NIAFF 2023 Archive/アーカイブ: Dwarf Studios’ Talk /「ドワーフ」トーク

 

In addition to its feature film competition, the Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF) also shines a spotlight on the latest trends in the animation industry. One exciting development in the past two years has been the production journey of the innovative stop motion animation Hidari (2023), which has taken social media by storm. One of the stop motion studios involved in its production, Dwarf (Domo-kun, Komaneko, Pokemon Concierge), was also celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023. 

At the centre of the Hidari project is director Masashi KAWAMURA (川村真司) of Whatever Co, an ambitious entrepreneur who grew up watching the words of creators Ray Harryhausen, Kihachirō Kawamoto, and Phil Tippett. He had a dream of creating a feature length stop motion samurai epic, so he partnered with Dwarf and Tecarat (Gon, the Little Fox, Pukkulapottas and Hours in the Forest) to take his creative vision to the next level. The stop motion is done at Dwarf and Takeshi YASHIRO (八代健志) of Tecarat designs and carves the wooden puppets.

They completed a short film as a pilot for the feature film project and this screening at NIAFF helped them get the word out about their crowdfunding campaign to get the funds to make the dream of a full feature length tale a reality. Check out the official YouTube channel to set how they made it. The pilot has gone on to win awards at festivals around the world.

 

The story is the legend of Jingorō Hidari (左 甚五郎), the Japanese equivalent of a Renaissance man who was a sculpture, carpenter, painter, architect, storyteller, and artist. As he name, “Hidari” (left) indicates, he was lefthanded and had a missing right arm. There are many tales as to how he lost his right arm, often involving jealous rivals. Yashiro’s puppet of Hidari has a giant, wonderfully intricate left hand that the animators use in many creative ways for fight scenes. 

The Talk Event at NIAFF 2023 featured Kawamura, Yashiro, and the acclaimed Dwarf Studios director Tsuneo GŌDA (合田 経郎) and producer Noriko MATSUMOTO (松本紀子). They also brought the puppet of Hidari for audiences to see the amazing detail that went into its design. The NIAFF archive clip starts with a slideshow of the Hidari event, then shows excerpts from the Dwarf Studios discussion about the magic of the technique of stop motion (komadori in Japanese) with two of the studios most well known original characters, Domo-kun and Komaneko on the display table. If you do not understand Japanese, please use the captions auto-translate function on YouTube for the language of your preference.

 

In the run up to the second instalment of NIAFF in March 2024, the festival is sharing highlights of last March’s festival every Tuesday on its YouTube Channel. Subscribe to see more. 

 2024 Cathy Munroe Hotes

NIAFF 2023 Archive/アーカイブ: Director Rintaro's Talk / りんたろう監督トーク

 

Renowned animator Rintarō (りんたろう, b. 1942) premiered his latest animation at the debut Niigata Animation Film Festival (NIAFF) in March 2023. It seems fitting that he should have been a guest at the first NIAFF, because he started off his career as an in-betweener on the first colour anime feature length film The White Snake Enchantress (白蛇伝/Hakujaden, 1958), also known in English as Legend of the White Serpent.

One of the reasons that Niigata was chosen as a location to host an animation festival for feature length films is that Niigata is the birthplace of two animation pioneers who worked on Hakujaden: Hiroshi ŌKAWA (大川博, 1896-1971) and Kōji FUKIYA (蕗谷虹児, 1898-1979). Ōkawa (sometimes transliterated as OHKAWA), who has been called “The Man Who Aimed to Become Disney” by historian Nobuyuki TSUGATA, was the producer of Hakujaden and Fukiya contributed to the early technology used at Tōei Animation during the making of Hakujaden. In honour of their achievements, NIAFF awards the OHKAWA/FUKIYA PRIZE for technical contributions to animation.

Rintarō calls his work a manga eiga – an earlier term for animation – literally “cartoon film” and it takes its inspiration from early Japanese cinema and animation history.  Manga Cinema dedicated to Sadao Yamanaka: Nezumikozo Jirokichi (山中貞雄に捧げる漫画映画『鼠小僧次郎吉』, 2023)  is an adaption of the story of the legendary Edo period thief and folk hero, sometimes called Jirokichi the Rat in English. It is based on the script of  Nezumikozō Jirokichi Zenpen: Edo no maki (鼠小僧次郎吉 前篇 江戸の巻, 1933), the first of a trilogy of films written and directed by Sadao YAMANAKA (山中 貞雄, 1909-1938). Yamanaka was a pioneering film director whose brilliant career was cut short when he was drafted into the army and died in Manchuria. All but 3 of his early films, including this trilogy were lost, and with this work Rintarō and his team, including character designer Katsuhiro ŌTOMO (大友克洋) and composer Toshiyuki HONDA (本多俊之), sought to pay homage both to Yamanaka and to the art of silent cinema. In this clip from the NIAFF 2023 Video Archives, Rintarō talks to animation expert Ryūsuke HIKAWA (氷川竜介) about why he decided to do this project. Some of the highlights of the discussion are how much animation has changed so much since Rintarō first started in the industry, how young people today don’t know a lot about silent cinema – a medium that Alfred Hitchcock called the purest form of cinema, and his collaboration with Toshiyuki HONDA on the music for the film. Please use the captions auto-translate function for the language of your preference.

In the run up to the second instalment of NIAFF in March 2024, the festival is sharing highlights of last year’s festival every Tuesday on its YouTube Channel. Subscribe to see more. Nezumikozo Jirokichi is distributed internationally by MIYU.

2024 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Niigata International Animation Film Festival 2024

After a successful inaugural year, the Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF) is returning in 2024 with an even more ambitious program of events. The festival will be held March 15 – 20, 2024. 

What makes this animation festival special is its focus on feature length animation films instead of short films. There will also be Special Presentations such as invitational screenings with invited guests; a program featuring World Trends such as new production methods, female animators and a focus on Asia; a Retrospective and an All-Night Movie Marathon. 

Shortly before the New Year, the Niigata Anime and Manga Festival (がたふぇす/ GataFes) announced that their festival would be held concurrently with NIAFF on March 16 and 17. 

On the 28 November 2023, NIAFF announced that the 2024 Jury would be headed by Nora TWOMEY (Ireland). An Oscar-nominated director, Twomey in the co-founder and creative director of Cartoon Saloon. Her most renowned works include The Secret of the Kells (Tomm Moore/Nora Twomey, 2009) and The Breadwinner (Twomey, 2017). 

Michael FUKUSHIMA (Canada) joins Twomey on the jury. He is acclaimed for his work as a producer at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1997 – 2021. His is currently serving as OCADU’s Experimental Animation Executive Producer-in-Residence. You can learn about his 1992 animated documentary about his father’s traumatic life experiences on my website here: Minoru: Memory of Exile. 

Rounding out the jury is Yūichirō SAITŌ (Japan), producer at STUDIO CHIZU, which he co-founded with acclaimed anime director Mamoru HOSODA. The works Saitō has collaborated with Hosoda on include The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009) Wolf Children (2012 and the Oscar nominated Mirai (2018). 

 I have joined the NIAFF team as their international press liaison, so keep an eye on my social media (@nishikataeiga on most platforms) for upcoming announcements. In the run-up to the festival, NIAFF’s official YouTube Channel is posting the highlights from 2023 which I will also post here. 

 2024 Catherine Munroe Hotes

Hiroshima Animation Season 2022: Day 1

The first day of Hiroshima Animation Season 2022 was the easiest for me to negotiate because there were fewer scheduling conflicts than on other days. While on one hand it is wonderful for an animation festival to be jam-packed with excellent films and events, on the other hand it forces hardcore animation devotees like myself to make difficult screening choices. 

As with the original Hiroshima International Animation Festival, the central venue was JMS Aster Plaza with its two large concert halls and community spaces. The new festival opened up screening venues to include local businesses and institutions such as the Hiroshima City Cinematographic and Audio-Visual Library, Yokogawa Cinema, and Salon Cinema. I had hoped to be able to squeeze in seeing some of the anime classics on the big screen such as The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (わんぱく王子の大蛇退治, 1963) and The White Snake Enchantress (白蛇伝, 1958), but it was simply impossible. Even though I was unable to partake in these offsite screenings, I feel that it was a good idea to include local businesses. These screenings were more likely than the central venue to draw in local crowds and engaging with the local community is an important part of any festival. From what I understand, many of these events were well-attended, which bodes well for future collaborations with local establishments. 

The first thing I noticed on Day 1 was that instead of stalls run by animators and artists from elsewhere in Japan, all of the vendors were local businesses selling their crafts and other wares. One really big problem for the festival is that the JMS Aster is not close to many restaurants and the one in-house restaurant takes its Obon summer holiday during the festival. It was great to see stalls selling coffee, baked goods, and even fresh hamburgers, so that we could grab a quick bite between screenings. 

I began the festival with one of the Hiroshima Animation Season Classics screenings: Karel ZEMAN’s Inspirace (水玉の幻想, 1949) and Invention for Destruction (CZ: Vynález zkázy / JP: 悪魔の発明, 1958). Inspirace had no dialogue and needed no subtitles and Invention for Destruction was shown with Japanese subtitles only. There were several screenings without English subtitles that offered a “whispering” where one could sit in a section of the theatre where an interpreter would live “whisper” the proceedings in English to those who could not understand the Japanese. As someone with sensitive hearing, I found this really obnoxious. Even though I sat far from the whispering section, I could still hear the whispering and it felt like someone was rudely talking during the screenings and events where it was happening. I don’t understand Czech and I can’t read Japanese quickly enough for the subs, but as I was familiar with the film, and I just focussed on enjoying the animation on the big screen. Zeman’s films may be more than 60 years old now but they have not lost their ability to inspire wonder at their technical brilliance. 

After briefly considering hopping on a streetcar to the Cinematography Library to see The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, I decided to listen to my stomach instead and headed to the legendary local restaurant Otis! with its delicious Tex-Mex and vegetarian dishes. The walls are filled with the signatures and drawings of animation guests past as the venue opened in 1987 and is an easy walk from the JMS Aster. I was delighted to find the interior and the hosts unchanged from my last visit in 2014, and I found fellow animation researchers Jason Cody Douglass (Yale) and Chris Taylor (John Hopkins) at a table inside. We discussed our viewing plans for the festival and just as I was about to pay my tab, I heard my name spoken behind me by the stop motion animator Masaaki MORI (森まさあき). 

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I first discovered Mori’s work when he participated in the Kihachirō KAWAMOTO omnibus work Winter Days (冬の日, 2003) with his delightful clay pig figures. Mori retired from Tokyo Zokei University last year and I went to see his retirement exhibition on the Zokei campus (see the above instagram post). Since joining JAA late last year, I have encountered Mori often and we seem well on our way to becoming fast friends. In Otis!, Mori introduced me to Yoshimi KAKURAI (加倉井芳美) and Masaaki OIKAWA (及川雅昭) , the PR rep and producer for TECARAT studios. Unfortunately, director and stop motion animator Takeshi YASHIRO (八代健志) could not come to Hiroshima due to the production of Hidari – you can follow the exciting progression of this new stop motion animation on Tecarat’s Instagram. 

I had not yet met Yashiro, but my Nippon Connection selection for this year featured his Noburō Ōfuji Award-winning short animation Pukkulapottas and Hours in the Forest (プックラポッタと森の時間, 2021) and I had been fascinated by his adaptation of Nakashi NIIMI’s Gon, the Little Fox, which I saw at a stop-motion animation in Kichijoji shortly after I moved back to Japan in 2019. 

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Even though Yashiro was not at the festival – I was able to meet Gon the fox! Such a beautifully crafted puppet: 

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 After getting to know more about Tecarat Studios, we headed to the Opening Ceremony and Golden Carpstar Award Ceremony, which I will discuss in my next post. 

Coming Soon: Hiroshima Animation Season: Day 1 Opening Ceremony

2022 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Hiroshima Animation Season 2022: Introduction

 

 Hiroshima Animation Season 2022 

 ひろしまアニメーションシーズン2022年 

https://animation.hiroshimafest.org/ 

This year marked the beginning of a new era for animation in Hiroshima. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city of Hiroshima abruptly broke ties with ASIFA-JAPAN, who had run the Hiroshima International Animation Festival since its inception in 1985 until its final online edition in 2020. The new Hiroshima Festival will run for the month of August biannually and will feature two “seasons” – the Hiroshima Music Season and the Hiroshima Animation Season, with some crossover events.

 

Although it grieves me that ASIFA-JAPAN is no longer running the festival, I came to the new festival with an open mind and a hope for the sake of the city of Hiroshima and for the Japanese animation community that the new festival would be a success. It was strange not to see Sayoko KINOSHITA and her team at the festival, as I know how much hard work they put into the festival over the years. Kinoshita has been unwell this year, and it was decided at an extraordinary meeting of ASIFA-JAPAN, that Hiroshi ONISHI (Kyoto University of the Arts) would take over administratively while she is in rehabilitation. 

The new team at Hiroshima Animation Season is led by producer Nobuaki DOI and co-artistic directors Kōji YAMAMURA and Shizuka MIYAZAKI. Doi brings with him the experience of running the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival and years of experience as a producer and collaborator in the international animation scene. Initially it seemed that Doi would run both festivals, but it seems that he has left New Chitose and they have a new programming team led by Tomoko ONO, with the assistance of Hirotoshi IWASAKI, Daisuke TANAKA, and Manabu KATO.

The Hiroshima Animation Season was very much stamped with the artistic personality of Yamamura. Gone is the familiar Lappy character designed by the late Renzō KINOSHITA. In Lappy’s place, the new mascot of the festival is the Golden Carpstar designed by Yamamura. Lappy was a fictitious character whose name was a portmanteau of the themes of the original festival “Love and Peace” and the word “happy”. The Golden Carpstar brings together the carp fish, a local symbol associated with the city of Hiroshima, and a twinkling star (presumably in reference to the artists featured at the festival). The association between carp and Hiroshima runs deep as the city is known for its carp dishes, Hiroshima Castle’s nickname is Rijō (鯉城) or “Carp Castle”, and the local baseball team is called the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. 

The new poster design was done by local artist shunshun, who has been living in Hiroshima since 2012.  The egg shape represents the birth of a new festival and it is filled with the motif of water, which was the theme of this year's program. shunshun explains in the catalogue: "The gentle sea where the sun shines brightly, the beautiful rain that pours down to the earth, gentle starlight twinkling in the night sky. . .  I depict these scenes that touch my heart by hand-drawing each line one by one carefully." 

Not only was the new mascot designed by Yamamura, but the program also featured Yamamura and many of his former students. His debut feature film Dozens of Norths (幾多の北 / Itaku no Kita, 2021) screened and Yamamura had a talk session about it. Isshin INUDŌ, a college friend of Yamamura’s from Tokyo Zokei University, showed his Min TANAKA documentary The Unnameable Dance (名付けようのない踊り / Nazuke you no nai Odori, 2022) which features Yamamura’s animation for dream sequences and other flights of fancy. Inudō, Tanaka, and Yamamura held a talk session about the film and Tanaka was also on one of the world competition juries. Yamamura also gave a screening and lecture called “Water in Animation: Fluidity and Discontinuity” as part of the water-themed special program of screenings and lectures, and his works screened alongside those of the late experimental animator Nobuhiro AIHARA in a special screening. I presume that the heavy presence of Yamamura at this inaugural edition of the festival may have been due in large part to the difficulties of organising a new festival when there are many travel and other restrictions still in place. I presume that future festivals will put the spotlight on the work of people other than the artistic director. 

Co-director Shizuka MIYAZAKI brings a much-needed female and local presence to the festival’s core team. She graduated from Yamamura’s Tokyo University the Arts (Geidai) program in 2013, but her MA work was supervised by Taruto FUYAMA. She has been teaching animation for many years at Hiyajima University Junior College in Hiroshima. 

Next: Hiroshima Animation Season: Day 1

2022 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Nippon Connection Film Festival Goes Online!

Virtual Edition of the 20th Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival
June 9-14, 2020

https://www.nipponconnection.com/

Nippon Connection has just announced that due to the spread of the novel coronavirus Covid-19, they have decided that it is necessary for the safety of visitors, guests, and volunteers to move the festival online.

The festival director, Marion Klomfass states that cancelling “the festival was not an option for us. Thus, after intense exchanges with our sponsors and cooperation partners, we have decided to hold Nippon Connection’s 20th anniversary in an online edition from June 9 – 14, 2020. We hope to make the best of a difficult situation and are looking forward to new challenges.”

The Nippon Connection team is currently hard at work on a new concept. Under the title Nippon Connection Online, a diverse selection of current Japanese short and feature length films will be presented alongside interactive offerings such as live streams and panel discussions with filmmakers.

The film programme director, Florian Höhr says that in spite of “the current crisis, giving Japanese cinema and its creators a public platform here in Germany is a great concern to Nippon Connection. Taking the festival online will continue to allow us to give our audience a varied view into the contemporary landscape of Japanese cinema.”

Florian has been in contact with me about plans for the short animation programme. With so many filmmakers suffering from the cancellation of events promoting their works we hope that this will be an opportunity for both audiences and film lovers to find hope in these dark times.

Cathy Munroe Hotes

April 2, 2020

NC2019 FILM TALK: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS

Dawn Wind in My Poncho

FILM TALK: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS
Nippon Connection
Saturday, June 1, 21:30 Mousonturm Studio 3
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/film-talk-tokyo-university-of-the-arts-en.html

Nippon Connection has asked me host a Film Talk with guests who have a connection to the Graduate School of Film and New Media at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) in Yokohama. Yokohama’s twin city status with Frankfurt am Main has led to our having been able to invite amazing animation guests and films from Geidai since 2013. 

Participating in the talk will be this year’s animation guest Ilan Nguyen (イラン・グェン), adjuct professor to the Department of Animation.  He is presenting the Tokyo University of the Arts: Animation Shorts on Thursday, May 30th in the Naxoshalle and giving a lecture Remembering Isao Takahata: A Personal View On Post-War Japan’s Most Influential Animation Director on Friday, May 31st in Mousonturm Studio 1.

Two graduates of the Film and New Media graduate programme, Satoru Hirohara (廣原暁) and Natsuki Nakagawa (中川奈月), will also participate in order to give us the student perspective on the institution. Hirohara’s live action feature film Dawn Wind in My Poncho (ポンチョに夜明けの風はらませて / Poncho ni yoake no kaze haramasete, 2017) is having its European premiere at Nippon Connection and is competing for the Nippon Cinema Award. 

She is Alone

Nakagawa’s 60-minute feature She is Alone (彼女はひとり/ Kanojo wa hitori, 2018) is screening in the SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-CINEMA FESTIVAL SPECIAL on Thursday, May 30th as one of two award-winning films from last year’s Skip City Festival in Saitama.  It is in competition in the Nippon Visions Jury and Audience Awards.

This event is sponsored by The City of Yokohama Frankfurt Representative Office and the Referat für Internationale Angelegenheiten der Stadt Frankfurt am Main.

2019 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Hiroyasu Ishida at Nippon Connection 2019

Studio Colorido
https://colorido.co.jp/

One of the animation highlights at Nippon Connection this year is presence of the rising star of the anime world, Hiroyasu “tete” Ishida (石田 祐康, b. 1988). The festival will be the German premiere of Ishida’s debut feature anime Penguin Highway (ペンギン・ハイウェイ, 2018).  They will also be showing a selection of his animated short films. After the screening of his shorts, Ishida will be participating in a film talk.

Originally from Aichi Prefecture, Ishida studied animation at Kyoto Seika University where he was mentored by the legendary anime director Gisaburo Sugii (Night on the Galactic Railroad, The Life of Guskou Budori). While a student at Kyoto Seika, Ishida’s amusing short film Fumiko’s Confession (2009) became an online sensation. It went on to win many awards around the world including the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. This was followed by his more introspective graduate film rain town (2011) which was also met with acclaim and won Ishida the New Face Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival.

In 2011, together with producer Hideo Uda, Ishida co-founded Studio Colorido in Tokyo, where he made more short works before taking on the challenge of his first feature film. Penguin Highway (2018) won the Axis: Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montréal. It also earned Ishida a nomination for Best Animated Feature Film at the Japanese Academy Awards.

PENGUIN HIGHWAY
ペンギン・ハイウェイ
Friday, May 31, 19:30 Mal Seh’n Kino → Buy tickets
Saturday, June 1, 11:30 Mousonturm Saal
Japan 2018, 118’, Japanese with German subtitles
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/penguin-highway-en.html





HIROYASU ISHIDA: ANIMATION SHORTS
Sunday, June 2, 15:00 Naxoshalle Kino
Japanese with English subtitles
https://www.nipponconnection.com/program-detail/hiroyasu-ishida-animation-shorts-en.html

Fumiko’s Confession
フミコの告白
Fumiko no Kokuhaku
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2009, 2:22

rain town
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2011, 9’55”

Sonny Boy & Dewdrop Girl
陽なたのアオシグレ
Hinata no Aoshigure
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2013, 17’58”

Fastening Days
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2014, 11’12”

Paulette’s Chair
ポレットのイス
Poulette no Isu
by Hiroyasu ISHIDA, 2014, 4’01”

2019 Cathy Munroe Hotes

NC2019 – Ilan Nguyen Lecture – “Remembering Isao Takahata”

Remembering Isao Takahata
A Personal View On Post-War Japan’s Most Influential Animation Director
A lecture by Ilan Nguyen
Friday, May 31, 13:30
Mousonturm Studio 1
Nippon Connection
Duration: approx. 1,5 hours
Lecture in English

I am delighted that our guest at Nippon Connection this year is Ilan Nguyen, a well-known animation expert whom I have had the pleasure to meet at festivals in his native France and in Japan. He is an adjunct instructor to the Department of Animation at Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) and will also be presenting this year’s selection of films from Geidai students on Thursday, May 30th at noon in the Naxoshalle.

In addition to his work as an animation critic and historian Nguyen works as a cultural programme coordinator for festivals and exhibitions. He is a familiar face in the animation community in France, where he often acts as an interpreter for many prominent Japanese animation figures. In particular, he had a very close relationship with Isao Takahata (1935-2018), and accompanied him to France many times.

I have heard Nguyen give lectures on animation in French at RICA – the Wissembourg Ciné Club’s biannual animation festival (1995-2016) and can attest to what an interesting and delightful speaker he is. He is a fountain of knowledge about the career of Takahata and about the animation community in Japan past and present – this is a highly recommended event for all fans of anime.

2019 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Animation at Nippon Connection 2017

Animation at Nippon Connection 2017

23-28 May 2017

Frankfurt am Main

http://www.nipponconnection.com/animation-en.html

 

Japan is celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the advent of anime and the selection of films at this year’s Nippon Connection demonstrates the diversity of that art in Japan with works ranging from the mainstream to the experimental.  In addition to myself, there are two animation guests this year.  Taruto Fuyama is representing Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) as part of the exchange between sister cities Yokohama and Frankfurt am Main.  On Thursday, he will present a selection of works by this year’s crop of talented Geidai grads (details) and on Saturday, he will run an animation workshop for kids aged 6 and up.  On Sunday, you can check out my selection Poetic Landscapes – Recent Gems in Japanese Indie Animation.  I will be in attendance accompanied by the innovative illustrator and graphic designer Hayato Nove, director of the animated short Affordance. 

Last year the experimental animator Takashi Makino did a live performance with the Jazz musician Hilary Jeffrey during screenings of his works Cinéma Concret (2015) and Cinéma Direct (2015) as well as an animation workshop.  This year, his 2014 work Ghost of OT301 will be screened as an installation every evening in Shaut!, the installation room of the cinema Mal Seh'n, from 7 - 11pm.  More info here.

Sunao Katabuchi’s In This Corner of the World has received a lot of critical acclaim since its release last November.  Adapted from the manga of the same name by Hiroshima mangaka Fumiyo Kono, it is a girl’s coming of age tale set against the backdrop of World War 2.  Critics Maggie Lee and Mark Schilling have drawn a comparison with the humanist war films of such masters as Keisuke Kinoshita and Shindo Kaneto.  The trailer enticed me with its depiction of the Japanese landscape, so I am looking forward to seeing if the work fits into my research into environment themes in Japanese animation. 

A Silent Voice is also an adaptation of a manga by a female author (Yoshitoki Ōima) but this time the director is also a woman, rising star Naoko Yamada of Kyoto Animation.   It tells the story of the unlikely friendship that develops between the class bully and an easy target of bullying – a deaf girl who is a newcomer at the school.  The film has been warmly received both at the box office and at international festivals. 

For children, Nippon Connection is presenting Chieri and Cherry and Rudolf the Black Cat.  As no German dubs exist for these two films, the will be presented with live German translation.  Chieri and Cherry is a stop motion animation by Makoto Nakamura, director of the 2010 adaptation of the Russian children’s classic Cheburashka.  Chieri and Cherry tells the story of the adventures of a lonely girl and her plush toy rabbit.  Rudolf the Black Cat is a 3DCG animation based on a book series by Hiroshi Saito.

The NHK documentary Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki will by screened by NHK World with an opportunity to win a plush Domo-kun (the NHK mascot). Learn more here.

Chieri and Cherry

ちえりとチェリー

Chieri to Cheri

Director: Makoto NAKAMURA

Japan 2015, 54 min,

Japanese with English subtitles and German live voice over, age 0+

Thursday, May 25, 16:00 Mal Seh’n Kino

In This Corner of the World

この世界の片隅に

Kono sekai no katasumi ni

Director: Sunao KATABUCHI

Japan 2016, DCP, 129 min, Japanese with German subtitles, age 12+

Saturday, May 27, 22:15 Mal Seh’n Kino

Sunday, May 28, 12:00 Mousonturm Saal

Poetic Landscapes – Recent Gems in Japanese Indie Animation

in the presence of the curator Dr. Catherine Munroe Hotes and director Hayato Nove

Sunday, May 28, 17:15 Naxoshalle Kino

Learn more

Rudolf the Black Cat

ルドルフとイッパイアッテナ

Rudorufu to Ippaiattena

Director: Kunihiko YUYAMA, Motonori SAKAKIBARA

Japan 2016, 90 min, Japanese with English subtitles and German live voice over, age 0+

German premiere

Sunday, May 28, 15:00 Naxoshalle Kino

A Silent Voice

映画 聲の形

Eiga koe no katachi

Director: Naoko YAMADA

Japan 2016, 129 min, Japan. OV with Hard-of-Hearing subtitles (English), age 6+

German premiere

Thursday, May 25, 12:00 Mousonturm Saal

Saturday, May 27, 13:30 Mal Seh’n Kino

Tokyo University of the Arts: Animation

In the presence of Taruto FUYAMA

Thursday, May 25, 15:15 Naxoshalle Kino

Learn more

Cathy Munroe Hotes 2017