At 5 o’clock in the evening in most
Japanese towns and cities loudspeakers blast out a short melody. This is the cue for children that it’s time
to go home for supper – although, as Alice
Gordener explains in The Japan Times and on her blog (complete with sample melodies), it’s main
function is actually as the daily test for Japan’s emergency warning
system. In It’s Time for Supper (夜ごはんの時刻/Yorugohan
no jikoku, 2013), animator Saki
Muramoto depicts the time between when the chimes ring, so to
speak, and suppertime.
Using a monochrome grey colour
palette to illustrate the look and feel of dusk, the film opens with children
in a circle playing leapfrog (in Japanese馬跳び / umatobi, IE. "horseleaping”).
Their play is interrupted by the gentle 5 o’clock melody and the
children – round, animal-like humanoids – line up patiently at the water
fountain for their turn to wash their hands (Japanese play grounds always have
a water fountain for drinking, with a tap on the side for washing).
With the shadows growing longer, the
children depart the playground to go on their various routes home, and we are treated
to a series of vignettes that depict the kinds of things people encounter at
dusk in urban Japan. A man waits at a
bus stop feeding birds crumbs, when one of the children glides through on his
scooter causing the birds to fly away. A parent and child come home from a
supermarket with their bags piled so high that they cannot see where they are
going and others have to negotiate their way around them. A parent holds hands with four children of
descending height at a bus stop and the kids try to jump over the shadows of
passing vehicles. A group of kids get
stuck waiting at a train crossing. The
kid on the scooter encounters a dog tied up outside a shop, impatiently waiting
for his owner to come out.
The film cuts between these and
other vignettes, painting a picture of the daily habits of this typical urban
neighbourhood. It’s a snapshot of a
Japanese city at dusk and viewers will smile with recognition of things that
they themselves regularly do or witness at that time of day. There is a lovely added touch of a group of
snails next to a jidō-hanbaiki (自動販売機 / vending machine) preparing the night as well – a small reminder that
the natural world also tries to fit in to this manmade environment. It’s a lovely, observant little film and has
screened widely at festivals, including making the Jury Selection for the 17th
Japan Media Arts Festival (2013).
Saki Muramoto
(村本咲, b. 1988) was born in Shizuoka. She did her undergraduate studies in the
Department of Visual Media at Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences (2011) and
has an MA in Animation from Tokyo University of the Arts (2013). It’s
Time for Supper was her graduate film project. Learn more about her on her blog.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014
