Bettina Lockemann

If you are in Berlin in the coming weeks, I recommend that you check out Bettina Lockeman's exhibition of photographs that she took in Japan between April and July 2006. The exhibition is called Contact Zone and you can find a preview of the exhibition here and here. The photographs for the exhibition were all shot on black and white film, which she tells me is becoming a scarcer and scarcer commodity...

Miyoshi Umeki (ミヨシ・ウメキ)

Watching the Oscar highlights this morning, I was saddened to discover that Miyoshi Umeki (梅木御代志 or ミヨシ・ウメキ) passed away last summer at the age of 78. Although her career in Hollywood was brief, the highlight came early on when she and Red Buttons (1919-2006) both won Oscars for their supporting roles in the Marlon Brando vehicle Sayonara (Joshua Logan, 1957). Umeki was the first Asian actor to...

Ducktators

I recently watched a Dutch documentary called Duckators (Guus von Wavern & Wolter Braamhorst, 1998) about animated propaganda done in Hollywood during the Second World War. I recall vividly some of the anti-German propaganda by Disney of swastikas crawling like spiders across Europe that I saw when I was a film student. I can’t recall the name of the film let alone the rest of the film, but that...

Tomoyasu Murata Event

If you are in Tokyo this spring, you should check out the Tomoyasu Murata exhibition called "Yume ga shagan de iru" (夢がしゃがんでいる, Squatting Dreams?) at Hiratsuka Museum of Art in Kanagawa from April 12th to May 25th. He's been very busy this past year and has several new short films to show for it, including the latest film in the Road Series called Lemon Road (檸檬の路), tomorrow, Samurai Squid, and a...

Rinpa Eshidan

Collaborative art has a long history in Japan. Woodblock artists like Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro have garnered international acclaim as individual artists, but their art actually involved a team that included an artisan block carver, a printer and a publisher. Similarly, film directors like Hayao Miyazaki tend to get all the credit in the press, but I’m sure Miyazaki would be the first to tell you that his films would not be as successful as...

Hokusai: An Animated Sketchbook (1978)

The influence of ukiyo-e master Hokusai (1766-1849) is pervasive in Japanese culture. Not only are his iconic images found on everything from stationary to beer mats, but I have noticed nods to Hokusai in a wide range of contemporary Japanese art. The most amusing of these is in Tabaimo's short film Public Convenience when she alludes to Hokusai's The Great Wave Off Kanagawa inher animation of waves...

Kon Ichikawa

I was saddened by the news that Kon Ichikawa died yesterday (Japan Times obituary). He was one of the most talented directors of his generation. I had been thinking about his work a lot recently, as I had noticed that Criterion has released DVDs of The Burmese Harp and Fires on the Plain and added them to my wish list.I treasure my Criterion DVD of Tokyo Olympiad (1965), not only because my Aunt...

Koichiro Tsujikawa

Koichiro Tsujikawa (辻川来幸一郎) started out in graphic design and moved into directing short films in 1999. Like most animation artists, Tsujikawa funds his work mainly by producing commercial work and music videos. He was featured in Boards as one of 20 directors to watch in October of last year for his extensive creative output for everything from commercials for big brand names to mesmerizing videos...