishida Sound Group

Recording: Tokyo Studio Center

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

This review belongs to my series on the Noburo Ofuji Award:

Tough Guy! (2005)

In 2005, the animator Shintarō Kishimoto (岸本真太郎, b. 1966) wowed the Japanese animation community with his innovative comic short Tough Guy! (2005). The 7-minute 3DCG animation stars a praying mantis who seems to think that he is the insect version of Jackie Chan – pratfalls and all. 

The short consists of three vignettes.  In the first vignette, the praying mantis practises his butt-kicking martial art skills on a tin can with great finesse. In the next vignette, “Green Bullet” the mantis has a tussle with a butterfly and chases it down the street curb, up a lamp post and into the sky like a rocket.  On his descent he crashes into a man’s digital camera in a humorous sequence…. The butterfly, of course, flutters on its way unharmed by the ludicrous antics of the mantis.  The third vignette, “The Predator” has some impressive – and amusing – rooftop sequences which see the praying mantis’s antics causing people in the house to lose their TV reception.  He also has a tussle with a beetle that ends in another comic pratfall.

The most impressive sequences in the film are those in which the praying mantis interacts with real world objects (the digital camera) and people.  Kishimoto achieves a unique look for his film because of his blending of 3DCG with still images and live action footage.  It’s a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously as it tries to imagine a cityscape through the eyes of an insect.

Tom Sito, who was on the judging panel that awarded Kishimoto the Grand Prize at the Japan Digital Animation Festival (JDAF 2005), said that his fellow judge Mamoru Oshii “was impressed with how [Kishimoto] mixed digital animation with live action and photo stills to let us experience the world from the Mantis’ point of view.” Sito himself praised the film for its comic timing (Source: AWN).  The film also won the Noburo Ofuji Award.

According to his website, Kishimoto – who is a native of Yokohama – has worked for a range of clients from Kodansha publishers to Production I.G.  In addition to 3DCG, Kishimoto works as an illustrator (pen + ink, 3DCG, 2DCG), character designer, and manga artist.   You can follow him on Facebook. 

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

A low res version of the film is available on niconico.  You can also support this independent animator by ordering the film on DVD:

tough guys!

Animation

This film is part of my Noburo Ofuji Award series: