L'Animation Indépendante Japonaise, Volume 1 (DVD/Blu-Ray release, FR/EN/JP, 2013)

L'Animation Indépendante Japonaise, Volume1 (DVD/Blu-Ray release, FR/EN/JP, 2013)

The French indie label Les Films du Paradoxe, who have a terrific catalogue of animation DVDs from Te Wei to Paul Driessen, have collaborated with CaRTe bLaNChe to release a combination DVD/Blu-Ray of Japanese independent animated shorts made between 2006 and 2012.  The selection features a wide range of experimental techniques from drawn animation to pixilation. 

The selection opens with two films by Shin Hashimoto (橋本新, b. 1978) of CALF, an up-and-coming Tama Art University graduate who has become known for the dark, atmospheric nature of his works.  Beluga (ベルーガ, 2011) is a nightmarish take on the story of the little match girl which, won a special mention at Zagreb 2012.  This is followed by his earlier film The Undertaker and the Dog (葬儀屋と犬/Sougiya to Inu, 2010), a deeply disturbing yet beautifully painted film that was widely praised by critics when it screened at international festivals.

The unique aesthetic of experimental filmmaker Isamu Hirabayashi (平林勇, b.1972) became known to a wider audience in 2011/12 when his animated short 663114 (2011) received high honours from being invited to the Biennale in Venice to winning the Noburo Ofuji Award.  As I wrote in my review of the film last year, it is one of the most profound responses to Tohoku disaster, and it is worth buying this selection just to see it on Blu-ray.

Hiroki Okamura (岡村寛生, b. 1968) and Takumi Kawai (川合匠, b. 1968), better known as Kawai + Okamura (カワイオカムラ, since 1993), are a creative duo who both teach at the Kyoto University of Art and Design.  As students at Kyoto City University, Okamura majored in oil painting and Kawai in sculptor, but today they are best known for their innovative films and installations that combine a number of different techniques from CGI to stop motion.  Columbos (コロンボス, 2012) is a reimagining of the legendary television detective Columbo with puppets.  It is a unique puppet animation unlike anything I have ever seen before with unbelievable use of lighting, special effects, and choreography of figures. 

Acclaimed CALF animator, Mirai Mizue (水江未来, b. 1981), has contributed two of his recent films Tatamp (2011) and Modern No. 2 (2011).  Tatamp is an example of Mizue’s distinctive “cell animation” style that feature a chorus of little amoeba-like, colourful cells whose movements and shapes are inextricable from the soundtrack (read my full review).   Modern No. 2 is an example of Mizue’s experiments with geometric animation.  Learn more about this style of animation in my post The Modern Films of Mirai Mizue.

Yoriko Mizushiri (水尻自子, 1984) is a graduate of the Joshibi University of Art and Design in Kanagawa.  Her trademark animation style is to focus on individual parts of the body from an original perspective.  Her 2012 animated short Futon (布団) won a number of prizes in Japan including the prestigious Renzo Kinoshita Prize at Hiroshima and the New Face Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. It has also been a big hit at international festivals, making the short list for Cartoon Brew’s most well liked animated short of 2013.  The second film of hers featured on this DVD, Kappo (かっぽ, 2006), demonstrates that Mizushiri established her unique style early on in her career.

Another CALF animator, Kei Oyama (大山慶, 1978), also features on this DVD.  His fleshy, disturbing, yet strangely poignant film Hand Soap (ハンドルソープ, 2008) won prizes at Oberhausen, Holland, and Hiroshima. Read my review here.    The animation community is anxiously awaiting the release of his latest work After School, which crowdsourced funding on Camp-fire in 2012.  He’s taking a risk by trying out a totally new style – can’t wait to see the results. 

Dreams (2011) is the last collaborative film by long-time friends and colleagues Keiichi Tanaami (田名網敬一, b.1933) and Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, 1944-2011).  Up until Aihara’s sudden death in 2011, the two well-established artists made 15 films together in just over a decade – many of which can be found on the 2011 Chalet Pointu/CaRTe bLaNChe/ARTE DVD  Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami.  The films came out of the fact that both artists were teaching at Kyoto University of Art and Design.  The collaborative process consisted of one of the artists drawing a picture for a scene and leaving it on the other’s desk.  The other artist would add to it or remove some parts and put it on the first artist’s desk, and so on back and forth until the film developed.  This kind of artistic “correspondence” was unique in the art world and it is a mesmeric experience to watch their complementary styles on screen together. Dreams is followed by the prolific Tanaami’s latest offering: Red-Colored Bridge (2012).  In his characteristic brightly coloured style, Tanaami uses the symbolic red bridge to heaven found in traditional Japanese gardens to take us on a psychedelic, erotic, and spiritual journey into his imagination.

There are few animators today who truly embody the creative spirit of my favourite animator, Norman McLaren, and TOCHKA (トーチカ, since 1998) is one of them.  TOCHKA is the husband-wife animation team Takeshi Nagata (ナガタタケシ, b.1978) and Kazue Monno (モンノカヅエ, b.1978) who are known for their innovative PiKA PiKA light animation films (read more about them and learn how you can order a DVD of their works).  This DVD features their original 2006 film PiKA PiKA and their latest film MAZE (2012).  In MAZE, Nagata and Monno have come up with yet another innovative new way to showcase their PiKA PiKA animation: on a grid pattern of 12x4 squares.  A team of assistants with different coloured lights act like pixilated Bunraku performers colouring in and around the blocks with light.  This film required meticulous planning and choreography. My favourite moment is the Pac-Man inspired sequence where a yellow arrow and a couple of stars negotiate a maze.   

The DVD/Blu-ray concludes with two recent films by acclaimed CALF animator Atsushi Wada (和田淳, 1980).  The Great Rabbit (グレートラビット, 2012) is Wada’s most successful film to date winning him the Silver Bear at the 62^nd Berlinale among other honours – read my review here.  And finally, as I wrote in 2010, I consider The Mechanism of Spring (春のしくみ, 2010) to be “Wada’s most light-hearted film to date, capturing the delight that young children and animals take in the season. The young chubby boys examine the wildlife, take off their shirts and run about gaily, and observe a plant sprouting out of the earth, among other delights.”  I like that they chose to end the DVD with this uplifting film. 

On the whole, this is a terrific selection of recent independent animation from Japan --- the best collection since Image Forum’s Thinking and Drawing: Japanese Art Animation in the New Millennium (2005) and Tokyo Loop (2006). The greatest thing about this DVD/Blu-ray is that it is called Volume 1, suggesting that we can expect more DVDs in the future.  It has French and English subtitles and can be ordered via Amazon France.  For those of you in Tokyo, Koji Yamamura’s new animation museum/shop Au Praxinoscope in Setagaya has the film on their list. 

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Recruit Rhapsody (就活狂想曲, 2012)

The final year of university in Japan is quite fraught because of a tradition known as Shūkatsu Kyōsōkyoku: an intense recruiting process by corporations keen to scoop up the top graduates.  The pressure to find a job upon graduation is much greater in Japan than anywhere else I have lived because there is a general consensus that if you don’t get hired straight out of college, you will have spoiled your chances for climbing the corporate ladder and may find yourself becoming a freeter (underemployed/freelancer).

Another major difference that I noticed between Canada and Japan in particular was that whereas Canadian companies highly value creativity, individuality, and a “go-getter” attitude in new recruits, in Japan the emphasis is much more on academic performance and the recruit’s ability to fit in with the corporate identity.  It’s more than just the “team player” mentality promoted by many Canadian corporations because you are having to demonstrate that you are prepared to obsequiously toe the line of corporate hierarchy.  Up-and-coming young animator Maho Yoshida (吉田まほ, b.1986) depicts this recruitment process beautifully in her graduate film for Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai)’s animation programme: Recruit Rhapsody (就活狂想曲/Shūkatsu Kyōsōkyoku, 2012).

A young modern woman – who we find out in the end credits is the animator herself – is fiddling on her smartphone during a lecture.  She is so preoccupied with her smartphone that she doesn’t notice her friends checking their watches.  As they leave the building together, her friends check their watches again and turn their backs on the bubbly young woman.  Before her incredulous eyes, the woman’s friends transform from unique individuals into wannabe office workers in suits.  There is a wonderful moment in which they strike poses against a yellow background as if they are about to break into a dance number from West Side Story.

The young woman reluctantly sheds her long blonde hair, make-up, and colourful clothes for a dowdy corporate look and rushes off to join the crowds of recruits trying to get onto the corporate ladder.  They slither into a job fair like a festival dragon and applaud the corporate recruiters and bow their heads in a manner reminiscent of a totalitarian regime cowing the masses.  It is a terrific animated short, which any job hunter can identify with: from the companies overselling their images to the phoneys vying for the same job as you to the interminably long hours waiting by your smartphone for that job offer that never comes.  We all recognize that feeling of selling your soul to the devil just to get your foot in the door.

What transforms this film from great to pure genius is the use of music.  Composed by Yukiko Yoden from Geidai’s music programme, the music is reminded me of George Geshwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1924) in its spirit and liveliness.  .   .  and of course, in its use of piano with an ensemble.  Kudos to Shizuka Shimoyama on piano, Makiko Umchara on violin and Saeko Tominaga on violoncello for their engaging performances. Maho Yoshida has clearly composed her images with the intended music in mind for the movement and music work very much in harmony with each other.  It never ceases to amaze me how the graduates of the Geidai programme have attained such a high level of skill at such a young age:  Yoshida’s scene transitions and changes in perspective are innovative and beautifully done.

The film was produced by Kōji Yamamura and it made the Jury Selection in the Animation Division of the 2012 Japan Media Arts Festival and has appeared at other festivals.  I saw the film as part of the Geidai screening at Nippon Connection 2013. You can see a lower resolution release of the film (no subs - but they are not really needed) on Youtube --- be sure to wait until after the end credits to catch the true end of the film.  It became a viral hit when it came online and I suspect that every spring when the recruitment season heats up loads of young recruits will be sharing this video again.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Floating Sun (幻日, 2013)

Floating Sun (幻日, 2013) is a bit of a departure for Tokyo-based Malaysian director Edmund Yeo into the horror genre.  This short film is his contribution to Hungry Ghost Festival: 3 Doors of Horrors (鬼節:三重門, 2013), a 45-minute horror omnibus film produced by prolific Malaysian filmmaker James Lee for his indie production company Doghouse 73 Pictures.  The film premiered on Youtube on the 17^th of August.  The omnibus, which was designed to showcase young Malaysian directors, also includes Leroy Low’s I Miss You Two and Ng Ken Kin’s Horror Mission.  This review is of the 20 minute director’s cut of Floating Sun considered independently of the omnibus as a standalone short film.

The plot of Floating Sun comes from a short story by author and poet Kanai Mieko (金井美恵子, b. 1947).  According to Yeo’s blog Swifty, Writing, he happened upon Mieko’s collection of short stories The Word Book at the Aoyama Book Center in Roppongi.  Her story “The Moon” was the inspiration behind his beautiful short Last Fragments of Winter (2011), while Floating Sun is based on the story “The Boundary Line”, about the corpse of a woman who drowned.  

As with many Edmund Yeo films, Floating Sun blurs the lines between past and present, real and imagined.  A young novelist, Fiona Yang (Emily Lim), is writing a story based upon the unusual circumstances surrounding the death of her teenaged classmate Chen Xiao Hui (Candy Lee) many years ago. Chen Xiao Hui was found floating on her back in the river by a security officer (Azman Hassan), and the events continue to affect all those involved.  Since beginning to write the story, Fiona has been haunted by images of Chen Xiao Hui’s corpse floating in the river.  A series of strange events also begin to disturb her and her young daughter Teng (Regina Wong) in the apartment that they share.  The disquieting events seem to be connected not only to the haunting presence of the spirit of Chen Xiao Hui but also to possible guilt surrounding Fiona’s affair with married man Wai Loon (Steve Yap) – but this interpretation is my own as the circumstances are deliberately left vague.

 

It turns out that Fiona was the last person to see Chen Xiao Hui alive, a fact that she downplays as being unimportant because they were merely classmates not close friends.  A flashback reveals that Fiona recalls sitting with Chen Xiao Hui at the river and saying: “Do you know, if you look at the sun from underneath the water, it is as if the sun is floating.  It’s a lovely sight, but sad at the same time.”  These comments suggest that Chen Xiao Hui’s death may have been an accident. 

The location for the river scenes really makes the film.  Chen Xiao Hui lies in the water as if being embraced by the root of a giant tree.  This tree was truly a great find for the film for its numerous roots are not only poetically beautiful, but add symbolic weight to the film: the roots behind the events in this vignette are many, but Edmund Yeo leaves us only a few tantalizing clues and leaves it to our imaginations to fill in the blanks.   It’s an atmospheric and suspenseful tale that leaves us wanting to know more about these characters.    

You can watch Floating Sun as part of the Hungry Ghost Festival: 3 Doors of Horrors (鬼節:三重門, 2013) on Youtube.

Written, directed, and edited by:

Edmund Yeo

Executive producer: 

James Lee

Director of photography:

Lesly Leon Lee

Music:

Wong Woan Foon

Cast: 

Emily Lim as Fiona Yang

Candy Lee as Chen Xiao Hui

Daphne Lee as Fiona (teenager)

Steve Yap as Wai Loon

Candy Ice as Wai Loon’s wife

Azman Hassan as the security guard

Regina Wong as Teng

 Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013