L'Animation Indépendante Japonaise, Volume1 (DVD/Blu-Ray release, FR/EN/JP, 2013)
The French
indie label Les Films du Paradoxe, who have a terrific catalogue of
animation DVDs from Te Wei to Paul Driessen, have collaborated with CaRTe
bLaNChe to release a combination DVD/Blu-Ray of Japanese independent
animated shorts made between 2006 and 2012.
The selection features a wide range of experimental techniques from
drawn animation to pixilation.
The
selection opens with two films by Shin
Hashimoto (橋本新, b. 1978) of CALF, an up-and-coming Tama Art University graduate who has become
known for the dark, atmospheric nature of his works. Beluga
(ベルーガ, 2011) is a nightmarish take on the story of the
little match girl which, won a special mention at Zagreb 2012. This is followed by his earlier film The Undertaker and the Dog (葬儀屋と犬/Sougiya to Inu,
2010), a deeply disturbing yet beautifully painted film that was widely praised
by critics when it screened at international festivals.
The unique aesthetic
of experimental filmmaker Isamu
Hirabayashi (平林勇, b.1972) became known to a wider audience in 2011/12
when his animated short 663114 (2011)
received high honours from being invited to the Biennale in Venice to winning
the Noburo
Ofuji Award. As I wrote in my
review of the film last year, it is one of the most profound responses to Tohoku
disaster, and it is worth buying this selection just to see it on Blu-ray.
Hiroki Okamura (岡村寛生, b.
1968) and Takumi Kawai (川合匠, b. 1968), better known as Kawai + Okamura (カワイオカムラ, since 1993), are a creative
duo who both teach at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. As students at Kyoto City University, Okamura
majored in oil painting and Kawai in sculptor, but today they are best known
for their innovative films and installations that combine a number of different
techniques from CGI to stop motion. Columbos (コロンボス,
2012) is a reimagining of the legendary television detective Columbo with puppets. It is a unique puppet animation unlike
anything I have ever seen before with unbelievable use of lighting, special
effects, and choreography of figures.
Acclaimed CALF
animator, Mirai Mizue (水江未来, b. 1981), has contributed two of his recent films Tatamp (2011) and Modern No. 2 (2011). Tatamp is an example of Mizue’s
distinctive “cell animation” style that feature a chorus of little amoeba-like,
colourful cells whose movements and shapes are inextricable from the soundtrack
(read
my full review). Modern No. 2 is an example of Mizue’s experiments
with geometric animation. Learn more
about this style of animation in my post The
Modern Films of Mirai Mizue.
Yoriko Mizushiri (水尻自子,
1984) is a graduate of the Joshibi University of Art and Design in
Kanagawa. Her trademark animation style is
to focus on individual parts of the body from an original perspective. Her 2012 animated short Futon (布団) won a number of prizes in Japan including the prestigious
Renzo Kinoshita Prize at Hiroshima and the New Face Award at the Japan Media
Arts Festival. It has also been a big hit at international festivals, making
the short list for Cartoon Brew’s most
well liked animated short of 2013. The
second film of hers featured on this DVD, Kappo
(かっぽ, 2006), demonstrates that Mizushiri established her
unique style early on in her career.
Another CALF
animator, Kei Oyama (大山慶,
1978), also features on this DVD. His fleshy,
disturbing, yet strangely poignant film Hand
Soap (ハンドルソープ, 2008) won prizes at Oberhausen, Holland, and
Hiroshima. Read my
review here. The
animation community is anxiously awaiting the release of his latest work After School, which crowdsourced funding on Camp-fire
in 2012. He’s taking a risk by trying
out a totally new style – can’t wait to see the results.
Dreams (2011) is the last collaborative
film by long-time friends and colleagues Keiichi
Tanaami (田名網敬一, b.1933) and Nobuhiro
Aihara (相原信洋, 1944-2011). Up
until Aihara’s
sudden death in 2011, the two well-established artists made 15 films together
in just over a decade – many of which can be found on the 2011 Chalet Pointu/CaRTe
bLaNChe/ARTE DVD Portrait
of Keiichi Tanaami. The films came
out of the fact that both artists were teaching at Kyoto University of Art and
Design. The collaborative process
consisted of one of the artists drawing a picture for a scene and leaving it on
the other’s desk. The other artist would
add to it or remove some parts and put it on the first artist’s desk, and so on
back and forth until the film developed.
This kind of artistic “correspondence” was unique in the art world and
it is a mesmeric experience to watch their complementary styles on screen
together. Dreams is followed by the prolific Tanaami’s latest offering: Red-Colored Bridge (2012). In his characteristic brightly coloured style,
Tanaami uses the symbolic red bridge to heaven found in traditional Japanese
gardens to take us on a psychedelic, erotic, and spiritual journey into his
imagination.
There are
few animators today who truly embody the creative spirit of my favourite
animator, Norman McLaren, and TOCHKA (トーチカ,
since 1998) is one of them. TOCHKA is
the husband-wife animation team Takeshi
Nagata (ナガタタケシ, b.1978) and Kazue
Monno (モンノカヅエ, b.1978) who are known for their innovative PiKA
PiKA light animation films (read
more about them and learn how you can order a DVD of their works). This DVD features their original 2006 film PiKA PiKA and their latest film MAZE (2012). In MAZE,
Nagata and Monno have come up with yet another innovative new way to showcase
their PiKA PiKA animation: on a grid pattern of 12x4 squares. A team of assistants with different coloured
lights act like pixilated Bunraku performers colouring in and around the blocks
with light. This film required
meticulous planning and choreography. My favourite moment is the Pac-Man inspired
sequence where a yellow arrow and a couple of stars negotiate a maze.
The DVD/Blu-ray
concludes with two recent films by acclaimed CALF animator Atsushi Wada (和田淳, 1980). The
Great Rabbit (グレートラビット, 2012) is Wada’s most successful film to date
winning him the Silver Bear at the 62nd Berlinale among other
honours – read my
review here. And finally, as
I wrote in 2010, I consider The
Mechanism of Spring (春のしくみ, 2010) to be “Wada’s most
light-hearted film to date, capturing the delight that young children and
animals take in the season. The young chubby boys examine the wildlife, take
off their shirts and run about gaily, and observe a plant sprouting out of the
earth, among other delights.” I like
that they chose to end the DVD with this uplifting film.
On the
whole, this is a terrific selection of recent independent animation from Japan
--- the best collection since Image Forum’s Thinking
and Drawing: Japanese Art Animation in the New Millennium (2005) and Tokyo Loop
(2006). The greatest thing about this DVD/Blu-ray is that it is called Volume
1, suggesting that we can expect more DVDs in the future. It has French and English subtitles and can be ordered via Amazon France. For those of you in Tokyo, Koji Yamamura’s new animation museum/shop
Au Praxinoscope in Setagaya has the
film on their list.
Catherine
Munroe Hotes 2013
