Fukusuke (ふくすけ, 1957)
was the first Ryūichi Yokoyama animation
shot on 35mm, and also the first film he made for Otogi Pro’s distribution deal with Toho. At the time his studio was in a small
building in his garden and he had a very minimal staff. Suzuki
Shin’ichi (currently director of the Suginami
Animation Museum), Hajime Maeda
and Mitsuhiro Machiyama were the only
animators given onscreen credit, but apparently others, including
non-professional family and friends were drafted in to help out (source: Clements,
Anime: A
History, pp. 88-9).
Yokoyama became
famous with his comic strip Fuku-chan
in the 1930s, and clearly liked the concept of “fuku” (luck) so much that he used the name Fukusuke for the central character in this adaptation of his original
children’s storybook.
Plot
「かえるのうちにへんなあかあちゃんうまれました。ふぐしぎなことにあたまがいしのようにかくておもいあかちゃんでした。」
“In the frog home, a strange baby was born. For some mysterious reason, the baby had a hard
head that was heavy like a stone.”
Fukusuke,
the frog is born with a head as heavy as stone. So heavy, in fact, that his
cradle breaks and he lands headfirst. He
grows up having to walk on his hands because his head is too heavy for him to
stand on his hind legs. He jumps on a
pogo stick upside-down and he flies a kite by holding the string with his
toes.
His father
tries to come up with ways of turning Fukusuke right-side-up. He ties helium balloons to Fukusuke’s waist. This works for a while until some nasty birds
ruin the balloons. He then takes him to
a scientist who tries some experimental remedy in his laboratory. The experiment explodes and Furusuke floats
up to the ceiling, defying the laws of gravity.
His father has to bring him home holding him down with strings. They get some heavy shoes made for Furusuke.
This new
solution isn’t perfect – Furusuke has to sleep on the ceiling, and instead of
flying his kite, he flies while his rock-covered kite keeps him from floating
away. By tying himself to his heavy
shoes with strings, he can go wading in the pond to go fishing and butterfly
catching.
As he tries
to catch butterflies, his dancing shoes catch the attention of a dog who runs
to play with them. Before he knows what’s
happening, Fukusuke is flying away with his butterfly net. Up in the clouds, Fukusuke disturbs some kind
of sky god who is amused by him. Tied to the cloud, he uses a broom to create
lightening. Night falls, and he sleeps peacefully while
tied to the cloud. Meanwhile, Fukusuke’s parents look up at the
night sky and cry because they miss him.
The sun
rises the next day, and Fukusuke cries.
His father uses a helicopter to try to find him. After a thorough search, he spots him and
uses a weighted canvas to bring Furusuke and the sky god down to earth.
He calls for
assistance and an army of frogs come to fight the horned sky god. The god uses the clouds and fire as his
weapon. This results in a unique and
amusing fight sequence which goes on for some time. The sky god calls on the elements to help
him. When he leaves, the sky god drops
something. The frog soldiers open the canvas and Furusuke starts to float away
again. His father throws his shoes at
him and Furusuke manages to catch one of them.
They collect the object that the sky god dropped
and Furusuke uses it as a drum. The sky
god hears Furusuke playing the drum and returns to ask for it back, which Furusuke
does. The sky god then sends his son to
give Furusuke a present. He opens the
box to a puff of smoke – it is a spell to return Furusuke’s head to
normal. He removes his heavy shoes and
hops home into the arms of his happy mother.
Style
According to
Shin’ichi Suzuki, Yokoyama directed the animators by showing them the
illustrations in his book and had very little experience as an animator
himself. Animation techniques were
improvised and often experimental in nature (Source: アニメが世界をつなぐ, 2008).
The limitations in budget are pretty obvious from the use of cutouts, undoubtedly
to save on time and 35mm colour film stock, and limited animation techniques
such as repeated cycles.
It is an
amusing, though odd, little story with many clever visual gags. A
Japanese audience would likely say that the film has a Western style, but there
are clues to the fact that it is done by Japanese artists, such as the shape of
the kite and the sky god’s resemblance to a blue oni (demon).
The
character design is excellent and typical of Yokoyama. I like the fact that the animation tells its
story mostly visually with no dialogue.
From today’s perspective the pace of the film is very slow, with sequences lasting
much longer than they would today.
Although the film does repeat cycles a lot, there is sophistication in
the variety of perspectives depicted and the ingenuity in trying out new techniques
to achieve certain effects. For example,
a cutout dial being used to show the passing of time as Fukusuke ages from baby
to child. My favourite technique was the
pulling away of foreground cutouts instead of doing a simple zoom for a moving
inwards. A layer of trees rolls away,
showing its red back, followed by the next layer of trees with a blue back in
the opposite direction, then the fence and clothes line with a yellow back,
revealing the Fuku house in full with the mother and father opening the windows
to draw attention to the action inside of the house.
The
strongest element of this animation is the soundtrack, which was written for
the film by pop and jazz composer Ryōichi
Hattori. Hattori, who is credited
with the revival of Japanese jazz music after the Second World War, created a wonderful
soundscape for the animated short worthy of a Disney or Warner Bros. film. At those moments when I found the animation
was lagging, my attention was diverted to the soundtrack which always had
something intriguing going on.
Credits
Director:
Ryūichi YOKOYAMA横山隆一
Animation (動画):
Hajime MAEDA 前田一
Suzuki SHIN’ICHI 鈴木伸一
Mitsuhiro MACHIYAMA 町山充弘
Music:
Ryōichi Hattori服部良一
Shiseido
Otogi Colour
おとぎカラー
2016 Cathy
Munroe Hotes
