Possibly due to the influence of Raindance 2009, or just the fact that there are more female directors in general than there used to be, Nippon Connection seems to have even more women directors showing films this year than last year. As usual I have been having trouble deciding which films to go to, so I may have to make animation and women directors my focus. . . even if it means missing out on Toad’s Oil (ガマの油, 2009). This would be a trial as I simply adore Kōji Yakusho, but at least his films are easy to acquire on DVD for future viewing.
A Piece of Our Life – Kakera (Momoko Andō, 2009)
Bare Essence of Life (Satoko Yokohama, 2009)
One Million Yen Girl (Yuki Tanada, 2008)
Moon and Cherry (Yuki Tanada, 2006)
Dear Doctor (Miwa Nishikawa, 2009)
Sona – The Other Myself (Yonghi Yang, 2009)
Lots and lots of women are represented in the three sets of animated shorts. Here are a few names I have plucked out:
Digista Animators:
Cellphone Caprice (Hasuna Karasuda, 2008)
Ascension (Kiyomi Tajima, 2008)
Qoma (Team Qoma, 2008)
suipasu zuirpursa (Kozue Kodama & Yoko Tanabe, 2008)
The Tide (Yurika Kaneko, 2008)
DOME Animation Special:
Pattern (Miyuki Okuyama, 2008)
The Promise of a Man at the Window and the Woman on a Prairie (Miku Kogawa, 2009)
John (Mitsuo Toyama, 2008)
Scenery of Loneliness (Kuniko Shimoto, 2008)
The Source of Myself (Nanae Hishimoto, 2008)
The Last Train (Mana Fuji, 2009)
chorus (Arisa Wakami, 2008)
I can't wait! . . . and I've already waivered... I MUST fit Toad's Oil in somehow!
