In 1997 at
the Mainichi Film Awards, Nozomi
Nagasaki became the first woman to win the 1996 Noburō
Ōfuji Award for innovation in animation for her stop motion animated short Home Alone (るすばん/ Rusuban, 1996). Since then only one
other woman has won the award: Geidai grad Onohana
for Crazy Little Thing in 2014.
Home Alone is a stop motion animation
that uses a mixture of cutouts, objects, and a puppet designed by Sumiko Hosaka (learn
more). The central character is an
anthropomorphic kitten who is catlike in many ways, but is playing the role of
a child left home alone for the day. The kitten seems quite bored at first, alone
in the house but for a chicken with a ball and chain (?!). The kitten plays with a toy mouse, makes a
face at a portrait of his family (his mother makes a face back startling him)
and reads a storybook unenthusiastically.
The only sounds are those made by the cat and a clock ticking loudly on
the wall.
Suddenly the
clock increases in tempo and falls from the wall, and the objects in the room
come to life. The books seem to attack
the cat, his pillows transform into clouds and fly away. His two-dimensional parents jump out of the family
portrait to join him and his boots and raincoat come to life. The room fills
with an ocean complete with flying fish. An alligator eats the sun up on the ceiling. It is
a chaotic and surreal scene. The
frenetic nature of the scene is emphasized by a percussion soundtrack. Then just as quickly as the room came to
life, it all disappears again leaving the kitten alone with the ticking clock.
Although the
animation style is not mainstream, the film is aimed at a child audience. According to N+G Production’s website,
their aim is to “try to make sensitive animations,” and they “do not want to
bombard children with too much noise and too many images.” The film seems to be deliberately not kawaii.
I don’t know that the film is “sensitive” by my understanding of the
term. In fact, with its unusual imagery
and sound effects, it has much more in common with 19th century tales
for children than those of the late 20th century. By that I mean that it unsettling in the
manner of the original tale of Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll in contrast to the
Disney-fied (Alice in Wonderland,
1951). Although nothing really scary
happens, I would hesitate to show the film to a young child because of the eerie,
almost nightmarish imagery. The audience
at Nippon Connection 2016 was amused by the absurdity of the film, laughing out
loud at the unusual sound effects.
Nozomi Nagasaki (長崎希) was born in Tokyo and graduated from Waseda
University. In the early part of her
career she worked as an animator for both Tadanari
Okamoto and Kihachirō Kawamoto. She
has her own studio, N&G Production
where she directs and animates stop motion using a variety of techniques including
puppets, clay, objects and cutouts. In addition
to her independent animation Nagasaki has made animation for commercials, children’s
television, movies, and video packages.
She directed a film about stop motion animation, The World of Handmade Animation Films (ハンドメイド・アニメーション映画の世界,
2001). See her complete
independent filmography.
Home Alone screened as part of the
programme A
Wild Patience – Indie Animated Shorts by Women at Nippon Connection
2016. It appears on the ASIFA-JAPAN DVD, vol 1, which
can be used for non-profit screenings celebrating International Animation Day
(IAD) held by ASIFA national groups.
Watch the
trailer for Home Alone here.
Credits:
Director
Nozomi
NAGASAKI
Assistant
Director
Yoshihiro SHINOHARA
Puppet
Design
Sumiko
HOSAKA (Ningyo Kobo)
Set Design
Junko MURAYAMA
Cinematographer
Minoru
TAMURA
Animation
Nozomi
NAGASAKI
Sound
Effects
Satoshi
ISHIGAKI (Image Factory)
Recording
Isamu KATTO
(Tokyo TV Centre)
Editing
Hisako
AIZAWA
Developing
IMAGICA
Special
Thanks to
Satoko
OKAMOTO (Echo Co. Ltd.)
Takashi KOMAE
Masako
WATANABE
Production
N+G
Production
