onedotzero: j-star 11

onedotzero is a London-based moving image and digital arts organisation which commissions, showcases and promotes innovation across all aspects of moving image, digital and interactive arts.  Founded in 1996, onedotzero has gained a reputation for representing a diverse array of artistic endeavour via the annual onedotzero: adventures in motionfestival and its associated touring. Suppported by the BFI and the Arts Council England, it has a cross media and collaborative approach attuned to technological advances and fast paced change within digital arts and the contemporary culture landscape.

The Japanese portion of the festival selection j-star 11 screened at Nippon Connection 2012.  It’s an eclectic mixture of music videos, innovative commercials, and short films.  Thank You World from the Sapporo Short Fest 2011 and Blind by Yukihiro Shoda were made as a direct response to the 3/11 disaster.  I had not heard of Construction by Mirai Mizue, but it turned out to be a low res excerpt of Tatamp(2011) featuring twoth.  Some of the highlights for me were Toshiaki Hanzaki’s animated music video for Mr. Children – a popular band who have a long history of supporting alternative animation – tangefilms’ phenakistoscope inspired animated music video for Hitomi Azuma, the surreal geometric play of Shinya Sato’s video for Chateau Marmont, and Yasuda Takahiro’s two tone approach to the primal scream of Kaisoku Tokyo’s Copy.  For those of you who missed this event, a number of the films are featured on Vimeo.

cmmhotes 2012

Thank You World by Seiichi HISHIKAWA, J 2011, HDcam, 2’59 Min.

Christmas / Amazarashi by YKBX, J 2011, HDcam, 6’24 Min.

Blind by Yukihiro SHODA, J 2011, HDcam, 5’17 Min.

Construction by Mirai MIZUE, J 2011, HDcam, 3’15 Min.

Tsuchinoko / Gaka by Yuto NAKAMURA, Ayahiko SATO [rakudasan], J 2011, HDcam, 5’37 Min.

Nnet Station Op by Fantasista UTAMARO, J 2011, HDcam, 0’24 Min.

The Smell Of The Flowers / Mr. Children by Toshiaki HANZAKI, J 2009, HDcam, 5’23 Min.

Senkyou / Mergrim by Makoto YABUKI, J 2011, HDcam, 3’09 Min.

Xylophone by Seiichi HISHIKAWA, J 2011, HDcam, 3’05 Min.

Polygon Graffiti: An Uguisu Morph by QNQ/AUJIK, J 2011, HDcam, 4’32 Min.

Kira Kira / Azuma Hitomi by TANGEFILMS, J 2011, HDcam, 3’09 Min.

Assimilation by Takuya HOSOGANE, J 2011, HDcam, 1’29 Min.

Anomie / Amazarashi by YKBX, J 2011, HDcam, 4’37 Min.

Electropia / Joyz / Uk + by Noriko OKAKU, J 2011, HDcam, 4’39 Min.

One Hundred Realities / Chateau Marmont by Shinya SATO, J 2010, HDcam, 3’25 Min.

Kyu by Yyu FUJII, J 2011, HDcam, 1’29 Min.

Copy / Kaisoku Tokyo by Yasuda TAKAHIRO, J 2011, HDcam, 1’33 Min.

Damn What Ringtone / Hifana by Takashi OHASHI, J 2011, HDcam, 0’53 Min.

The TV Show / Takayuiki Manabe by Kousuke SUGIMOTO, J 2009, HDcam, 3’28 Min.

Henshin Gattai! by Shota SAKAMOTO, J 2011, HDcam, 1’33 Min.

TAKU BODA (タクボーダ/Nice to See You Re-Mix, 2009)

 One of Taku Furukawa’s most admirable qualities is his enthusiasm for playing with technologies both old and new.  His Annecy Special Jury Award-winning film Phenakistiscope (1975) brought the 19^th century optical amusement into the 20^thcentury and he was one of the first alternative animators to experiment with computer animation with his films Mac the Movie (1985) and Play Jazz (1987).

TAKU BODA (タクボーダ/Nice to See You Re-Mix, 2009) combines the animation genius of Taku Furukawa with the technical wizardry of video game producer and CG animator Noriyuki Boda.  It is a remake of Nice To See You (1975), a wonderful little abstract film that Furukawa made on 16mm.   TAKU BODA starts and ends with the original film which was almost monochrome – just black and green – and had no soundtrack.  The re-mix flips the original film on its head by injecting colour, lively music, and three dimensional CG movement.  The shapes and movement of the original film are placed onto the sides of cubes which roll across a grey on white grid.  The animation is as visually engaging as the accompanying music, with lots of variety of patterns and shape size. 

Nice To See You conveyed a message about how we interpret images; that sometimes we need to change our perspective to see the bigger picture.  A similar message is conveyed by TAKU BODA, but with the added caveat that great art is created not just through exploring the world from different perspectives, but also from being open to new methods and tools.  There are few films that blend old and new animation practices with such harmony as TAKU BODA.

TAKU BODA appears on Takun Films 2, a new release by Anido Films.  The original version of Nice to See You appears on Takun Films 1.  Do encourage Anido to release more gems of Japanese indie animation by shopping in their online shop.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Rinco’s Restaurant (食堂かたつむり, 2010)

Freshness and simplicity are two of the defining features of traditional Japanese cooking. While in recent decades fast food may have made substantial gains in terms of popularity, there has long been a strong counter-resistance to these pressures of modernity. Rinco’s Restaurant (Shokudo Katatsumuri, 2010) is a film designed to appeal to an audience who appreciates organic slow food. In fact, a literal translation of the film title is actually “Snail Restaurant” – a name that Rinco chooses because of the slow and loving way in which she prepares her food.

Rinco (Kou Shibasaki) was born the only child of a woman named Ruriko (Kimiko Yo). Her mother has a reputation for having many boyfriends and cannot tell Rinco who her father is. At the outset of the film, we learn via Rinco’s first person narration that her grandmother has recently died leaving her only a donut and a pot of miso. Rinco loves her grandmother’s miso, and she dreams of using it one day to start her own restaurant.

She scrimps, saves, and works hard to earn the money to fulfil this dream. Along the way she falls in love with an Indian man, whose native cuisine inspires her further with dreams of the wonderful spicy dishes she could serve in her restaurant. It all comes crashing down when the man leaves her, stealing most of her possessions. The heartbreak causes Rinco to lose her voice, and she returns to her mother’s home with only her pot of grandma’s miso.

Shokudo Katatsumuri Standard Edition

Still determined to accomplish her dream, Rinco enlists the help of family friend Kuma-san (Brother Tom) who lends her money and his construction skills. Together, they transform Ruriko’s back shed into a delightful little restaurant. It soon becomes clear that Rinco is not only a talented chef, but that her lovingly made food has the power to transform people’s lives.

Mai Tominaga's film has many parallels with Mipo O’s recent film Here Comes the Bride, My Mom (2010) in that the heart of the film are not the romantic woes of the heroines but the troublesome mother-daughter relationship. The film belongs to a recent trend in food films in Japan – such as Seagull Diner (Naoko Ogigami, 2006), Nonchan Noriben (Akira Ogata, 2009), and The Chef of the South Pole (Shūichi Okita, 2009).

There is also an element of magic to the film that is reminiscent of Alfonso Arau’s popular adaptation of Laura Esquivel’s best-selling novel Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate, 1992). The dream aspect of Rinco’s Restaurant is captured through the use of musical numbers composed by Mari Fukuhara and cutout style animation sequences which were directed by Osamu Sakai of Robot (the same studio where Oscar-winning director Kunio Katō works).

Unlike Like Water for Chocolate, this film does not seek a resolution through romantic love but through the main protagonist coming to an understanding about who she is as a person. It is a slow-moving film, with magical elements and will appeal to viewers who also appreciate the slow life. The food styling was done by Tomoko Yoshioka of Okazu Design. The food really looks delicious and I am very tempted to order the tie-in cookbook that Okazu Design has published.

Director

Mai Tominaga

Screenwriter

Hiroko Takai

Based on the novel by

Ito Ogawa

Cinematographer

Nobuyasu Kita

Animation

Osamu Sakai

Music

Mari Fukuhara

Food Stylist

Tomoko Yoshioka (Okazu Design)

Cast

Kou Shibasaki as Noriko (aka Rinko)

Kimiko Yo as Ruriko

Brother Tom as Kuma-san

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Nippon Connection 2011

VCinema Satoshi Kon/Kihachiro Kawamoto Memorial Episode

At Shinsedai in July, I had the pleasure of meeting Coffin Jon of VCinema.  As I have been doing research into the career of Kichachiro Kawamoto, he invited me to join the conversation for  Podcast 15: a memorial episode to Kawamoto and Satoshi Kon.  In addition to our conversation, the podcast includes insightful interviews with Mark Schilling of The Japan Times, Jasper Sharp of Midnight Eye (where I am also an occasional contributor), and Jason Gray of Screen International.  Make sure you have a listen.

As both Kon and Kawamoto had quite extensive careers, the VCinema guys made the wise decision to focus on just two films: The Book of the Dead (2006) and Paprika (2006).  We had a great time recording the podcast and I particularly enjoyed hearing their interpretations of the Buddhist aspects of The Book of the Dead. It is not an easy film to understand.  It took Kawamoto himself 30 years to make the film, so it is not surprising that it is a film that requires multiple viewings in order to take in all the fine details.

Kawamoto's journey to make The Book of the Dead began during the production of  Dojoji Temple (1976), when he was given the complete works of Shinobu Orikuchi (折口信夫, 1887-1953) by Teizo Matsumura  (松村禎三, 1929-2007), the composer for the film.  Orikuchi's The Book of the Dead made a strong impression on Kawamoto, creating very clear images in his head as he read it.  Every time he re-read the story, he understood more aspects of it.  It wasn't until 1989 that he completed a storyboard for the film, and it took even longer to arrange for funding.  Fortunately the Sakura Eiga-sha producer Junko Fukuma (福間順子) stepped in to support and organize the project.

The more I read about Kawamoto, the more I realize what a complex, sophisticated artist he was.  His entire lifetime was dedicated to the betterment of his craft and the broadening of his knowledge through the study of the arts, literature, and religion.  In addition to being a unique puppet and animation artist, Kawamoto was also a great collaborator reaching out to animators and artists the world over in order to both learn from them and to share his own knowledge.  Although I have acquired a great deal of information about Kawamoto in the past few years, I feel that my journey of understanding his works has only just begun.  I am grateful to this great puppet master to opening up new pathways to understanding through the legacy of his animated films.

Paprika is an equally challenging film as The Book of the Dead.  I don't know if anyone has done it yet, but it seems to me that there is a lot of symbolism (especially in the parade sequences) and film references to unpack in the film (we talk about this a bit in the podcast).  Like The Book of the Dead, it is a film that I notice new things in each time I re-watch it.  I have a greater sense of sadness when I think about Satoshi Kon.  Whereas Kawamoto was in the twilight of his career having achieved his ambitions in seeing his greatest life's work made, Satoshi Kon was in the middle phase of his career and leaves behind an unfinished work The Dream Machine (夢みる機械/Yume Miru Kikai).  He has gone too soon, but left us with a treasure trove of films to remember his genius by.

My thanks to Coffin Jon, Rufus, and Josh for having me as their guest.

Historical Information Source: Animation Meister, Vol 5

Recommended viewing:

Shisha no Sho  Region Two: with English subtitles on the film (not on the extras though)

Region One:

Aquatic Language (水のコトバ, 2006)

Hokkaido-born CG animator, Yasuhiro Yoshiura (吉浦康裕), has in recent months been creating a big buzz on the internet with his Time of Eve (イヴの時間) series. Most of the hype is from fans desperate to see the next episode, whose release has been delayed by several months. The episodes are not made for TV but for release onto Yahoo Japan and Crunchyroll, so the release dates are not set in stone. Yoshiura runs his own little studio, Studio Rikka, and I’m sure that the delays are probably due to the growing pains that any small indie studio goes through when they’re first starting out.

There are a lot of fans of Yoshiura’s 2006 short film Pale Cocoon ((ペイル・コクーン), but the film that really impressed me the most is Aquatic Language (水のコトバ). You can tell that it was made while Yoshiura was a film school student because he hasn’t yet learned to edit with an objective eye and the film is still a bit rough around the edges. However, these quirks are also what make the film so exciting. He’s not afraid to take risks and mix 2D and 3D animation in innovative ways. There are literal references (via text that pops up from book pages into title cards) to Jules Verne (the theme of water) and Isaac Asimov (the relationship between robots and humans) as well as visual references to silent movies (irises), avant-garde film, and 1960s art cinema.

In both theme and visual style, Aquatic Language can be seen the Time of Eve series in its infancy. The setting is the café that appears in Time of Eve and the camera and sound move back and forth between several conversations in the café in an interweaving manner reminiscent of Robert Altman in films like Nashville (1975).

Water as a metaphor for language has a long history in the English language through idioms such as “stream of thought”, “flow of conversation”, and “life in a fishbowl.” Water metaphors are also used when taking about consciousness (ie. “stream of consciousness”, “river of dreams”), another key component of the robot/humanity theme that pervades Yoshiura’s work. Water metaphors are abundant in Japanese idioms as well, but I can’t think of many in this context. Please leave a comment if you know of any. One idiom, abstractly apt is 水到りて渠成る (Mizu itarite kyonaru/ As time flows, everything falls into place).

I see Aquatic Language as a kind of experimental film in the sense that Yoshiura has used it to try out a variety of different techniques: zooms, swish pans, abrupt changes in camera distance between cuts, and so on. He also tries out applying some of his philosophical ideas in a short story. It is a bit on the heavy-handed side in this film, but in Time of Eve he has begun to demonstrate maturity as an animator in terms of both quality of image and screenwriting.

Aquatic Language appears as an extra on the DVD for Pale Cocoon, which can be ordered here. I highly recommend both films as they show the promise of an exciting young animation artist. The only unfortunate thing about this DVD is the bad English dub. The voice actors sound very amateur and the sound edit is pretty bad (changing volumes with cuts). It would have been much better if Yoshiura had gone with subtitles, as he did with Pale Cocoon, instead of a dub. The kind of an audience interested in off-beat animation like this would much rather hear the original soundtrack and have the option of subtitles in their native language. A decent fansub of Aquatic Language is out there on file-sharing and streaming sites, but I would urge fans of Yoshiura to support this independent animator by watching Time of Eve on Crunchyroll and ordering the Pale Cocoon DVD.

Pale Cocoon

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2009

Naked Youth

Hosozao (aka Kojirō Shishido, b. 1983) has posted an HD version of Naked Youth on Youtube. Really innovative work. Check it out below & read my post on his work here:

UrumaDelvi Paint

Uruma Delvi (うるまでるび) are a husband and wife team known for their distintive CG animation style. They have done a lot of educational shorts for the NHK including Kabuseru Samurai (The Capsule Samurai), a series which ran over the space of four years from 2003-2006. They have also tried their hand at more independently minded projects such as their 2003 contribution to Kihachiro Kawamoto's collective project Fuyu no Hi and their film Mr. Calpaccio (2005) which they sent to numerous festivals around the world including Annency, Animafest Zagreb, and Ottawa.

In the past year they have enjoyed phenominal success with their humorous Minna no Uta short Oshiri Kajiri Mushi (The Bottom-Biting Bug). The film features a dancing and singing bug who travels from the countryside to the city biting people's bums. Normally Minna no Uta shorts run on the network for about two months, but due to its popularity the short ran for five months and the song rose to number 6 on the Oricon charts. The popular little bug was then offered a show of his own entitled "Oshiri Kajiri Mushi to Odorou!"

I generally have a rather lukewarm response to straight CG animation (when it is all done onscreen and nothing has been prepared by hand), but I have recently been warming up to the work of Uruma Delvi. Their recent shorts about a little girl called Sumiko are really excellently done and I am working on a review of them for the near future. Today, however, I wanted to share with you a newsclip I found on Youtube of an interview with Uruma-san as he demonstrates Uruma Delvi Paint. This is an animation software that Uruma Delvi developed with researchers from Tokyo University. It looks very user friendly and I could imagine both children and adults having a lot of fun with it. To see a demo click here and for more information about the product click here. Apparently they hope to have a Beta version ready for public use soon.

Under the clip, I have also written up a filmography of the animated work Uruma Delvi have done so far. This does not include their work in illustration and games. They designed some kind of an animation game called Bikkuri Mouse for Playstation 2 with Toshio Iwai, but I haven't read any reviews of the product yet.

Filmography

• 1992 Burutabu-chan, shikato, Kutama (Ugougoruuga)
• 1993 Mamagauro (Koizumi no Tsukaenai Eigo)
• 1997 Odekake Makihara-kun (Masahara Takeyuki CD)
• 2003 Uruma Derubi GOLD (shockwave.com)
• 2003 Fuyu no Hi (Winter Days, collaborative film directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto)
• 2003-4 Capsule Samurai　 NHK educational shorts, 15秒ｘ8話 )
• 2005-6 Caspule Samurai （English Version, 20秒ｘ40話 )
• 2005 (a long day of) Mr. Calpaccio (independent short animation, 7分32秒)
• 2005 Uruma Delvi DELUXE (excite)
• 2007 Tetemete (Viacom)
• 2007 Oshiri Kajiri Mushi (The Bottom-Biting Bug, NHK, Minna no Uta, 3分30秒)
• 2008 Sumiko Forever (independent short animation, 4分55秒)
• 2008 Anato no Taido ga Ki ni Hairanai (I Don't Like Your Attitude, independent short animation, 4分03秒)

NHK Minna no Uta Oshiri Kajiri Mushi [CD+DVD]

Kids

Kojiro Shishido (宍戸小次郎)

One of the biggest challenges in CG animation is how to create a unique vision using a medium that encourages uniformity. The work of Kojirō Shishido (b. 1983) stands out for me because of the way he has used a wide variety of CG techniques in order create images that directly relate to the themes of his short films.

Browsing through the online examples of the work of Kojiro Shishido, aka Hosozao (his user name is a type of shamisen), it becomes apparent that he has experimented with the capacities of his software (Bauhaus Software Mirage 1.5, Corel PainterX, Adobe AfterEffects CS3, Photoshop CS3) in a variety of amusing shorts such as Deep Sea Tentacle, Drawing!!, Wakame Buildings, Collapse Zen, and Superfluid, in a manner reminiscent of Norman McLaren’s early experiments with animation on film at the NFB. Using these playful, engaging films to explore the possibilities of his tools, Shishido applies what he has learned in his more introspective films such as Doutei Kawaiya (Sweet, Sweet Virgin, 2003), Kagami no Genon (sound/phantasma/mirror aka Mirror’s Fundamental Tone, 2004) and his most recent film Naked Youth (2006).

In Doutei Kawaiya, Kagami no Genon and Naked Youth Shishido takes us on a journey through the uncertainty and excitement of young love and homoerotic love. These gentle films quiver with sexual tension, which is linked to the natural world: trees reflecting on the surface of a pond, butterflies fluttering in the breeze. Of the three films, Doutei Kawaiya is least concerned with the outside world, focusing instead on the claustrophobic world of young people discovering their sexuality. Although their faces and bodies take centre stage, nature is represented by images of flowers, a brief shot of the sky, and a striking painting of trees.

Shishido clearly enjoys the possibilities of light and shade in his films. Not only does he experiment with intensity of light, but he also plays with the patterns made by light when it encounters different objects. Moments like the graphic play of the light passing through window blinds as they flutter around in Kagami no Genon or the mesmerizing quality of the light of the summer sun pushing through dense trees demonstrate Shishido’s sensitivity to small details that create ambience.

One major theme in Shishido’s work is reflections. He shows us beautiful reflections not only in surfaces like water, mirrors, but also polished floors. Shishido renders his realistic backdrops images slightly blurry, endowing them with the hazy quality of memories or dreams. The characters are set apart from the backgrounds with their sketch-like quality that makes them seem more like cel animation than the more obviously CG settings. You can see for yourself how Shishido creates his images in stages in his ‘Making of Naked Youth’ clips: clip 1, clip 2, clip 3.

It is a delight to watch these three films in the order in which they were made because you can see Shishido’s growth as a visual storyteller with Naked Youth bringing together the best elements of his earlier films. I particularly like how he layers his images using real architecture and interiors as his inspiration. He also composes his own music for his films. Shishido uses music in a minimalist way to add to the emotional impact of the images. For a young filmmaker, he has already learned that sound effects (cicadas, hiyodori, running water, etc.) and silence are equally as important for creating ambience. I do hope that Shishido continues to make independent films so that we can see the full blossoming of his potential as an artist.

Filmography

• Undercurrent (2001)

• Doutei Kawaiya (Sweet, Sweet Virgin, 2003)

• Kagami no Genon (sound/phantasma/mirror, 2004)

• Deep Sea Tentacle

• Drawing!!

• Wakame Buildings

• Collapse

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2008