Twins in the Bakery (ツインズ イン ベーカリー, 2013)

Mari Miyazawa (宮澤真理) is unique among recent Geidai animation graduates because in addition to being an animator she is a food stylist.  Long-time readers will know that I love a film that features food in innovative ways – check out my post Nami Iijima: Food Stylist Extraordinaire for a taste – so I was immediately drawn to Miyazawa’s work at Koji Yamamura’s presentation of Tokyo University of the Arts at ITFS 2014.

A former graphic designer in the computer games industry, Miyazawa uses real food and stop motion to bring a bakery to life in her first year short for the Geidai programme.  The twins in Twins in the Bakery (ツインズ イン ベーカリー, 2013) are a pair of sausage tips cope to life, complete with jaunty little hats made of cheese.   They live in a house made of white slices of bread, waffles, and oreo cookies.  The shrubs in their garden are pieces of broccoli.  The bakery is their playground while the baker's away.  The twins bounce over bread rolls, jousting with plastic swords, one of them turns a potato chip into a cowboy hat and plays with a lasso while the other pretends to be a DJ with slices of ham standing in for records.  Soon the twins are “waking up” the bread rolls and other baked goods in the bakery, with everyday treats transforming into animal shapes with the help of deli meat, chocolate, and other common sandwich and dessert toppings.   

The twins’ adventures are done as a series of vignettes in which Miyazawa exploits the ability of animation to make the ordinary extraordinary.   On her food blog, Miyazawa specializes in making cute figures out of everyday foods for bento boxes.  With her animation, Miyazawa has brought her wonderful creations to life. My only criticism would be that the voice-over narration in the opening is completely unnecessary.  At Pritt Pärn’s presentation of the Estonian Academy of Arts animation programme at ITFS 2014, he said that he made it a rule that students could not dialogue or a narrator for their films.  I think this is a wise idea, because it really gets students to think about showing rather than telling when using visual media. 

Check out Mari Miyazawa’s bento tips on her official YouTube channel.

Follow her blog on food art at http://www.e-obento.com/

Follow her on twitter: @Mari_Miyazawa

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014

Harbor Tale (ハーバーテイル, 2011)

In an historical district, an English-speaker is likely to say “if these walls could talk.  .  .” in order to express one’s desire to have a glimpse into the people and events that once occurred in the same place that one is experiencing in the present day.  The animator Yūichi Itō must have had such a thought one day in Yokohama – the city where he lives and teaches at Tokyo University of the Arts – while looking at one of the city’s famous red brick historical buildings.  The most famous of these are the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse (横浜赤レンガ倉庫), The Jack (one of the Yokohama Three Towers / 横浜三塔), and  the Toda Peace Memorial.

In this mixed media stop motion / CG animation short Harbor Tale (ハーバーテイル, 2011), Itō anthropomorphises a red brick who has resided on the corner of a red brick building since the times when the clack of geta could be heard on the busy streets of Yokohama.  The building is only a couple of blocks from the harbour and when the building was new the red brick recalls seeing a white sailboat coming into port. 

The decades pass, streetcars come and go on the street in front of the building, and low-level neighbouring buildings are replaced by modern structures.  The red brick pries himself out from the corner of his building and decides to explore the harbourfront.  Passing ships – based on actual ships that frequent the port – transform into characters inspired by the contents or home ports of the ships. The red brick seems to envy these ships for their ability to travel and see the wonders of the world.  After accidentally rescuing a seagull from a predatory fish, the seagull rescues the red brick back and flies him to safety – offering him a bird’s-eye view of the city that inspires his desire for adventure further.  He also spots the sailboat he recalls from the past, docked in the harbour.  Those familiar with Yokohama will recognise the ship as the Nippon Maru (日本), a sailing ship which is permanently docked in Nippon Maru Memorial Park as a historical museum. 

One day, the red brick stumbles upon an ancient brick from a faraway land who tells him his story and warns him not to leave his home.  The grizzly old mustachioed brick seems to suggest that the joy of the adventures are a sorry replacement for home.  The old brick then crumbles into pieces.  Undeterred, the red brick puts the old brick in the corner of the building and sets off for the Nippon Maru.  This is the transition into an unexpected finale that shows off the marvellous possibilities of mixing clay animation with CG animation. 

Letterboxing the central story of this animated short is a fascinating animation of the geography of the port of Yokohama.  Flipping the map upside down (with north at the bottom), the outline of the city is made to resemble a face, with the port a mouth that swallows up ships like a whale consuming small fish.  Upon first viewing, I didn’t quite get the significance of these sequences, but after viewing again and some reflection, I realised that with this ode to Yokohama the animator is expressing the view that when one lives in a harbour town, the world comes to you in all its wonder and variety. 

Yūichi Itō (伊藤有壱, b. 1962) was born in Tokyo and in 1998 established his own animation studio I.TOON Ltd.   He uses a variety of animation techniques but favours clay animation.  He first came to my attention in 2005/6 when I saw his delightful animation series Knyacki!  (ニャッキ！, 1995) about a little caterpillar on the NHK.  In addition to his own animation projects, Itō teaches animation to graduate students at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai).  Harbor Tale won the Golden Slipper for best animated film at the 52nd Zlin Film Festival in the Czech Republic in 2012.  It also made the Jury Selection at the 16^th Japan Media Arts Festival.  

Official website: http://harbortale.com//

Follow Itō on twitter: @knyackiii

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014

Koji Yamamura Retrospective at Nippon Connection 2014

Nippon Connection 2014 will be holding a retrospective of the career of acclaimed independent animator Kōji Yamamura on May 30,2014.  Yamamura himself will be in attendance and I am honoured to announce that I will be hosting a Q+A with him after the screenings.

Yamamura has received numerous awards in his career including Grand Prix at several prestigious festivals (Annecy 2003, Zagreb 2004, Hiroshima 2004, et al.) and an Oscar nomination (2003).  His films bring together cultural influences from not only his native country but also from abroad, particularly Canada (Norman McLaren, Ishu Patel, et al.)  and Europe (Yuri Norstein, Priit Pärn, et al.).  His work also demonstrates the influence of literature, with some of his films being inspired by such varied works as Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor, Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Library of Babel” (Fictions), the Kojiki (the oldest extant text of Japanese mythology), and traditional rakugo storytelling (Atama Yama). 

The retrospective is a cross-section of his works since 1998. This includes some of his most critically acclaimed films like Mt. Head and Muybridge’s Strings, as well as some of his lesser known works such as Jubilee, the music video he made for a song by Kazuyoshi Nakamura, and Anthology with Cranes, his adaptation of an original painting by 17^th century artist Sōtatsu Tawaraya.  See the full listing of films below.

Yamamura is professor of animation at Tokyo University of the Arts (aka Geidai), and will also be presenting a selection of films by recent graduates of the programme at NipponConnection 2014.  He is currently vice-president of the Japanese Animation Association and a member of the board of the Japanese branch of ASIFA.  Yamamura recently opened an animation store and gallery called Au Praxinoscope in Jiyugaoka.  The gallery is currently holding an exhibition on Pritt Pärn which runs until May 31^st and will be followed by an Igor Kovalyov solo exhibition. 

Koji Yamamura Retrospective

Date:  Friday, May 30
Time:  17:30
Location:  Naxoshalle Kino
Tickets:  Nippon Connection

Filmmachergespräch mit Koji Yamamura 
Moderation: Cathy Munroe Hotes

Date:  Friday, May 30
Time:  22:15
Location:  Mousonturm Studio 3

Eintritt Frei (Free Entry)

The retrospective will include: 

The Hyuga episode of Kojiki  (古事記 日向篇/ Kojiki Hyūgahen, Japan, NHK, 2013)

Four short episodes from the Kojiki including Japan's creation myth and the emergence of the gods.  I plan to review this one at some time between now and NC2014.  

Mr. Rib Globe (地球肋骨男/Chikyu Rokkotsu Otoko, Japan, 1998)

The oldest Yamamura film in the retrospective, this short short was made for TV.  A surreal little piece about a terrestrial globe with a skeletal structure inside.

Jubilee ( Japan, 1999)

A music video to promote the song by Kazuyoshi Nakamura.

Pieces (おまけ/Omake, 2003)

A playful series of nine vignettes that incorporates visual gags, 19th century animation technology and surrealist humour.  Read my full review here.

Fig (無花果/Ichijiku, Tokyo Loop omnibus, 2006)

Yamamura's contribution to the omnibus animation Tokyo Loop, which combines a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) with an ode to the city of Tokyo.  In Fig, Tokyo Tower and a window transform themselves into characters and roam the nightscape of Tokyo.   Learn more about Tokyo Loop here.

Anthology with Cranes (鶴下絵和歌巻/Tsuru shitae waka kan, Japan, 2011)

five fire fish (Canada, NFB, 2013)

An improvisation on the NFB's iPad app McLaren's Workshop. See my article Direct Animation for the Tablet Generation to learn more.

Mt. Head (頭山/Atama Yama, Japan, 2002)

The first Yamamura animation I ever saw, Mt. Head is an adaptation of a rakugo story in collaboration with rakugo performer and musician Takeharu Kunimoto.  Read more.

The Old Crocodile (年をとった鰐/Toshi wo Totta Wani, Japan, 2005)

An adaptation of French author and illustrator Leopold Chauvaud's "Histoire du vieux crocodile."  Learn more here.

A Child’s Metaphysics (こどもの形而上学/Kodomo no Keijijōgaku, 2007)

A delightful rumination on what it means to be a child.  Read more here.

Muybridge’s Strings (マイブリッジの糸/Maiburijjino Ito, Canada/Japan, NFB, 2011)

A poetic investigation of the nature of time that takes us on a journey into cinematic history.  Learn more in my review.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014