Japan in Germany 7: Oshima (大島, 2010)

“This story makes no sense,” a frustrated German police officer says at the beginning of Lars Henning’s dark tale Oshima (大島, 2010), and asks the Japanese language interpreter to have the haggard and bruised-looking salaryman before him to repeat his story one more time from the beginning.  The man introduces himself as Taburo Oshima and says that he just arrived from Tokyo on business.

The opening credits are positioned over the clouds and a girl’s voice tells us that this is the story of her father, who in October 2002 came to Germany on business with plans of continuing on to the United States.   The tale that he told to the police is the last official record of his existence.  He disappeared without a trace.  The girl mysteriously goes on to explain that while her mother never told her what happened that night, she nevertheless knows what happened that night.

Oshima, played by Japan-born/Germany-raised actor Yuki Iwamoto, arrives in Germany in a haze.  In addition to jet lag, Oshima may be experiencing extreme side effects from the depression medication Opipramol that he consumes on the flight.  He passes out upon arrival at the airport, and is looked after by an airport employee (Hakan Orbeyi).  He somewhat recovers and stumbles out of the baggage retrieval area into the arms of an eager-to-curry-favour German businessman, Herr Kleinschmidt (Devid Striesow), and his interpreter, Frau Izumi (Nina Fog). 

Oshima’s wooziness continues in the car journey to the hotel and over the course of this half hour dramatic short, he passes in and out of consciousness due to a mixture of over-medication, alcohol consumption, and just plain exhaustion.  Oshima seems disinterested in his business dealings with Herr Kleinschmidt and barely even aware of his surroundings for most of the film.  In an off-hand comment to Frau Izumi, which she curiously does not translate to her boss, Oshima reveals that he has lost his entire family in an accident.   Izumi is drawn to him, but at the same time suspicious that this man may not be who he says he is.   Are we witnessing the mental collapse of a salaryman or is there something more going on here?  Oshima’s vision of a white unicorn on the darkened streets of this anonymous German city suggest deeper layers to this man’s story which the viewer must unravel for him/herself. 

The ambiguity of the storyline could have been disastrous if not for the sensitive and subtle acting performances of Iwamoto and Fog.  Their faces are very expressive and hint at a deeper emotional story than is implicit in the dialogue and narration.  Lars Henning (b. 1976, Hamburg) is the director of the much acclaimed short Security (2006) which won prizes at the Avanca Film Festival and Lübeck Nordic Film Days.  He pursued a postgraduate degree in television and film at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln) between 2006 and 2010.  This is his fourth short film.  It is a melancholic tale with beautifully executed transitions.  The cinematographer, Carol Burandt von Kameke, and crew have done a remarkable job of lighting these very dark night scenes with great skill.  Many scenes have a masterful chiaroscuro look. With most young filmmakers today opting to go digital for budgetary reasons, it is a real delight to discover a short film shot beautifully on 35mm funded by cultural institutions.  Oshima is a rare gem that showed on arte before Christmas and at Japan Week in Frankfurt in November.  Looking forward to seeing more work by this director.  

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012

Credits

director: Lars Henning

screenwriter: Lars Henning

cinematographer: Carol Burandt von Kameke

production company:  Radical Movies  / Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln

producer:  Ulrich Otto

34 minutes / 35mm

shot on location in North Rhine Westphalia

Cast

Yuki Iwamoto                    Taburo Oshima

Nina Fog                            Frau Izumi, the Interpreter

Devid Striesow                    Herr Kleinschmidt, the Businessman

Karolina Porcari                 Laika, exotic Dancer

Hakan Orbeyi                     Momo, man in airport

Jens Wachholz                    Police Officer 1

Markus Haase                    Police Officer 2

Remo Hofer                        Night Porter

Tanja Desen                       Airline Staff

Rosa Bergmann                  Girl with Wings / Naoko / voice over narration

Melanie Kühn                     Exotic Dancer

Pia Passion                         Exotic Dancer

Marie Iguchi                       voice over

Lars Henning Filmography

2005   Koslowski (15‘)

2006   Security (13‘)

2009   Driving Elodie (19‘)

2010   Oshima (35mm, 34‘)

Japan in Germany 6: Marie Miyayama

On Friday night I had the pleasure of watching Marie Miyayama's The Red Spot (Der Rote Punkt / 赤い点, 2008) for the second time at the Deutches Filmmuseum Frankfurt as part of the Nippon Connection Film Special at Japan Week.  This was my first time seeing the film in its original 35mm format and the colours were even more brilliant than in the digital format.  In addition to the obvious uses of red with Aki’s backpack, her mother’s lipstick, her aunt’s umeboshi, and the dot on the map, there were more subtle uses of red on the curtains in Aki’s room and the dress of Mary in Johannes’s carving of Mary and the baby Jesus. 

It’s a beautifully shot film, and I found myself even more strongly moved by the actors’ performances the second time round which for me is always the sign of a well made film.  I was happy that I had seen the film once before with English subtitles for the southern German dialect of “Allgäuerisch” is challenging for me.  However, I noticed that there was much more laughter at this screening of The Red Spotthan there was at Shinsedai 2010 in Toronto because the Frankfurt audience picked up on the subtleties of the local humour – especially in the scene when Johannes has to pick Elias up at the police station and in the scene when Aki’s elementary German confuses Johannes.

Marie Miyayama (宮山麻里枝, b. 1972) was also in attendance and took questions from the audience after the screening.  Miyama was born and grew up in Tokyo.  She came to Germany in 1995 to study filmmaking at the Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich and she remains based in Munich.  During the Q+A, Miyayama pinpointed the first time she saw Wim Wenders’ Alice in the Cities (Alice in den Städten/都会のアリス, 1974) as being the moment that she fell in love with European cinema. 

Someone in the audience noted that Aki, the main protagonist in The Red Spot, was about the same age that Miyayama was when she first came to Germany and wondered if there were any autobiographical elements in this film.  Miyayama replied that many personal elements come into her films mainly through her own interest in exploring intercultural themes.  She also prefers to write her own screenplays in order that she may look deep into herself to bring some kind of personal truth to her films.  However, that being said, it should be remembered that The Red Spot was based on someone else’s story.  When Miyayama was working as an interpreter, she had a female client who came to Germany with just such a red spot on a map and employed Miyayama to help her find this spot where her family had died on the famed “Romantic Road” (Romantische Straße) between Würzburg and Füssen.  In the film, we see one of the most famous sightseeing attractions of the Romantic Road, Schloss Neuschwanstein, in the photos that Aki finds on her parents’ camera.  In real life, the woman that Miyayama assisted was a cousin of the lost family, not the surviving child, and as the story was developed into a screenplay many more fictional elements were added to the plot.

So far, The Red Spot has enjoyed a proper theatrical release in Germany and has been well received at international film festivals.  Miyayama remains ever hopeful that she could also release the film in Japanese theatres.  So far, the film has only shown twice in Japan at a festival for women filmmakers and at a German film festival.  It will be screened again in December at Waseda University as part of the celebration of 150 years of friendship between Japan and Germany. 

Miyayama has taken a short maternity break from filmmaking but is now working on new projects.  With an eye on continuing her exploration of intercultural themes, she is working on a scenario about a German woman who goes to Japan.  Not wanting to pigeonhole herself as a director; however, this film will be a comedy.   

To see more photos from this event, go to my Google Plus profile.

For more information about Marie Miyayama, see her homepage and her profile at Japanese Women Behind the Scenes.

This event was sponsored by Nippon Connection:

Panorama (2011)

Life is never predictable and neither is Ryō Yoshikawa’s graduate film Panorama (2011).  The film begins in the nondescript hallway of a standard modern Japanese apartment with the voices of a couple arguing off-screen.  Just when we as spectators start to feel left out of the action, we are startled to attention by Haruka (Yūko Genkaku ) being thrown against the wall in front of us by her abusive husband Kenji (Yūya Matsuura).  Haruka also strikes back at her husband and both become implicated in the violence of their relationship.  We soon realize that we are witnessing this scene from the perspective of their confused young son, Takuya, the real victim in their disastrous relationship. 

Kenji walks out on his family, leaving a jobless Haruka scrounging for work as a hostess.  Her mother (Hana Kino), berates her for screwing up her marriage and reluctantly takes poor, young Takuya under her wing for the time being.  Just when we are starting to get invested in Haruka’s miserable tale, Yoshikawa switches gears and throws us into the parallel plotline of salaryman Takuma (Kyosuke Shimamori).  Takuma is a newlywed, but is reluctant to talk about his wife Hana (Chika Uchida), who works as a tour guide, with his co-workers.  One co-worker in particular, Akita (Masaki Miura), is suspicious of Takuma’s unusual behaviour and for good reason.  Although small in stature, Takuma is hiding a big secret: he regularly follows women that he spots in the train station and rapes them in the public toilets.  His behaviour flies in the face of the usual stereotypes, for he is no loner: his wife Hana goes out of her way to try to spice up their marriage.  She greets him every evening with a home-cooked meal and even buys sexy lingerie to try to seduce him.

Eventually, these two parallel stories will collide in circumstances that leave us wondering what is real and what is imagined.  The characters in this compelling drama are all either caught up in a tangled web of their own making or in circumstances beyond their control.  It is about how ordinary people living ordinary lives suddenly find themselves feeling like they are drowning. 

I was reminded of the famous poem “Not Waving But Drowning” by Stevie Smith (スティーヴィー・スミス, 1902-71) during one of the crucial scenes in the film:

Not Waving but Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought

And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking

And now he's dead

It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,

They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always

(Still the dead one lay moaning)

I was much too far out all my life

And not waving but drowning.

The Nara-born director Ryō Yoshikawa (吉川諒, b. 1985), was in attendance at the international premiere of Panorama at the Nippon Connection Film Special at Japan Week in Frankfurt am Main on November 6, 2011.  During the Q+A he shared a number of interesting facts about Panorama and the film program at Tokyo University of the Arts:

• Panorama is Yoshikawa's  graduate film from the Tokyo University of Arts’ graduate program in filmmaking

• Panorama was shot in 10 days – which is a rule in the Tokyo University of Arts’ program

• Someone in the audience asked whether or not the mask scene in the pool was real or a dream, and Yoshikawa left this open to interpretation.  He did explain, however, that the pool scene was a metaphor for “real” circumstances in the film: will they survive their current circumstances or will they drown?

• What was his inspiration for the film?  The everyday experiences of life.

• What are his influences?  He admires European directors with very different styles like Leos Carax (France) and the Dardenne brothers (Belgium)

• One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the soundtrack which often uses white noise like traffic and construction in lieu of music.  It really brought home the dehumanizing affect that city landscapes can have on some people.  I asked Yoshikawa about that and he said that he deliberately wanted the audience to be aware of the influence of these sounds of the reality of the city (cars, trains, etc.), which can disturb and unsettle us.  The soundtrack was carefully intertwined with the music track in a deliberate way.

• Yoshiwara identified two main themes in the film: violence between individuals and sudden violence.  The people in the film are living in tumult.  Sometimes in life we reach a point where we feel like we’re drowning.

• The film had a budget of 200 万円 which translates to around € 20,000 / $25,000 USD

• He is currently working on the scenario for a new film which he hopes to shoot in the new year if he can secure the funding. 

• Follow Yoshikawa on Twitter.

Director/Screenplay

Ryō Yoshikawa

Producers

Minyoung Cho

Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film And New Media

Cinematographer

Yuuki Teshima　

Editing

Saki Ishii

Music

Haruyuki Suzuki　

Cast

Yūko Genkaku as Haruka

Kyosuke Shimamori as Takuma

Chika Uchida as Hana

Yūya Matsuura as Kenji

Masaki Miura as Akio Akita

Hana Kino as Haruka’s mother

.

This event was sponsored by Nippon Connection:

and The City of Yokohama - Frankfurt Representative Office.

Ken and Kazu (ケンとカズ, 2011)

 The gritty world of underground drug dealing is a tough, kill or be killed environment.  Ken and Kazu don’t talk to each other much as they sit in their vehicle, waiting for customers to tap on the window.  They keep things impersonal and pass the time playing shiritori – a word game where one person says a random word, then the next person takes the last syllable of that word and gives a new word using it as their first syllable.

Ken has heard rumours that Kazu wants to get out of the business and becomes suspicious of the fact that Kazu’s cell phone keeps ringing incessantly.  After a heated exchange, Kazu drops his touch guy demeanour to reveal that his mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s.   In this moment, we see a brief glimpse of humanity beneath Ken and Kazu's hard man exteriors.

Their relationship is soon put to the test when the boss man learns that someone has been cheating customers by stealing cocaine from each deal.  He has already had one of the suspects killed but decides to test Ken’s loyalty by bringing him in to kill the other person under suspicion: Kazu.  Ken is faced with the game changing decision of choosing to give his loyalty to his boss or to Kazu.  

Ken and Kazu (ケンとカズ, 2011) is directed by Hiroshima born filmmaker Hiroshi Shoji (小路紘史, b. 1986), a graduate of the Tokyo Film Center School of Arts.   The film uses a lot of close ups and hand held shots which capture the claustrophobic tension between the men in the cab of the vehicle they use for dealing drugs.  A terrific little film that left me wanting to see more by this director.

Learn more about Hiroshi Shoji here.

Watch a trailer for Ken and Kazu here.

This film screened at Japan Week, Frankfurt am Main on November 5, 2011.

The event was sponsored by Nippon Connection:

Tourism Hokkaido “City” (TOURISM HOKKAIDO「街」, 2010)

I guess the idiom “if pigs could fly” must have a different meaning in Chinese and Japanese.  A Chinese student Shu Yi is enjoying her last day in Sapporo, Hokkaido.  While touring the sites of the city (Odori Park, the TV tower, the Clock Tower) she ends up in the famed Tanuki Koji shopping arcade.  There she encounters a young Chinese man named Guo Fu who has just begun his studies at Hokkaido University.   He is bowled over by Shu Yi’s charm and gives her a present of a figurine of a pig with wings, telling her that the pig is a symbol of good luck and the wings symbolize freedom.  Shu Yi finds this charming and insists that Shu Yi join her in her final tour of Sapporo.

At the end of what must have been an exhausting day (they trek everywhere from Sapporo Factory to Maruyama Park), the two part ways, with Shu Yi being coy about them ever seeing each other again.  Guo Fu invites her to come and meet him on the banks of the canal in the neighbouring city of Otaru, so that he can show her the town where he lives.  One day, Shu Yi does show up and they have a whirlwind tour of the sights of Otaru from the Otaru Taisho Glass Palace to the Asahi Observatory.  It seems like an idealistic whirlwind romance, but maybe Guo Fu should have investigated the English meaning of a pig with wings.

Yosuke Yamaguchi’s Tourism Hokkaido “City”(2010) won the Best Short Award at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia.  The film was a part of the “Let’s Travel! Project” supported by the Japan Tourism Agency.  This contest encouraged filmmakers to submit short films that show off the rich and diverse cultural attractions that Japan has to offer tourists.  Unlike Heaven’s Island (2010), which showed off Taketomi Island in Okinawa without feeling like a promotional film, Tourism Hokkaido “City” is pretty cheesy and spends much more time acting as a postcard for Sapporo and Otaru than it does on developing the characters of Shu Yi and Guo Fu.  I only enjoyed the film because it was a natsukashii experience for me as I have a soft spot for Sapporo and environs because of the good times I have had there.

You can watch the trailer for this film here.

This film screened at Japan Week, Frankfurt am Main on November 5, 2011.

The event was sponsored by Nippon Connection:

Heaven’s Island (青春マンダラー, 2010)

In 2009, the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2010 and the Japan Tourism Agency sponsored a competition called “Let’s Travel Project” which encouraged filmmakers to submit short films that show off the rich and diverse cultural attractions that Japan has to offer tourists. The 14 minute film Heaven’s Island(青春マンダラー/Seishun Mandala, 2010) directed by Naoko Shimada was one of 13 films selected from 71 entries.  The film features Taketomi Island in Okinawa.

Cousins Satoshi (Shuji Kashiwabara) and Miki (Rina Chinen) are heading back to Taketomi Island for the Mandala celebration in honour of their grandmother’s 97^thbirthday.  Upon their arrival, they learn that their grandmother has died suddenly, throwing the plans for the Mandala festival into chaos.  At the memorial service, a recording of the late woman is played in which she embarrasses Satoshi and Miki by reacing out from beyond the grave to  play interfering matchmaker with the two of them.

After the funeral, Miki discovers her grandmother’s diary and reading it is shocked to learn that the elderly woman was carrying on an affair with someone who had left the island and was due to return to for the Mandala celebration.  Miki and Satoshi are determined to find out the man's identity.  They narrow down their search to three possible candidates: Mr. Shigemori, Mr. Tomori, and Mr. Kinjo.  Once the detective work begins, hilarity ensues.

Heaven’s Island is a rip-roaring romantic comedy with a dash of detective story thrown in for good measure.  Naoko Shimada is a very able director who sets a fast tempo for the comedy through her editing and use of engaging, and often amusing, camera angles.  The film does successfully show off Taketomi as an appealing destination for travel, and does so without seeming like a commercial.  The characters are endearing and the story amusing - the premise would be equally suitable material for a feature-length film.  Check out the trailer here.

This film screened at Japan Week, Frankfurt am Main on November 5, 2011.

The event was sponsored by Nippon Connection:

Yellow Kid (イエローキッド, 2010)

The original Yellow Kid was a popular American comic strip character from the end of the 19^th century, appearing in Richard F. Outcault’s Hogan’s Alley.  A strange looking child shaved bald (a measure against head lice) with big ears, buck teeth, and dressed in a hand-me-down yellow nightdress, the Yellow Kid was the unlikely hero of the lower classes in Outcault’s biting satire of urban American life. 

Outcault's original 19th century Yellow Kid

The conceit of Tetsuya Mariko’s film Yellow Kid (イエローキッド, 2010), is that 100 years after Outcault stopped drawing the Yellow Kid, a Japanese manga-ka named Hattori (Ryo Iwase) published his own version of the Yellow Kid under the pseudonym Iga Taro in which a down-and-out street kid transforms himself into a powerful boxer.   Just as the original comic strip colourfully incorporated images and ideas from American pop culture such as advertising signs and vaudeville, Mariko’s film blends live action drama with colourful illustrations from the Yellow Kid manga which the director drew himself.

The central character, Shiro Tamura (Kaname Endo), has little going for him in life.  Orphaned at a young age, his grandfather took charge of his upbringing until he also passed away.  Unable to hold down a job, Tamura lives in a decrepit house with his senile grandmother and tries to get by on her meagre pension.  Inspired by Hattori’s manga, Tamura clings to the one ray of hope in his life: training at the local boxing club.

When Hattori comes to the boxing club in search of inspiration for a sequel to Yellow Kid, it gives Tamura new hope that he can make something of himself.  The boxer who had inspired Hattori in his earlier work, Mikuni (Kazuki Namioka), is not only no longer boxing but also living with Hattori’s ex-girlfriend Mana (Mari Machida).  He eventually settles on Tamura as his new model for the Yellow Kid, but Tamura’s fragile mental state is pushed to its limits by the thug Emoto (Hideki Tamai) and the line between what is real and what is not real begins to blur.

Yellow Kid explores the world of people on the verge of falling between the cracks.  Directionless kids with no family support.  Elderly people without appropriate nursing care.  Disasters just waiting to happen.  Although there is little cheer in this film, it is strangely compelling due in a large part to the terrific performances of the actors and the fascinating colour palette of the film which mimics the vibrant hues of the manga and associates certain colours with certain characters (Tamura/yellow, Hattori/red, etc.).  The tension simmering in Tamura slowly builds throughout the film and explodes in a final half hour that is not for the faint of heart.  It’s quite impressive for a debut feature film, and promises more good things to come from Tetsuya Mariko.

Check out Tom Mes of Midnight Eye interviewing Tetsuya Mariko about Yellow Kid at the IFFR 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxK8NlNSWTs

Director:

Tetsuya Mariko

Starring:

Shiro Tamura (Kaname Endo)

Hattori (Ryo Iwase)

Mana (Mari Machida)

Mikuni (Kazuki Namioka)

Emoto (Hideki Tamai)

Boxing club owner (Denden)

This film screened at Japan Week, Frankfurt am Main on November 5, 2011.

The event was sponsored by Nippon Connection:

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed/もんぜん, 1999)

Brothers Uwe (Uwe Ochsenknecht) and Gustav (Gustav-Peter Wöhler) have very little in common with each other apart from their bad marriages.  Uwe is a self-absorbed kitchen salesman with four children whose wife Petra (Petra Zieser) gets fed up with him and walks out on their marriage.  Meanwhile, Gustav is in a sterile, childless relationship with his wife Ulrike (Ulrike Kriener).   Unlike chaotic Uwe, Gustav makes a concerted effort to find inner peace in his life, working as a Feng Shui expert, raking his miniature Zen Garden, memorizing Asian proverbs, and practicing meditation.

Consumed by grief over his failing marriage, Uwe crashes Gustav’s planned Zen Buddhist retreat to the Monzen monastery on the Noto Peninsula.  When the brothers arrive in Tokyo, Gustav’s façade of inner peace is torn away as both men find themselves overwhelmed by their new environment.  After a night on the town, the men are unable to find their hotel again and have run out of cash because they spent it all on booze.  Their inability to communicate with a taxi driver lands them in an unfamiliar neighbourhood,  and they wander aimlessly through the darkened city streets.  They eventually end up in the Taito ward where they follow the example of the homeless people there by spending the night sleeping in cardboard boxes.

The next morning, their situation does not improve and they manage to lose each other while crossing Shibuya’s famous scramble crossing in the middle of the day.  With Uwe armed only with his video camera, which he uses to record a video diary of his journey, and Gustav armed only with a book of Zen sayings, the two men must take on this next phase of their journey alone.  Eventually the brothers find each other again and make their way through a series of misadventures to the Monzen monastery where they are given the opportunity to see their lives from a new perspective through a regime of hard work and meditation. 

Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed/もんぜん, 1999) was shot entirely on digital video and has an intimate feel to it.  I enjoyed this film more than Doris Dörrie’s other Japan-themed feature Kirschblüten– Hanami (Cherry Blossoms, 2008) which was much hyped in the German media the year after I moved here from Tokyo.  The journey of self discovery in Cherry Blossoms seemed forced, whereas the story of Uwe and Gustav seems so effortless.  There is a realness and a spontaneity to the characters which reminded me of the works of Mike Leigh.  Above all, the humour that Uwe Ochsenknecht and Gustav-Peter Wöhler bring to their roles keeps the film from taking itself too seriously.  It's a great film for people reevaluating their own lives and in need of a good laugh at the inanities of human nature. 

Enlightenment Guaranteed is one of five films that I wrote about for World Film Locations: Tokyo (ed. Chris MaGee, 2011).  I chose the Yanaka Cemetary as the location to focus on.  Support independent film critics by ordering the book today:

The film is available on DVD in the States:



. . . in Germany:



.  .  .  and even in Japan:

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Japan in Germany 5: Japan Week 2011 in Frankfurt am Main

For the past 35 years, the Japanese have been promoting their culture and business interests abroad by hosting a Japan Week in major cities around the world. As this year marks the 150th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Germany (or Prussia as it then was) and Japan.  This year’s Japan Week will take place in Frankfurt am Main between the 5th and 12th of November. Events will include theatre, dance, an art and handicrafts market and exhibition, a food pavilion, an ikebana workshop, cooking classes, a football (soccer) tournament and much, much more. See the official website for details (DE/EN/JP)

The highlight for me will, of course, be the film programme organized by Nippon Connection at the newly renovated Film Museum. Many filmmakers will be on hand to participate in lively discussions after the screenings. In order to highlight the theme of German-Japanese relations, the programme includes Japan-themed documentaries by  German directors and a Japanese director who works in Germany.  There are also  two films made by graduates of the Tokyo University of the Arts in Yokohama – which is the future sister city of Frankfurt.

The most anticipated event is the world premiere of the crowdfunded documentary RADIOACTIVISTS which looks closely at Japan after the disaster in Fukushima with a focus of the efforts of the anti-nuclear movement.

Saturday, November 5th, 16:00

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia Special

http://www.shortshorts.org/

The Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia is the biggest short film fest in Asia. It is held each summer in Tokyo and Yokohama and features short films from around the world. For Japan Week, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia has put together a special programme of recent Japanese shorts with English subtitles.

Romance (Toshiro SONODA, Japan 2010, 3 Min., OmeU)

Ken and Kazu (Hiroshi SHOJI, Japan 2011, 23 Min., OmeU)

Tourism Hokkaido "City" (Yosuke YAMAGUCHI, Japan 2010, 18 Min., OmeU)

Meat (Takahiro KIMURA, Japan 2009, 17 Min., OmeU)

bonz (Shohei TADA, Japan 2010, 5 Min., OmeU)

Mister Rococo (Naoto HIDAKA, Japan 2010, 13 Min., OmeU)

Heaven's Island (Naoko SHIMADA, Japan 2010, 14 Min., OmeU)

Saturday, November 5th, 20:30

Yellow Kid 

(Tetsuya MARIKO, Japan, 2009, 107 Min., OmeU)

German Premiere, www.yellow-kid.jp

Debut feature film from Tetsuya MARIKO, an up-and-coming director and winner for two consecutive years of the Off-Theater Competition Grand Prix of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival with THE FAR EAST APARTMENT (Kyokuto no Manshon) in 2003 and MARIKO’S 30 PIRATES (Mariko Sanjukki) in 2004. This quick-paced film with exhaustive camera work depicts the interaction of two youths living in two completely different worlds - boxing and manga. Boxing is what maintains the spirits of Tamura (Endo Kaname) who is leading a financially constrained life while taking care of his grandmother with dementia. One day, Hattori (Iwase Ryo), a manga-ka, visits the boxing gym where Tamura practices to gather material. Mariko’s latest film NINIFUNI showed at this year’s film festival in Locarno.

Sunday, September 6th, 20:00

Panorama 

(Ryo YOSHIKAWA, Japan, 2011, 89 Min., OmeU)

International Premiere

Special Guest: Ryo YOSHIKAWA

Made possible by the support of the The City of Yokohama - Frankfurt Representative Office

Haruka’s partner has walked out on her. She drops her son off with his grandmother and tries her luck out working at a hostess club. Kana pretends that all is well with her marriage, even though she knows her husband is involved with other women. Things don’t turn out the way both women had hoped.

PANORAMA is Ryo YOSHIKAWA’s graduate film for the Tokyo University of the Arts in Yokohama.

Wednesday, November 9th, 20:30

They Call Us Aliens

(Veit HELMER, Germany/Japan, 2008, 78 Min, EN/JP/PO/RU, OmeU)

Three Ukrainian girls break into the modelling business, a South African bachelor prepares for his Shinto wedding and a priest from Finland runs for election... Just a few protagonists of this documentary film by German director Veit Helmer (TUVALU, ABSURDISTAN). Japan was closed for foreigners until 1853. Now people from all over the world move to Tokyo to explore Japanese culture. Japanese meet foreigners with curiosity and anxiety. The film observes how foreigners struggle to make a living in a totally different culture.

Supporting film:

OSHIMA

(Lars Henning, Germany, 2011, 34 Min.)

Special Guest: actor Yuki IWAMOTO

An urban fairy tale about a sad and overtired Japanese salaryman on a business trip.  In the course of one night in a strange German city  he begins to lose more and more of himself.  Yuki Iwamoto, whose face is well known to fans of Nippon Connection, stars in the lead role of Oshima.

Friday, November 11th, 18:00

The Red Spot 

(Der Rote Punkt, Marie MIYAYAMA, Germany, 2008, 82 Min., DE/JP, OmU)

Special Guest: Marie MIYAYAMA

www.derrotepunkt-derfilm.de

A Japanese student named Aki Onodera travels to Germany to retrace the steps of her lost family.  She is armed with a map marked with a red spot - the location of the tragic accident that took her family from her.  In idyllic eastern Allgäu, she is taken in by the Weber family as their guest.  Her arrival causes great disruption in the Weber family as Aki's presence awakens a terrible secret held by one of the family members.  

Read my review of this film.

Saturday, November 12th, 20:00

Radioactivists 

(Julia LESER and Clarissa SEIDEL, Germany/Japan 2011, 72 Min., JP, OmeU)

World Premiere, Special Guests: Julia LESER and Clarissa SEIDEL

www.radioactivists.org

Followed by a discussion with Prof. Steffi Richter of Leipzig University

When Japan’s triple catastrophe took place on the 11th of March 2011, two German filmmakers Julia Leser and Clarissa Seidel were already on location in the country. They immediately decided to follow the re-birth of the anti-nuclear protest movement and to document their demonstrations in order to counterbalance the one-sided media coverage of the nuclear crisis. Japanese intellectuals, sociologists, scientists and anti-nucler activists critical of the sequence of events surrounding the ill-fated Tepco (Tokyo electric Power Company) are all given a chance to speak their piece. RADIOACTIVISTS is a unique historical documentation of one of Japan’s greatest human tragedies.

Venue:

Kino im Deutschen Filmmuseum

Schaumainkai 41, 60596 Frankfurt am Main

Entry fees: 7 euro / 5 euro

To reserve tickets call:

069 961 220 220

OmU = original version with German subtitles

OmeU = original version with English subtitles

This event is supported by:

Referat für Internationale Angelegenheiten der Stadt Frankfurt am Main

The City of Yokohama - Frankfurt Representative Office

Organized by:

Nippon Connection e.V., c/o AStA, Mertonstr. 26-28, 60325 Frankfurt am Main

info@nipponconnection.com, www.nipponconnection.com


This blog post is part the Japan in Germany series.

Masaaki Yuasa at Japan Media Arts Festival Dortmund, Part IV

Film Talk with Masaaki Yuasa at Japan Media Arts Festival Dortmund
Dortmunder U, September 11, 2011

Part I: Masaaki Yuasa at Japan Media Arts Festival Dortmund

Part II: Masaaki Yuasa at Japan Media Arts Festival Dortmund

Part III: Masaaki Yuasa on Kaiba and working for Madhouse

Part IV: Morimoto, Mind Game and more

Noiseman Sound Insect (音響生命体ノイズマン, Kōji Morimoto, 1998)

This 16-minute animated short was the first time that Masaaki Yuasa collaborated with Kōji Morimoto whom Yuasa calls a “free thinking director.” He was called by Morimoto himself – which shocked Yuasa because he is such a star in the animation world [having worked on such animated classics as Tomorrow’s Joe 2 (あしたのジョー2, Toshio Takeuchi, 1980-81) and  Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira (アキラ, 1988) before directing his own films].

Morimoto told Yuasa that  he wanted to work with him. Yuasa laughingly said that Morimoto later realized that he had had something quite different in mind than what Yuasa ended up giving him – though that was not  necessarily bad thing. It was during the making of Noiseman that Morimoto showed Yuasa Robin Nishi’s manga Mind Game. Yuasa said that through working together Morimoto and Yuasa realized that they are very different from each other. He again laughed and said that it really wasn’t until they went out drinking together that they realized that they had a few things in common. Though they may have artistic differences, Yuasa spoke earnestly of his deep admiration for Morimoto.

Mind Game

It took a long time to complete Mind Game. The storyboards themselves took at least 8 months and animating it took about 2 years. The project started off small with only 3 to 4 people involved. Yuasa did all the storyboards himself. As production for the film got under way, more and more people joined the team.

The beginning and ending of Mind Game appear to be very similar, but the viewer should notice small differences. If they do, then Yuasa feels that he has succeeded as a director. Many criticized the film for not having a clear story, but he disagrees with this view. In contrast to TV series, which have certain story constraints, everything is allowed in films.

On commercial pressures:

Especially for TV, there is a lot of pressure for the characters to be kawaii and for the story to be easily understood. He has been criticized by financial backers for having difficult to understand storylines. At one point while making Tatami Galaxy, the financial backers wanted him to change everything and Yuasa said that he refused. When asked what effect his refusal had, he replied that they just stopped bothering him after that and they didn't fire him.

Yuasa has noticed that he often does the opposite of what others expect of him. When people ask him for something soft, he gives them something hard. When they say something should be complicated, he makes it simple. He likes for people to see his work on a big screen – they should enjoy it like a trip to Disneyland. The story should be simple but powerful.

Does Yuasa see himself as an artist?

“I am an anime person,” responded Yuasa, “I don’t really know what art is, but I find it interesting.”

TV Series vs. Films

As a kid he loved TV series, but film is different. There is more attention to detail. You watch it in the dark on the big screen. A lot of talented people come together to make an anime series and this is something Yuasa enjoys. He thinks that most people enjoy working freely and on their own. He would like to make another film at some point because he thinks he can go deeper into subject matter and be more individualistic in that medium.

As a freelancer, where does he like to do his storyboards? At the studio or at home?

Yuasa likes to go into the studio so that he can feel like he’s going to work. That being said, he actually draws everywhere: on the train, on the shinkansen, in cafés.

Is he still considered a freelancer?

He is still a freelancer and has never been anything else. There are not many permanent jobs in the anime industry; most people are freelancing from job to job. Yuasa enjoys the freedom that freelancing allows him.

What are Yuasa’s future plans?

He wants to make another film. He’s seen some scripts but he would really like to do his own original idea. Failing that, he’s quite happy to do an advertising campaign or music videos until the right project comes along.

How did the March 11th earthquake affect Yuasa and did he notice any effects on the animation industry in Tokyo?

The severity of the quake was such a shock and Yuasa thought that it would mean the studio he was working at would have to close for a short time – but all the meetings went on as usual as if nothing had happened. His producer said to him: “Even if there has been a disaster, our deadline hasn’t changed”

This event was recorded on video by a Japanese crew, so there is the possibility of it turning up online at some point. This is not a transcript of the Film Talk with Masaaki Yuasa but a writing-up of the notes that I took during the event. There are a few points that I know I missed because occasionally the simultaneous translation from Japanese into German occasionally caused my brain to go into melt down. As the conversation between Stefan Riekeles and Masaaaki Yuasa did not follow a chronological order, I have for clarity’s sake assembled my notes on Yuasa’s responses in thematically.

To see photos from this event, see my Google Plus profile or the Nishikata Eiga Facebook page.

Order works by Masaaki Yuasa:

MIND GAME (English Subtitles)

Kaiba 1 [DVD+CD]

The Tatami Galaxy Vol.1