Second Screening / Programme 2e partie 25 Nov- 2014, La Nef,
Wissembourg
The 1970s to the Present / Des années 1970 à nos jours
A Great Unrecognized Figure: Tadanari
Okamoto
Une grande figure méconnue : OKAMOTO
Tadanari
Ten Little Indians /十人の小さなインデイアン (1968)
December Song / 12月のうた (1971)
Chikotan / チコタン ぼくのおよめさん (1971)
The Monkey and the Crab (excerpt) /日本むかしばなしさるかに (1972)
The Soba Flower of Mt. Oni (excerpt) /鬼がくれ山のソバの花
(1979)
Making of: "Are wa dare" (1985)
The Magic Ballad / おこんじょうるり(1983)
Ilan
Nguyen’s second programme of Japanese Auteur Animation opened with the
animation of Tadanari Okamoto (岡本 忠成, 1932
– 1990), an animation genius whose work has been little recognised overseas. As Okamoto made educational films aimed at
Japanese children and adaptations of Japanese folk tales and legends, many of
which are challenging to translate, Nguyen speculated that this may have been
the reason his films were not distributed overseas. In Japan, Okamoto is recognised as one of
their top animators, having won the prestigious Noburo
Ofuji Award for innovation in animation more times than any other animator.
Nguyen
presented an overview of Okamoto’s career, beginning with his decision to
return to university (an unusual thing to do in Japan, even today) to study
filmmaking after seeing Czech puppet animation.
After completing his studies at Nihon University, Okamoto was mentored
by Tadahito Mochinaga at MOM Productions where he worked on the Rankin/Bass productions The New Adventures of Pinocchio (ピノキオの冒険, 1960-1) and Willy
McBean and his Magic Machine (1965).
He then set up his own studio Echo Productions in 1964 where he was to
make nearly 40 films before his untimely death at the age of 58. Nguyen spoke about the dedicated team of
people who Okamoto employed at Echo Production who worked well together and
contributed to the excellence of his films.
This team included puppet artisan Sumiko
Hosaka (保坂純子, b. 1930), puppet maker / animator Fumiko Magari (真賀里文子),
who both teach at the Laputa
Art Animation School, and cinematographer Minoru Tamura (田村実).
Nguyen also spoke
about the special friendship between Okamoto and his fellow puppet animator Kihachirō Kawamoto (川本 喜八郎, 1925-2010), with whom he collaborated on the Kawamoto+ Okamoto Puppet Anime-Shows (1972-1980).
Kawamoto is an internationally recognised animation auteur, but as his
work is widely available on DVD, Nguyen chose to shine his spotlight on Okamoto
for the RICA audience. He did; however,
show a five-minute clip from a recording of a theatrical presentation of a
scene from The Romance of the Three
Kingdoms (三国志/Sangokushi, 1982-4) which was performed as part of the
homage to the great puppet master after his death in 2010.
All of the
Okamoto films Nguyen presented were on 35mm, which was a special treat. Although the complete box set of Okamoto presents
the films in their restored glory, there is something wonderful a about seeing
the films in their original format. The
films were not subtitled, so Nguyen did live French interpretation. The short documentary Making of Are wa dare , is a real treasure because it demonstrates in brief how Echo
Productions makes a film from storyboard to character and set design to filming
on an impressive multi-plane animation table in order to create depth of
space.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014
Coming Soon:
Japanese
Auteur Animation at RICA Wissembourg, Part 4 : Auteurs of the 2nd
and 3rd Generations
