Puppet Maker Sumiko Hosaka's Animation Top 20

Sumiko Hosaka  (保坂純子, b. 1930) has worked as a puppet artist since 1953.  Throughout her career she has made puppets for live theatre, TV, and commercials, but is perhaps best known for the puppets she made for the stop motion animation of Tadanari Okamoto.  She has also made puppets for the films of Fumiko Magari and the Noburo Ofuji Award winning team N&G Production.Tadanari Okamoto...

The Little Bear Oof (くまの子ウーフ, 1983)

The Little Bear Oof (くまの子ウーフ/Kuma no ko Ūfu, 1983) is a stop motion short animation directed and animated by Fumiko Magari(真賀里文子).  Magari got her start in stop motion working under the animation pioneer Tadahito Mochinaga at MOM Productions on the Rankin/Bass series and specials.  She also worked on a number of notable projects for Tadanari Okamoto including A Wonderful Medicine (1965),...

Atsushi Wada wins Silver Bear at the Berlinale

It was been a great week for Japanese independent animation with Atsushi Wada picking up the Silver Bear at the Berlinale for Best Short Film for his latest work The Great Rabbit (グレットラビット, 2012) which was produced by the French company Sacrebleu Productions.  The Jury commented:This dreamlike film uses a unique, surreal language to tickle our unconscious while showing us the confusion of the...

OKI'S MOVIE

Hong Sang-soo’s quartet of short linked films features three characters—a young man, a young woman, and an older man—who study or work in the film department of a university. Each short reveals a little of the relationship between these characters, from different viewpoints, and mostly in retrospect.Running through the quartet is the theme of filmmaking itself and the accompanying uncertainty of being...

The Black Cat (黒ニャゴ, 1929)

The Black Cat (黒ニャゴ/Kuro Nyago, 1929) is a record talkiefrom the silent film period.  A record talkie was a silent film played synchronously with a phonograph record.  Like today’s music videos, record talkies were designed as promotional devices for record companies and their songs.  People who enjoyed The Black Cat animation could have bought the record and played it on their own...

Norio Hikone’s Animation Top 20 (2003)

The characters created by illustrator and animator Norio Hikone (ひこねのりお, b. 1936) are instantly recognizable to young and old alike in Japan.  A graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts, Hikone got his start working as an animator/inbetweener for Toei Animation (Alakazam the Great, The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon) and Mushi Pro (Kimba the White Lion, Jungle Emperor Leo).  In...

The Japan Society presents Love Will Tear Us Apart

Bad romance, blind love, amour fou! This spring, the Japan Society of New York will screen a series of twisted, obsessive, heart-blazing love stories from Japan and Korea. Love Will Tear Us Apart, the 6th annual Globus Film Series, will run from March 2 to 18 and include 22 feature films and 2 shorts.  It is a mixture of cutting edge modern fare and avant-garde classics.  The programme includes...

The World of Kato Kunio

Hachioji Yume Art Museum Special Exhibition: The World of Kato Kunio 八王子市夢美術館特別展　加藤久仁生展Hachioji Yume Art Museum10 February – 25 March 2012On Friday, the Hachioji Yume Art Museum launched its special exhibition celebrating the career so far of Oscar-winning animator Kunio Katō (加藤久仁生, b. 1977).  Since winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for La maison en petits cubes(つみきのいえ/Tsumiki no...

Kawamoto – Norstein: The Puppet Master and the Painter-Animator

Kawamoto – Norstein: The Puppet Master and the Painter-AnimatorKawamoto - Norstein, le marionnettiste et le peintre-animateurForum des images, Paris23-25 March 2012Last month, I learned from ZewebAnimthat the Forum des images was putting together a tribute to the friendship between the late puppet animator Kihachirō Kawamoto(1925-2010) and his friend and colleague, the great Russian animator Yuri...