After reading Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s short story “The Nose” (鼻/Hana, 1916),
the great writer Natsume Sōseki is
said to have written a letter to Akutagawa proclaiming: “I found your piece ["The
Nose"] very interesting. Sober and
serious without trying to be funny. It
exudes humour, a sure sign of refined taste. Furthermore, the material is fresh and
eye-catching. Your style is well-polished,
admirably fitting.” (source)
One could use similar adjectives to
describe Taku Furukawa’s animated
short Nose Tale (はなのはなし/Hana no hanashi, 2010). Reportedly inspired by a bout of hay fever (source
– which would explain the runny noses of many of the supporting characters in
this film), Nose Tale is a mash-up of
five classic stories from around the world. Four of these stories concern men with
oversized noses: “The Nose” by
Akutagawa, “The Nose” (1835-36) by Nikolai
Gogol, “The Adventures of Pinocchio” (1881-83) by Carlo Collodi, and “Cyrano de Bergerac” (1897) by Edward Rostand.
Furukawa starts off by cutting between each of the stories, but in the climactic scene the men with giant
noses all come together from their disparate times and places for a dragon
viewing party – a concept adapted from another Akutagawa story “Dragon” (龍, 1919). The dramatic conclusion
is unexpected and delightful.
The concept is indeed fresh and
eye-catching and exudes the tongue-in-cheek sense of humour one has come to
expect from a Furukawa film. In all my
years studying the art of cinema, I never expected to encounter a film that makes
a point of cutting between stories by matching the shape of an oversized
nose. It is so ridiculous as to be
wonderful.
by Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012
The stories are also tied together
by the music of Toshiyuki Honda,
whose compositions have also featured in the animated films Miyuki-chan
in Wonderland (Tetsuro Aoki, 1995), Metropolis
(Rintaro, 2001), and Yona Yona Penguin
(Rintaro, 2009). The pieces “Spinel” and
“Tellurium” from Songs of the Milky Way and “TERRA”, an étude for saxophone, were
arranged and performed by Honda himself.
Nose Tale is available on the Takun Films 2 DVD, which can be
purchased at Anido. ORDER NOW
