Film Talk with Yūichi Itō at Nippon Connection 2015

Film Talk with Yūichi Itō at Nippon Connection 2015

http://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/filmemachergespraech-ito-en.html

Thursday, June 4.

8:30pm at Mousonturm Studio 3, Frankfurt am Main

Yūichi Itō (Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts and director of Harbor Tale)

Moderation: Catherine Munroe Hotes

This year’s animation guest at Nippon Connection is Yūichi Itō (伊藤 有壱, 1962).  Itō is one of Japan’s top stop motion animators and he teaches animation at Tokyo University of the Arts’ prestigious graduate programme in animation.  This year marks the 20^th anniversary of his popular NHK claymation series Knyacki! (ニャッキ！) which follows the adventures of a cute little caterpillar. 

Itō founded his own studio I.TOON 1998.  In addition to animation for kids, I.TOON produces a wide range of animated commercials, character designs, and music videos including Ken Hirai’s 2005 hit Kimi wa Tomodachi (キミはともだち/You're My Friend).   

In recent years Itō has had much success with his latest character Mr. Brick, the central character of his film Harbor Tale (2011) and its sequel Blue Eyes -in HARBOR TALE- (2014).  Harbor Tale showcases the history of Yokohama and its iconic red brick historical buildings. 

Entry to the Film Talk is free and will feature 40 minutes of selected works followed by a Q+A.  The films screened will include:

2000

Knyacki! Episode16 "Macaroni!"

ニャッキ！第16話 「マカロニ！」            

2012

Doron Coron

ドロンコロン

2006

NORABBITS' MINUTES Episode 2 "PIANO"

ノラビッツ・ミニッツ 第2話「ピアノ」

2011

HARBOR TALE

ハーバーテイル

                               

2011

YOKOHAMA TALE

ヨコハマテイル                          

2014

Blue Eyes -in HARBOR TALE-

ブルーアイズ イン ハーバーテイル             

In addition to the Film Talk, Itō will do a cutout animation workshop for kids and a workshop for adults, as well as presenting this year’s selection ofGeidai animated shorts.  

Between Showers (2009)

The rainy season in central Japan is unlike anywhere else I’ve ever lived before.  Unlike the dreary endless rain of a winter in central Germany where I currently live, or the dramatic thunder and lightning storms of a summer in southwestern Ontario where I grew up, the Japanese rainy season or “tsuyu”, is quite refreshing.  It is a steady rain that can last all day long, but the weather is warm enough to make it bearable.  Armed with a large umbrella and water resistant shoes, one can go about one’s day-to-day life with ease. 

Between Showers from Hirotoshi Iwasaki on Vimeo.

Hirotoshi Iwasaki (岩崎宏俊, b. 1981), uses rain as the central motif in his 2009 animated short Between Showers.  It opens with the sound of a steady downpour.  A young woman in a sleeveless dress pauses, then opens her umbrella.  After the title, there is a lovely sequence of umbrellas opening like butterflies spreading their wings.  Using what appears to be charcoal on paper, Iwasaki draws a series of typical vignettes of the season: salarymen with their jackets off with one man holding the umbrella for two, crowds of men rushing through the streets, an umbrella-less woman pulling a suitcase wraps her scarf around her head to protect her hair from the onslaught, a man walks at a leisurely pace with his umbrella chatting on a keiai denwa (cellphone), a man struggles to get his umbrella to open properly, and a police officer dressed in a long raincoat keeps an eye on the traffic.   In an abstract sequence, people get swallowed up into a swirl of water. The film ends with a single umbrella.

Iwasaki moves in and out of vignettes with ease, managing to convey the essence of spring / early summer rains with his spare lines.  Between Showers won the Jury Prize at the ASK? Film Festival at Art Space Kimura in 2009 (Japan) and the Grand Prix at the Image Forum Festival 2010.  Watch it on Vimeo.

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2015

Mutoscope (ミュートスコープ, 2011)

Many animators take an interest in early cinema technologies and often experiment with them.  In fact, their first “animations” are often flip books drawn on the corners of school workbooks.  References to early technologies can be found in many animated films, from Taku Furukawa and Kōji Yamamura’s  experiments with the Phenakistoscope (see: Odorokiban and Omake) to Toshio Iwai’s 3D Zoetropes of Toy Story (made with Gregory Barsamian, who does a lot of art inspired by early animation/cinema) and Bouncing Totoro at the Ghibli Museum Mitaka. 

The animator / artist Hirotoshi Iwasaki (岩崎宏俊, b. 1981), who just this week won the Grand Prix for Non-Narrative Short at HAFF for his latest work Dark Mixer (2014), built a Mutoscope out of iron in 2011.  The Mutoscope is an early cinema device which was patented in 1894 by the American inventor Herman Casler (1867-1939).  Instead of projecting on a screen, the Mutoscope creates the perception of movement in the same way that a flip book does except, rather than being bound like a book, the large cards (7 x 4.75cm) are attached to a circular core.  These were coin operated machines that could be viewed by an individual through a single lens, as the poet Jared Carter describes in his 1993 poem “Penny Arcade”: “The light goes out, the ratchet handle stops, / along the tightrope stretched across the falls / the cards collapse.  Another penny crawls / into the slot.  The light blinks on.  She hops, / she keeps her balance with a parasol /and strikes an hourglass pose.” (read the whole poem)

Mutoscope from Hirotoshi Iwasaki on Vimeo.

Iwasaki’s Mutoscope is a pared down version of the original – just the mechanical structure of the device without it being encased in a coin-operated viewing device.  Instead of the approximately 850 cards used in the original machines, Iwasaki made just 16 images that repeat.  Interestingly, 16 frames per second is the minimum frame rate needed for the phenomenon of persistence of vision to work.  With projected film, anything slower would cause a flicker that soul be distracting to the spectator.  I don’t know if this is why Iwasaki chose 16 frames, but it seems likely. 

According to his official website, he made four sets of 16 images for the device: Phantom, Wave, Moon and Bottom.   The Mutoscope was exhibited as part of his exhibition Invisible Time at Gallery Terra Tokyo from 6 June – 23 July 2011.  The event description reads:

“Iwasaki constantly tries to turn invisible existence - time, space and memory - into perceivable objects. He uses moving images to make palpable what was formerly invisible, transcending language barriers and producing a poetic atmosphere. This exhibition showcases works that focus on the theme of “time” - in our memory, in a mirror, at the bottom of a well.”  (Source: TAB)  Footage of Phantom and Wave in action can be seen on Iwasaki’s Vimeo and Youtube channels.

2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes