Best 10 Japanese Documentaries of All Time

Last month, the Gifu-based Italian film critic Matteo Boscarol put out a call for critics and fans of Japanese documentaries to put together their Best 10 Japanese Documentaries of all time on his new blog Storia(e) del documentario in Giappone ~ percorsi ed esplorazioni nella storia del cinema di non-fiction nipponico.  It is always hard to choose just ten films and then arrange them numerically, especially with a country that has such a rich documentary tradition.  My least favourite documentaries in Japan are the television variety with their unnecessary voice-over narrations.  I have chosen for my list a cross-section of different documentary types in addition to the necessary classics.  

1.  Tokyo Olympiad (東京オリンピック, Kon Ichikawa, 1965)

I have a personal connection to this film, because my aunt has a small cameo in it, but that is not why I have chosen in as my number one Japanese documentary of all time.  Growing up with a sport teacher for a father I have seen countless sports documentaries in my time, which I suspect was why the experience of watching Tokyo Olympiad for the first time made such as impact on me.  The scope of the film is like no other sports documentary, and its focus not just on the great highs but also on the great lows of the event makes the film unique.  It is also a brilliant (deliberate) counterpoint to Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938), which in the 1960s was the best sports film ever made in spite of its problematic subject matter.  One of my favourite sequences is the marathon, which I wrote about in World Film Locations: Tokyo (ed. Chris MaGee, 2011).  The marathon route followed the historic Kōshū Kaidō (甲州街道), one of the Five Edo Routes (五街道) that connected the outer provinces to the capital in ancient times.

2.  A Man Vanishes (人間蒸発, Shōhei Imamura, 1967)

This is such a brilliant film in the way that it plays with our expectations as documentary spectators.  It begins in a relatively straight-forward way presenting itself as a documentary about the riddle of an ordinary man who disappears without a trace.  But instead of presenting a mystery and then solving it, the film begins to cast doubt on the nature of the missing man’s relationships, business ventures, and even the role of the documentary filmmaker himself.  The complexity of humanity, and the difficulties in discerning what is real from what is illusion are expertly probed in this film.   

3.  Minamata: The Victims and Their World (水俣 患者さんとその世界, Noriaki Tsuchimoto, 1971)

The first in a series of documentaries Tsuchimoto made about the plight of victims of Minamata disease, this film has become the standard for films about people suffering at the hands of unfeeling corporations / governments.  Read my review of this film to learn more.

4.  Pica-don (ピカドン, Renzō and Sayoko Kinoshita, 1978)

Following on the success of Chris Landreth’s Ryan (2004) and Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir (2008), the animated documentary genre has grown in stature in recent years.  In the 1970s, it was a genre rarely used.  The Kinoshitas’ powerful depiction of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima uses cutout animation to depict the horrors of that day.  Based on the testimony and drawings of survivors, the film drives home the message that we should never forget and never allow this atrocity to happen again.  Read my review to learn more. 

5.  The Shiranui Sea (不知火海, Noriaki Tsuchimoto, 1975)

Emotionally for me, this is the most powerful of Tsuchimoto’s documentaries about the Minamata disaster.  Fishermen continue to fish the poisoned waters, discarding their catch because it is inedible, because fishing is all that they know.   It explores just how deeply the mercury poisoning has affected the community in Minamata, particularly the children – innocent victims who have been neurologically scarred for life.  See trailer for the Zakka Films release.

6.  Antonio Gaudi (アントニー・ガウディー, Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1985)

With very little spoken word, this mesmerising film takes us on a cinematic journey through the fantastic career of Catalan architect Gaudi (1852-1926).  Alongside films like Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (1983) and Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929), it ranks among the most poetic documentary films of all time for me.

7.  Genpin (玄牝, Naomi Kawase, 2010)

As I wrote in my review of this film in 2011, this is the most is the most beautiful documentary I have ever seen about child birth.  It is also the most informative for the way in which it records the varied experiences, hopes, and fears of the women.  Although the birthing methods might not appeal to all women, I would encourage pregnant women to watch the film for an alternative perspective on pregnancy and child birth.

8.  Hitomi Kamanaka’s films about nuclear power and radiation:

Hibakusha at the End of the World (ヒバクシャ 世界の終わりに, 2003)

Rokkasho Rhapsody (六ヶ所村ラプソディー, 2006)

Ashes to Honey (ミツバチの羽音と地球の回転, 2010)

I really couldn’t decide which of Hitomi Kamanaka’s films to rank as "the best" as they complement each other so well and the issues they raise concerning radiation and the use of nuclear power in Japan are even more important in the wake of the Fukushima disaster than they were when Kamanaka started out on her cinematic journey.  Read my reviews of Rokkasho Rhapsody and Ashes to Honey to learn more.  Her films can be ordered from Zakka Films. 

9.  AK: Akira Kurosawa (A.K. ドキュメント黒澤明, Chris Marker, 1985)

This documentary is not everyone’s cup of tea with everyone from hard-core Kurosawa fans to even Vincent Canby of the New York Times blasting it for a variety of reasons (read my review of the film to learn more).   Often packaged as a DVD extra, the film is often mistakenly viewed as a bad “Making of” Ran (乱, 1985) documentary, but that is not what it is at all.  Marker has created a carefully crafted homage not just to Kurosawa himself but to the team who worked closely with him.  

10.  ANPO: Art X War (Linda Hoaglund, 2010)

An amazing film about the psychological impact of war and occupation on the Japanese psyche, as told through the art, photography, and films of the post-war period.  Read my full review here.

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2015

A Look Back at 2014 in Japanese Animation

There was a fair bit of brouhaha this year surrounding the fact that for the first time in its 30-year history, no films by Japanese animators featured in the official selection of the Hiroshima International Animation Festival.  This state of affairs says more about the tastes of the selection committee – who had to whittle 2,214 films from 74 countries down to just 59 – than it does about the state of indie animation in Japan, which continues to thrive thanks in part to the efforts of animation schools who are attracting young animators from both inside and outside of Japan. 

See: BestJapanese Indie Animation Shorts 2014

Japanese animation and animators received nods from most international festivals this year, with Isao Takahata’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語, 2013) being a critical favourite.  Among its many accolades, the film screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, opened the Annecy festival, and screened at TIFF as part of its Masters’ Programme.  The big Studio Ghibli film of the year was of course When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー, 2014) directed by Hiromasa Yonebayshi.  The film opened in third place at the box office and has been warmly received by critics.  Studio Ghibli fans have something to look forward to as the film slowly makes its way around the globe.  The lucky French get the film next with a cinema release slated for the 14^th of January.   

Makoto Shinkai’s The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭, 2013), continued to do well at festivals for a second year by winning the AniMovie award for best feature at Stuttgart.  Mizuho Nishikubo and Production I.G. racked up many prizes for Giovanni’s Island (ジョバンニの島, 2014) including the Jury Distinction award at Annecy, the Satoshi Kon Award at Fantasia, and an Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. 

In terms of franchises, the 22^nd Crayon Shin-chan movie Crayon Shin-chan: Serious Battle! Robot Dad Strikes Back (クレヨンしんちゃん ガチンコ!逆襲のロボ とーちゃん, 2014), directed by Kazuki Nagashima was both a critical and financial success, winning an Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival.   The Doraemon franchise traded 2D for 3D in the computer animated feature Stand by Me Doraemon (STAND BY ME ドラえもん, 2014), directed by Takashi Yamazaki (of Always: Sunset on Third Street fame) and Ryūichi Yagi.  Pony Canyon will be releasing a deluxe edition Blu-ray of the film in February 2015.  The Naruto franchise celebrated its 15^th anniversary with their tenth feature film The Last: Naruto the Movie (ザ・ラスト ナルト・ザ・ムービー, 2014) earlier this month and performed well at the box office.

The most popular forum for animation in Japan continues to be TV, and there were a number of innovative series this year.  I have long been a fan of Masaaki Yuasa, and his adaptation of Taiyō Matsumoto’s manga PING PONG (2014) for Tatsunoko Production did not disappoint with its bold colours and innovative use of split screens and interesting framing.  Trigger’s Kill la Kill (キルラキル, 2013 - present) has been very popular with anime fans this year with its compelling mix of comedy and action sequences.  Director Hiroyuki Imaishi is known for his frantic animation pace and the choreography of his fight sequences cannot be beat.  Other series that have caught my attention this year are Shinichirō Watanabe’s suspenseful series Terror in Resonance (残響のテロル, 2014), and Masaki Tachibana’s super-sweet adaptation of the manga Barakamon (ばらかもん, 2014)

My heart of course lies in independent animation and I treated myself with a trip to Stuttgart this year for the animation festival.  I got a chance to chat with the delightful Maya Yonesho, who does innovative Daumenreisen animation workshops, and her husband, the German animator Thomas Meyer-Hermann.    Kōji Yamamura was at Stuttgart with Hiromitsu Murakami (A boy who wanted to be a super-hero) and a group of Geidai students including Yuanyuan Hu (Sunset Flower Blooming), Mari Miyazawa (Decorations, Twins in the Bakery), Yantong Zhu (My Milk Cup Cow), Ayasa Kugenuma (The Blooms) and Saki Muramoto (It’s Time for Supper)

I was delighted to have Yamamura as my guest at Nippon Connection this year.   His presentation of the Geidai (Tokyo University of Arts) student film screening was sold out once again and we had a strong turnout for his retrospective.  The animation programme was very strong with Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s Patema Inverted (2013), Shinichiro Watanabe and Shingo Natsume’s innovated series Space Dandy (2014), and the Short Peace (2013) omnibus by Katsuhiro Otomo, Shuhei Morita, Hiroaki Ando and Hajime Katoki rounding things off.

My trip to Japan for a Satoyama Forum in Fukui Prefecture coincided nicely with the Hiroshima International Animation Festival this year so I was able to catch up with many Japanese / Japan-based independent animators of all generations.  I came home with a big pile of sample DVDs that I have only just barely begun to work my way through.  Some of the highlights were meeting legendary puppet animator Fumiko Magari, who worked on the films of both Tadanari Okamoto and Kihachirō Kawamoto; meeting Osamu Tezuka’s son Macoto Tezka at the premiere of Legend of the Forest, Part 2.  Other faces at the festival included Masatoki Minami, who gave me a copy of his documentary on Wagorō Arai, Taku Furukawa, Yōji Kuri, Takashi Namiki and the Anido gang, Tamaki Okamoto and many of the filmmakers she represents, Geidai animators and staff, Tatsutoshi Nomura and Tamabi animators, Makiko Sukikara +  Kōhei Matsumura (While the Crow Weeps) and, of course, the great leader of the whole affair Sayoko Kinoshita and her tireless volunteers.  Needless to say, I came back with an armful of sample DVDs that I am slowly working my way through for 2015.  See: Japan Animation Today to learn more about the Japanese selection at Hiroshima 2014.

I also had a chance to go to Wissembourg, France to hear Ilan Nguyen give talks on Japanese Auteur Animation at RICA.  At Wissembourg I had a chance to interview Czech animator Jiří Barta about his Japanese co-production Yuki Onna (2014) – an adaptation of one of Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan tales.  Interview and review to be published early in the New Year.  I am also hoping to write up my notes taken during Michèle Lemieux’s presentation on the pinscreen and Phil Comeau’s documentary Frédérick Back: Grandeur nature, which features interviews with Isao Takahata and Takashi Namiki.

I concluded my year in animation at the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt for the opening of Oscar-prize winner Thomas Stellmach and artist Maja Oschmann’s exhibition the Making of Virtuos Virtuell.  I had seen Virtuos Virutell at Hiroshima and was impressed by its pairing of animation and the music of Louis Spohr.  There is a hint of Japanese aesthetic with their use of a sumi-e brush for some of the technique.  The exhibition will continue until February 22, 2015. 

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014

A Visit to Tochka’s Studio in Kyoto

After Hiroshima 2014, I jumped on the Shinkansen to Kyoto to meet up with my family and some of the researchers headed to the Satoyama Concept gathering with us in Fukui Prefecture.  Of course, I could not stop in Kyoto without paying a visit to one of my favourite animation teams: TOCHKA.  I have been following their projects for many years (see: Tochka Works 2001-2010) and had the chance of participating in one of their PiKA PiKA Workshops at Nippon Connection 2011.

Tochka (トーチカ) is a collaborative art team led by Takeshi Nagata (ナガタタケシ, b. 1978) and Kazue Monno (モンノカヅエ, b. 1978).  The couple met as art students at Kyoto College of Art where they were mentored by the late experimental animator Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, 1944-2011).  Tochka are renowned stop motion animators who have won acclaim at international festivals including Ottawa (Honorable Mention, 2006), the Japan Media Arts Festival (Excellence Award, 2006), and Clermont-Ferrand (Grand Prix, 2008).  Nagata also works in the Moving Image Lab at the Osaka Electro-Communication University.  They are best known for their innovative PiKA PiKA (Lightning Doodle) animation technique. 

Tochka has recently moved to new studios in a former elementary school which the local government has converted into studio spaces for artists.  With its high ceilings, oversized windows and beautiful hardwood floors, it is the perfect location for artists to work.  There are a number of other artists working in the building including sculptors and painters. 

Takeshi Nagata showed me some of their recent work including a stop motion using objects they had around their studio for a collaborative work for the Korean Indie-Anifest and the trailer for the Nara Arts Festival (奈良県大芸術祭, Sept 1 – November 30), which has been playing on video screens throughout Nara Prefecture’s transportation system since August.  The trailer features three dimensional PiKA PiKA animation dancing around some of Nara’s most famous historical and cultural sites starting with a beautiful pixillation sequence of the sun setting on the legendary Ishibutai Tomb (石舞台古墳), one of the ancient stone monuments in Asuka.    The sun appears to light a flame inside the tomb, which gives birth to a PiKA PiKA animation of the Chinese character 大 (big), which features in the title of the festival (the literal translation of the festival name is Nara Prefecture Big Arts Festival).  This character has a lot of significance in Nara because it is home to the oldest Daibutsu (大仏/ “Big Buddha”) statue at Asuka-dera and the most famous Daibutsu at Tōdai-ji.

There a glorious pixilation sequence of the Daibutsu at Tōdai-ji in which PiKA PiKA Lightning Doodles appear to dance around the Buddha as the camera sweeps in a 180° rotation around the pedestal and wood beams housing the statue.  Colourful PiKA PiKA大 characters also swirl around the spiral in Muro Sanjo Park Art Forest.  No advertisement for a festival in Nara would be complete without an appearance of the mascot Sento-kun (せんとくん ), designed by Nara City Office to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the completion of Nara Heijō-kyō (the ancient capital of Japan) in 2010.  The character looks like an infant Buddha with antler representing the deer for which Nara is famous. 

Tochka were a great choice for this trailer, because the collaborative nature of PiKA PiKA animation – as demonstrated in the sequences showing participants of all ages – really captures the kind of inclusive atmosphere one expects at a festival.  It certainly made me wish I was in Nara to enjoy the sights and festival events.

At Tochka’s studios we also saw footage from a recent installation project they did near their Kyoto Studios which allowed children to experience a Mission Impossible style space.  Using movement sensitive lights, they rigged up a room with “laser beams” that the children had to try to navigate without toughing the beams of light.  It looked like a lot of fun for the participants.

Order: Okappa-chan Tabi ni Deru

Nagata-san gave me a copy of his feature film Okappa-chan Travels Abroad (おかっぱちゃん旅に出る/ Okappa-chan Tabi ni Deru, 2011).  This a feature film adaptation of the autobiographical illustrated book of the same name by the writer/artist Boojil (ブージル, b. 1984).  Boojil stars as her quirky self as she recreates her journey of self-discovery in Thailand and Laos.  The film is in Thai, Japanese, and English and the Japanese DVD release comes with subtitles in all three languages plus Korean and Chinese.   The DVD includes a postcard featuring art by Boojil, Boojil stickers, and a detailed booklet.  You can order a copy through cdjapan.

After our studio tour, Tochka took us to the Kyoto International Manga Museum where we could browse their extensive collection of manga, learn about the history of manga, and explore the fascinating exhibit of 43 Years, 18,000 Pages – The Complete Works of Tsuchida Seiki (土田世紀全原画展――43年、18,000枚).  Seiki (土田世紀, 1969-2012) was a highly respected manga-ka who won the Excellent Prize at the Media Arts Festival in 1999 for Under the Same Moon (同じ月を見ている) which was adapted into a film of the same name by Kenta Fukusaku in 2005.  Seiki was due to contribute to Shueisha’s new Grand Jump Premium magazine in 2012 when he died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of only 43 (Source: ANN).  The Manga Museum’s exhibit demonstrated the astounding output of this artist who was cut short at the height of his powers.  The most moving sections for me were the room with a glass floor where you could walk over scattered pages of his work, and Seiki’s plain, empty desk covered in scratch marks and ink spills. 

By this time, our tummies were growling, so Tochka took us out to Kyoto’s unofficial "Ramen Street" – the approximately 30+ ramen restaurants on and around Hagishi Oji Dori.  The reason for the congregation of reasonably priced Chinese noodles is the proximity to Kyoto’s university campuses.  As the more popular spots had giant line ups, we went for a simple family run place that really hit the spot.  

After lunch, we popped around the corner to Keibunsha Ichijoji (恵文社一乗寺店) Bookstore, Gift Shop, and Art Gallery.  We could have easily dropped a fortune on lovely things at this amazing shop.  They even had unusual works like Kōji Yamamura’s Muybridge’s Strings Flip Books (a tie in to his NFB co-production) and pins of Uncle Torys  (トリスおじさん) – the animated character designed by indie animation pioneer Ryōhei Yanagihara to advertise Suntory’s Torys Whisky.  I got a pin, while the kids bought books about Kaiju. 

We concluded our day with Tochka with Nagata-san taking us to the Sagano Romantic Train (嵯峨野観光鉄道).  Particularly popular in autumn, the train took us along the Hozu River with views of the gorge and a glimpse of Satoyama at the end before we headed back.  It was a wonderful day and Tochka’s hospitality is hard to beat.  I hope we can return the favour by having them as our guests in Germany in the near future.  

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2014

A Look Back at 2013 in Japanese Animation

2013 was a wonderful year for feature-length animation in Japan.  Studio Ghibli released new films from their great masters Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.  The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, 2013) gave Miyazaki a chance to indulge in his love of aviation and Shōwa nostalgia, while Takahata has adapted the much-loved folktale “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” in his first feature film in over a decade, The Tale of Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語, 2013). 

The usual franchise suspects did well at the Japanese box office this year with Detective Conan: Private Eye in the Distant Sea (2013) becoming the Conan franchise’s highest grossing film ever.  Crayon Shin-chan starred in his 21^st feature film: Crayon Shin-chan: Very Tasty! B-class Gourmet Survival (2013) and did well at the box office, as did Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum (2013).  Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013) shot to number one at the box office showing at all 16 of Japan’s IMAX Digital Theaters.  Variety also reported that the film ranked number 5 overseas, making it the top-ranking non-Hollywood film on the chart.  Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s Patema Inverted (サカサマのパテマ, 2013) and Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版：Q) received the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival 2013, while Ghost in the Shell Arise - Border 1: Ghost Pain (2013), Blue Exorcist (青の祓魔師2012), and Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (2013) all got special mentions.

As I do not live in Japan, J-films usually come to a screen near me via festivals the following year. This year, I was particularly lucky that Nippon Connection 2013  had a strong programme of animation.   I was delighted to finally see legendary animator Gisaburo Sugii’s Kenji Miyazawa-inspired The Life of Budori Gusuko (グスコーブドリの伝記, 2012) on the big screen featuring the same Hiroshi Masumura anthropomorphic cat characters that he used in his earlier classic Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜, 1985).  One of the most under-rated animated feature films of 2012, The Life of Budori Gusuko has a timely environmental message, likely inspired by Kenji Miyazawa’s love for the countryside of his native Iwate Prefecture.

Also at Nippon Connection, Mamoru Hosoda’s bittersweet tale Wolf Children (おおかみこどもの雨と雪, 2012).  After successful stints at Toei (Digimon Adventure, One Piece) and Madhouse (Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars), Hosoda has entered a new stage in his career by establishing his own studio: Studio Chizu.  Thematically, the film has much in common with Isao Takahata’s Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ, 1994) except instead of a species under threat of human development, the central characters are a species who are extinct in Japan – the Honshū wolf – and have only managed to survive into the modern era by becoming half human. 

Nippon Connection also presented a collection of Toho animated shorts under the title Kami Usagi Ropé: The Last Day of Summer Vacation (映画「紙兎ロぺ」 つか、夏休みラスイチってマジっすか!?, 2012), a retrospective of Sci-Fi Anime (1966-2011) and Hiroyuki Okiura’s well-received 2011 film A Letter to Momo (ももへの手紙 / Momo e no tegami).  However, the most innovative films on the programme were Keiichi Sato’s disturbing tale of the feral child Asura (アシュラ, 2012), which you can read about here, and Uchija’s grotesque The Burning Buddha Man (燃える仏像人間, 2012) – which actually is not really an animation but an elaborate puppet film using highly detailed cut-outs.  There was also an excellent selection of shorts from Geidai university – a couple of which made my Best JapaneseIndie Animation Shorts of 2013.

I had been concerned from early on in his career that Makoto Shinkai might buckle under the unnecessary pressure of people calling him the “new Miyazaki” – unnecessary because I think his style of animation is very different from the man he admires.  The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭, 2013), which I picked up the day it was released on DVD/Blu-ray in Canada in August, is a lovely 45-minute film that explores a May-December romance between a young man from a broken home and an older woman he meets at the park.  The highlight of the film for me is the scenery which is based on photographs of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden – natsukashii!

A heavy teaching schedule meant that I did not get into any anime series this year, but there are enough anime bloggers out there to cover this genre.  Check out the lists by haruhichan, kotaku, lostinanime, not to mention a terrific overview of the whole cultural year in Japan by Néojaponism.

The highlights of 2013 were, of course, the indie shorts that came my way.  Check out my top 15 in the following post:  Best Japanese Indie Animation Shorts 2013.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Bambi Meets Godzilla (バンビ、ゴジラに会う, 1969)

I cannot hear the lyrical melody of Rossini’s Ranz des Vaches (Call to the Dairy Cows) from William Tell (1829) without bursting into a fit of giggles.  This affliction dates back to my early childhood.  My parents were elementary school teachers in London, Ontario.  In those days, educational films were distributed to schools via a 16mm film library held by the London Board of Education.  For my birthday party one year – I believe I was turning 9 or 10 years old – my parents brought a projector home with a collection of animated shorts for my friends and me to watch.  The only film that I recall from the party is Marv Newland’s classic Bambi Meets Godzilla (バンビ、ゴジラに会う, 1969).  If you have not yet seen it, it only lasts about a minute and a half and can be viewed on Vimeo.

The film was made while Newland was still a student in California – he talks about it a little bit in an Anifest interview here – and quickly became a cult classic.  In today’s world in which the internet is patrolled by over-zealous corporations protecting their copyrights and infringing upon freedom of artistic expression, it is doubtful that such a film could be made without the threat of a lawsuit.  Newman did not ask Disney or Toho for permission for his send-up of / homage to their iconic Bambi and Godzilla characters. 

The main conceit of the film is that more than half of the less than two-minute film is taken up by hilarious opening credits and closing acknowledgements.  This is partly a commentary on the growing length of film credits (in the early days, films only credited key people, but by the 1960s the opening and closing credits were getting longer), but it is mainly a suspense technique leading up to the extremely quick “action” of the film.  The opening credits are drawn out for 50 seconds, eliciting chuckles from the audience first when they notice that Marv Newman has done everything, and second when the jobs credited become ludicrous. 

At the 50 second mark, the credits are interrupted by the sudden appearance of Godzilla’s foot flattening poor, unsuspecting Bambi like a pancake.  The “action” lasts just under 2 seconds, then after a few beats for the audience to get over their shock / laughter, the acknowledgements appear, thanking the city of Tokyo for the loan of their most infamous Kaiju.  While watching the film online recently, I got nostalgic for the old 16mm projectors because at my birthday party, in addition to re-watching the film several times, we also watched it backwards and laughed ourselves silly at the sight of Godzilla’s foot going up off-screen and Bambi popping back to life again.  Alas, such joys are not to be had with digital media.  I also miss the whir of the projector and the tactile pleasures of spooling the film into the projector.  It is sad that movie projectors are going the way of the dodo bird, for they bring much pleasure to many.

Marv Newland (マーヴ・ニューランド) is an American-Canadian filmmaker, who has had a long career making short commercials for both private and public broadcasters in the US and Canada.   In the course of his career he has done everything from drawing storyboards for Barbapapa at Toonder Studios (Netherlands) to making delightful animated shorts for the NFB.  His animated adaptation of Gary Larson’s Tales from the Far Side (1994) for TV won him the Grand Prix at Annecy in 1995.  He currently teaches Classical Animation at the Vancouver Film School.  A limited edition DVD of his collected works, The Best of International Rocketship became available earlier this year.  See Cartoon Brew for more info.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Japan in Germany 12: Hokkaidokürbis

Since moving to the Hessian countryside from Tokyo in 2007, my German husband and I have been amused every autumn to see the Hokkaidokürbis (lit. Hokkaido pumpkin aka kuri kabocha  栗カボチャ) go on sale.  .  .  and not only for the cute extra emphasis Germans put on the letter “i” when they say “Ho–ka–ee–do”.  Having traversed the width and breadth of Hokkaido, we had never seen this onion-shaped, relatively small dark orange pumpkin either on sale or growing in Japan’s northernmost island.  The majority of pumpkin growing does indeed take place in Hokkaido but the dark green kabocha (かぼちゃ) and the larger orange pumpkin associated with Halloween are the most commonly seen in Japanese supermarkets.  Whenever we have Japanese guests in the fall and winter months, I serve them the a dish made with Hokkaidokürbis and they are inevitably also amused when we tell them what the Germans call the winter squash.  My curiosity was further piqued by the fact that Hokkaidokürbis only has dedicated Wikipedia pages in German, French (potimarron), and English (red kuri squash)

Carving a pumpkin with my kids in Nishikata (Bunkyo-ku) in October 2006

This year, I decided to satisfy my curiosity by doing some research into the Hokkaidokürbis.  First, the riddle of how my husband, a botanist who grew up here in Germany, was unfamiliar with this variety of squash.  Squash, apparently, was not as common on the table of his childhood home in Lower Saxony as it was for me growing up in Canada.  It also turns out that the Hokkaidokürbis variety of squash was introduced to Europe in the 1990s – a decade in which my husband had begun to spend extended periods of time studying or doing research in Hokkaido.  I guess it just hadn’t become fashionable yet among his student friends in Marburg during the times he was on home soil.

 

Red kuri squash bread - the "Orange Revolution" (Gießen, October 2013)

Hokkaidokürbisbort (red kuri squash bread) from Siebenkorn.

Next, the question of the origins of the Hokkaidokürbis itself.  Obviously, pumpkins are not native to Japan.  Winter squash come from the Americas and did not even make their way to Europe until sometime after 1492.  According to an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine, the first pumpkin to make its way to Japan was the Hubbard squash (known in Japan as Masakari kabocha) in 1878.  It was introduced to farmers in Hokkaido by American agricultural experts, but the locals were not satisfied with the qualities of the humble Hubbard squash.  They cultivated the squash from dark green-blue into a bright blood orange colour which they named Kuri aji (Cucurbita maxima convar Hubbardiana).  “Kuri” means chestnut and “aji” means taste – hence the French name potimarron (“poti” from potiron=pumpkin; marron=chestnut).  And indeed, the Hokkaidokürbis does have a nutty flavour to it.  Trawling around the internet, I found a similar looking pumpkin on Yasai Navi that goes by the name Akaikuru-kuri-kabocha (赤皮栗かぼちゃ) – literally red-skinned chestnut pumpkin. 

I must admit that I do like the flavour of and diversity of uses for the Hokkaidokürbis.  As much as I enjoy kabocha, the mild, nutty taste of the Hokkaidokürbis has really grown on me.  As I discover just how flexible the squash is for cooking, it has even begun to surpass my heretofore favourite squash – the cream-coloured butternut squash (バタ—ナッツ) – in my affections.  Its medium size (1 to 2kg) makes it perfect for soup for 4-5 people.  It holds its form well and with its bright red-orange skin it looks lovely in a risotto or other mixed dish.  It also bakes well in the oven.  Now that I’ve come to know the pumpkin here in Germany, I’m actually surprised that is a specialty variety in Japan itself.  I think with a bit of marketing behind it, the beautiful and delicious red kuri squash could give dark green kabocha a run for its money.  

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Japan in Germany 11: Goldberg Wohnen in Celle

My husband and I were recently in Celle in northern Germany and came across this display window from a furniture store called Goldberg Wohnen on Mauernstraße.  The official website for the chain that they belong to does not provide any hints as to why they would have a kimono and maneki-neko in their display window.  It was hard to ignore the cats when walking down the street because they were waving madly.  . .  and if you look at them closely you can see that they were not in time with each other.  I like the contrast of the kimono with the traditional German half-timbered houses reflected in the window.

cmmhotes 2013

Japan in Germany 10: Nanoblock Hokkaido Dog

Hokkaido holds a special place in my heart because I met my husband in Sapporo during my year teaching at an eikawa many moons ago.  I am not a dog person myself but my Tokyo-born daughter is crazy about them.  In fact, her first word after "mama" and "papa" was "wan-wan" - the onomatopoeic word for puppy in Japanese / the sound of a dog barking in Japanese.  On strolls through the streets of Tokyo, my baby daughter would point at every dog she saw and shout "wan-wan"!  Needless to say, she was also a huge fan of Wan-wan the dog on Inai inai pa! (NHK) and would sing and dance along to Guru guru tokkan!.

Check out the German Nanoblock Facebook page or follow them on twitter for more cool nanoblock figurines. Click on any image to view as a slideshow.

cmmhotes 2013