Tokyo University of the Arts at Nippon Connection 2014

Acclaimed independent animator Kōji Yamamura will be presenting a selection of works by recent graduates of the animation graduate programme of Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) at Nippon Connection 2014.  The students are supervised by Yamamura himself, animation producer Mitsuko Okamoto, who last year presented a selection of works at NC2013, and stop motion animator Yūichi Itō　(i-toon.org).  Other animators who teach at the school include Taruto Fuyama of Koma Koma Lab, who is currently developing stop motion animation software, and Royal College of Arts graduate Hiromitsu Murakami.

Here are the 9 films that will be screened at Nippon Connection 2014.  The film descriptions and student profiles were provided by Geidai’s Graduate School of Film and New Media.  I have added official websites/blogs/twitter handles if you'd like to learn more about these up-and-coming East Asian artists.  I just saw some of these films at Stuttgart 2014 and there are some real gems that I will write about in the near future.

Date: Thursday, May 29, 2014 
Time: 17:30
Venue: Naxoshalle Kino, Frankfurt am Main
For Tickets: Nippon Connection

Catherine Munroe Hotes

Everyday Sins (日々の罪悪/Hibi no Zaiaku, 2014)

Guilty is an art university student who is slacking off on her school work and feels horrible about it. Plus, she's confused about her family and Christianity, and she can't even get her ex-boyfriend to accept a small present she bought for him.

Yewon Kim キム・イェオン

Filmography: "Little Sweetheart" 2010, "LANGUAGE" 2011, "My Frame" 2013, "Everyday Sins" 2014

Biography:  Born in Republic of Korea, 1988. Graduated from Korea Animation High school, Department of Animation in 2006. Tokyo Polytechnic University, Department of Animation (2011). Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation 2014).              

Flower Bud (花芽/ Haname, 2014)        

The uncertainty, struggles, and joy of the moment upon becoming an adult. Between lullabies and songs I hum to myself. Between a man and myself. That subtle flickering in a single instant, forgotten once it is over.  Never forget that moment. . .              

Saki Nakano 中野咲

Fimography: “Fragments of One” 2012, “Ream” 2013     

Biography: Born in Gunma, 1988.  Joshibi University of Design. Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation (2014).         

PAMON (パモン, 2014)

PAMON are magical and mysterious creatures who can move the hair on their head however they wish, and communicate using their chest hair. This tale takes a peek at an ordinary day for the PAMON.   

Kazushige Tōma 当真一茂

Filmography: "BANABANAFRIENDS of Work" 2010 "Scary of crack of Work" 2011, "Happy fluffy time of Work" 2013               

Biography: Born in Okinawa, 1988.  Okinawa Prefectural University of the Arts, Department of Design and Crafts Design (2012). Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation (2014). 

Mrs. KABAGOdZILLA (ミセス・カバゴジラ, 2014)  

“Mrs. KABAGodZILLA had a daughter whose feet and arms looked just like her own.” Mother and child were always together, but the mother's hospitalization makes the daughter remember the past, and think a little about what lies ahead. 

Moe Koyano 小谷野萌　　　https://www.youtube.com/user/MoyanoKOE

Filmography: "Kyu-ri" (2010), "No Sound, I'm Here." (2011), "OPENIT" (2012), "My Dear Flesh" (2013)     

Biography: Born in Tokyo, 1989.  Tokyo Polytechnic University, Department of Animation (2012). Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation (2014).

  

             

Lonesome Hero (ひとりぼっちのヒーロー/Hitori botchi no hīrō, 2014)    

This is for children who couldn't be on their own. And, for the time when you're older and you've forgotten your determination to be on your own.          

Manami Wakai 若井麻奈美　　http://jitojito.ninja-web.net/top.html

Filmography: "TRAIANGLE", 2010 "Daily Lives at Daisy Lodge", 2013         

Biography: Born in Kanagawa, 1989.  Tama Art University, Department of Paintings, Oil paintings (2012). Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation (2014).

00:08     (2014)  

This piece takes 8 seconds, and creates intervals between the frames, and then makes them bigger. It's about expansion and enlargement, not the passage of time. 8 seconds becomes that much more luxuriant.    

Yūtarō Kubo 久保雄太郎　　　https://twitter.com/yutaro960

Filmography: "crazy for it" 2012, "Kicking Rocks" 2013     

Biography: Born in Oita, 1990.  Polytechnic University, Department of Animation (2012). Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation (2014).        

Crazy Little Thing (澱みの騒ぎ/Yodomi no Sakagi, 2014)

The two of them, all alone at home. All alone with her father's corpse. Memories, ideals, and reality all sink beneath the muck. Everyone is alone. Everyone is in solitude.     

Onohana  小野ハナ (Hana Ono) 　 http://ginkgo.raindrop.jp/

https://twitter.com/__Onohana

Filmography: "Do as the Fish Tells You" 2013       

Biography: Born in Iwate, 1986.  Iwate University, Department of education, Art and Culture (2009). Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation (2014).

Exit My Room (おでかけ/Odekake, 2014)

He lives his life everyday like it's nothing special. Today he eats, gets dressed, and heads out once again.             

Ayaho Kawakami 川上彩穂　　http://moment-moment.tumblr.com/

Filmography: "I'm nothing" (2013)           

Biography: Born in 1989.  Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Department of Ecoregion Science (2012). Graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation (2014).           

My Milk Cup Cow (コップの中の子牛/Koppu no naka no Koushi, 2014)

Father tells his 4-year-old daughter Nunu that there's a cow at the bottom of her milk cup. Nunu believes him and drinks all of her milk, but there is no cow. Nunu gradually stops believing her father, who constantly tells her various lies.       

Yantong Zhu 朱彦潼 　　https://twitter.com/marumaru_ken

Filmography: "Loft" 2010, "The Man Who Ate an Apple" 2012     

Biography: Born in Nanjing China, 1988. After graduating from Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Department of Adverting in 2010, Zhu came to Japan and started making animated shorts. Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation (2014).

Adapted from official press notes provided to Nippon Connection 2014 by Geidai Graduate School of Film and New Media   

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014

Wolf Children (おおかみこどもの雨と雪, 2012)

“.  .  .  The old haunts of [bears and wolves] are now turned into plowed fields, 

and where they once roamed in unmolested freedom, 

you find in their stead children playing; 

where two decades ago you heard the hungry howl of wolves 

and the angry growl of bears, you hear the sweet notes of school songs.” 

– Nitobe Inazō, May 1906

The Lost Wolves of Japan (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)

An extended version of the above quote appears in historian Brett L. Walker’s The Lost Wolves of Japan, which explores how wolves went from being revered creatures in ancient and medieval Japan to being hunted to extinction during the modernization period of the Meiji Restoration.  Mamoru Hosoda’s 2012 anime feature film Wolf Children (おおかみこどもの雨と雪/ Ōkami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki, 2012) suggests that the wolves did not become extinct; but instead survived into the modern age becoming half human. 

The story is narrated by one of the wolf children, Yuki (Haru Kuroki), who recollects how her parents met.  Her mother Hana (Aoi Miyazaki) was a university student (the buildings are recognisably based on Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo) when she found herself drawn to a mysterious fellow student (Takao Ōsawa).  The man, known only as “Kare” (he/him/boyfriend), is a reluctant suitor but Hana’s kindness and patience wins him over.  Finally he reveals to Hana that he is actually an Ōkami-otoko (wolf man) and she accepts him for who he is.    Unlike the European werewolves of legend, who transformed under the light of a full moon and attacked humans, the wolf men of this tale are merely the result of interbreeding for survival.  The Ōkami-otoko in this film has shape shifting-abilities similar to the tanuki of Studio Ghibli’s anime Pom Poko (Isao Takahata, 1994), who take on the guise of humans when their natural habitat in the Tama Hills is destroyed by urban sprawl.  The wolf-human hybrids in Hosuda’s original tale take on the shape-shifting abilities associated with foxes and tanuki of Japanese folk legend. 

To order (US): Wolf Children (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Wolf Children

amazon instant video: Wolf Children
Japanese BD/DVD: Wolf Children

Hana and Kare move in together and have two children Yuki and Ame (Snow and Rain) without the assistance of medical care, for fear that the doctors will discover the family’s secret.  They live in domestic bliss until one fateful day when Kare does not return home.  Hana takes the children out in the heavy rain to find him and discovers that he has had an accident and died in the river.  Hana struggles on her own as a single mother, unable to seek help because the children are prone to transforming into wolves whenever emotions run high - which is often with children.   The neighbours complain about the noise the children make when they play like wild animals in the apartment and howl.  Soon, the local authorities are becoming suspicious about the fact that the children have no public records. 

Fearing that their secret will be revealed, Hana moves with the children to the countryside.  After a time, they are accepted by the community but as the children get older they each have to come to terms with their dual identities.  Can they control their wolf instincts in order to integrate into human society or will the call of the wild be too great?  Each child takes their own path with unexpected results. 

Wolf Children has a gentle pace that will seem slow to anime fans used to action-packed weekly drama.  It is a film that invites us to reflect on our role as humans in the environment and how communities can function to either include or exclude people who are different or eccentric in some way.  Some parallels could be drawn between the struggles of the wolf children in the community and the struggles of people who are biracial to fit into society.  Can one be both identities or does one have to choose?

Above all, Wolf Children is a truly beautiful animation.  The wolf children are super-cute with and fun to watch at play – thanks mainly to the work of prolific character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, etc.).  The film’s depiction of idealised rural Japanese landscapes are reminiscent of another Studio Ghibli animation:  My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988).  The film is the first that Mamoru Hosoda under the auspices of his own animation studio, Studio Chizu, which he founded in 2011 with the aim of making feature film animation (Source).  Wolf Children was successful at the box office in Japan, beating out Pixar’s Brave in its first week, and went on to win Animation of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards and Best Animation Film at the Mainichi Film Concours.  This suggests we can look forward to more auteur fare from Hosoda in the near future.   

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2014

#nc2013  #nippon13

Recruit Rhapsody (就活狂想曲, 2012)

The final year of university in Japan is quite fraught because of a tradition known as Shūkatsu Kyōsōkyoku: an intense recruiting process by corporations keen to scoop up the top graduates.  The pressure to find a job upon graduation is much greater in Japan than anywhere else I have lived because there is a general consensus that if you don’t get hired straight out of college, you will have spoiled your chances for climbing the corporate ladder and may find yourself becoming a freeter (underemployed/freelancer).

Another major difference that I noticed between Canada and Japan in particular was that whereas Canadian companies highly value creativity, individuality, and a “go-getter” attitude in new recruits, in Japan the emphasis is much more on academic performance and the recruit’s ability to fit in with the corporate identity.  It’s more than just the “team player” mentality promoted by many Canadian corporations because you are having to demonstrate that you are prepared to obsequiously toe the line of corporate hierarchy.  Up-and-coming young animator Maho Yoshida (吉田まほ, b.1986) depicts this recruitment process beautifully in her graduate film for Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai)’s animation programme: Recruit Rhapsody (就活狂想曲/Shūkatsu Kyōsōkyoku, 2012).

A young modern woman – who we find out in the end credits is the animator herself – is fiddling on her smartphone during a lecture.  She is so preoccupied with her smartphone that she doesn’t notice her friends checking their watches.  As they leave the building together, her friends check their watches again and turn their backs on the bubbly young woman.  Before her incredulous eyes, the woman’s friends transform from unique individuals into wannabe office workers in suits.  There is a wonderful moment in which they strike poses against a yellow background as if they are about to break into a dance number from West Side Story.

The young woman reluctantly sheds her long blonde hair, make-up, and colourful clothes for a dowdy corporate look and rushes off to join the crowds of recruits trying to get onto the corporate ladder.  They slither into a job fair like a festival dragon and applaud the corporate recruiters and bow their heads in a manner reminiscent of a totalitarian regime cowing the masses.  It is a terrific animated short, which any job hunter can identify with: from the companies overselling their images to the phoneys vying for the same job as you to the interminably long hours waiting by your smartphone for that job offer that never comes.  We all recognize that feeling of selling your soul to the devil just to get your foot in the door.

What transforms this film from great to pure genius is the use of music.  Composed by Yukiko Yoden from Geidai’s music programme, the music is reminded me of George Geshwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1924) in its spirit and liveliness.  .   .  and of course, in its use of piano with an ensemble.  Kudos to Shizuka Shimoyama on piano, Makiko Umchara on violin and Saeko Tominaga on violoncello for their engaging performances. Maho Yoshida has clearly composed her images with the intended music in mind for the movement and music work very much in harmony with each other.  It never ceases to amaze me how the graduates of the Geidai programme have attained such a high level of skill at such a young age:  Yoshida’s scene transitions and changes in perspective are innovative and beautifully done.

The film was produced by Kōji Yamamura and it made the Jury Selection in the Animation Division of the 2012 Japan Media Arts Festival and has appeared at other festivals.  I saw the film as part of the Geidai screening at Nippon Connection 2013. You can see a lower resolution release of the film (no subs - but they are not really needed) on Youtube --- be sure to wait until after the end credits to catch the true end of the film.  It became a viral hit when it came online and I suspect that every spring when the recruitment season heats up loads of young recruits will be sharing this video again.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Promises (約束, 2011)

On an autumn day, a woman kneels under the scarlet leaves of trees mourning the loss of her infant son.  As she cries, the winds picks up the remains of her child and leaves only a dark shadow behind.  This dark shadow, the spirit of her dead child, whispers to her that she can take his shadow home with her.  The woman does so, looking after this transparent shadow of a child in the same way she would a living, breathing child.   She lives happily with her secret until one day, a kind of shinigami (spirit of death) in the form of an elderly man comes knocking and asks for the shadow of the child. 

After the man leaves, the woman folds the child’s shadow into the shape of a bird in order to hide him from the shinigami.  Soon, there comes another ominous knock at the door.  The shinigami has returned and asks for the shadow of the bird.  He informs her that he is a representative of kami (god) and he has been directed to collect the soul that she has been keeping in her home.  Tears run down her face, and the shinigami offers to make a deal with her.  He asks her to sew herself a doll in the shape of a child and to put the shadow in it.  At first it seems that she has made a deal with the devil as she runs fearfully holding the doll, but could it be that the shinigami is offering her child the chance of resurrection?

Promises (約束 / Yakusoku, 2011) is Shikoku-born animator Aki Kōno’s first silhouette animation.  Her earlier films Youth (青春 / Seishun, 2008) and A brightening life (2010) were stop motion animation using puppets and objects.  This animated short is her graduate work for the Geidai (Tokyo University of the Arts) animation programme, where she was supervised by Yuichi Itō (Knyacki, Norabbits Minutes).   Promises is actually a blend of silhouette and stop motion animation techniques.  The silhouettes are not as flat as the techniques of pioneers like Lotte Reiniger and Noburō Ōfuji – though there was some texture and layering to their films as well.  Kōno’s silhouettes are constructed in three dimensional spaces with other objects being used for special effect such as liquids, string, cloth, and beads. 

The choice of silhouette animation suits the shadow theme of the film.  The figures have a roughly hewn feel to them (in contrast to the precisely cut figures of a Lotte Reiniger film) which I think adds to the emotional impact of the film.  The mood of the film is also elevated by Kōno’s striking use of bold background colours, such as flaming reds and cool blues/greens/purples, which reminded me of Ōfuji’s use of background colour in The Phantom Ship (幽霊船/ Yūreisen, 1956).   

Kōno wrote the script for Promises in addition to directing and animating it.  It has been seen at both domestic and international festivals and made the Jury Selection at the 2011 Japan Media Arts Festival.  I saw the film at Nippon Connection 2013.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

This blog post was made possible by:

#nippon13 #nc2013

A Wind Egg (空の卵, 2012)

Priest: If men don't trust each other, this earth might as well be hell.

Commoner: Right. The world's a kind of hell.

Priest: No! I don't want to believe that!

Commoner: No one will hear you, no matter how loud you shout. 

Just think. Which one of these stories do you believe?

Woodcutter: None makes any sense.

Commoner: Don't worry about it. It isn't as if men were reasonable.

- scene from Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

I was reminded of Akira Kurosawa’s classic film Rashomon while watching the latest film by young CALF animator Ryo Ōkawara:  A Wind Egg (空の卵 / Kara no Tamago, 2012).   Just as the plot of Rashomon circles around an act of senseless violence, so too this animation centres on violence of a most disturbing nature.  A Wind Egg also employs a Rashomon narrative structure with the story being told in fragments from five different points of view.  However, in this case the story is told purely with visuals, music, and sound effects --- no dialogue whatsoever.

Summary

The animation opens with an act of violence: we see the boy from the point-of-view of his abuser as he suddenly gets slapped hard twice across the face.  The opening credits are followed by an establishing shot of a desolate grey farm and  then a close-up of a rooster crowing.  The animation then cuts to the first of five POV vignettes.  The vignettes show fragments of the same period of time.  It is only when they have all been viewed that one can piece together the order of the events that take place.

The Father (父/chichi)

A red nosed, unshaven, aggressive-looking man examines eggs in a shed. He scowls suspiciously from side to side, as if making sure that he is alone, then he furtively caresses and kisses one of the eggs.  He licks the egg lasciviously before being startled by the door opening.  The mother comes in with a box of eggs and drops them ungraciously on table.  He glares at her, quivering with resentment.  The boy’s face pops up from his hiding place under the table.

The Younger Sister (妹/imōto)

With her crazy smile, the younger sister spies on her family.  She grins madly upon witnessing her brother being struck by their father.  The younger sister crawls up the wall like a spider to watch her mother entering the shed.  She shivers in the window and witnesses her brother falling from the sky.

The Mother (母/haha)

The mother walks from the hen house to the shed.  An egg falls from her basket in slow motion to the ground.  Reprise of the scene in shed from her perspective.  She goes outside and strips off her clothes. There is a surreal dream sequence which draws a parallel between the caressing of the egg and sex which ends with the man licking the egg and the boy jumping from the roof.

The Boy (少年/shōnen)

The boy sits in the cage with the chickens.  He watches one defecate and picks it up, puts it in his mouth, chews on it, then spits it out.  He watches geese flying overhead then sinks into the earth.  He watches his mother from the roof as she walks from the hen house to the shed.  He then witnesses his mother enter chicken coop and attack a chicken. He dives off of house.

The Family (家族/kazoku)

This final vignette brings more elements of the story together. We see the full context of the boy hiding under his father’s table, his sister tattling on him then laughing wildly as the father strikes the boy and throws him into an empty shed.  The boy has an egg with him.  The egg hatches a miniature Doppelgänger of the boy.  A final surreal montage: whispering into the ear, a scream, a crazy dinner table scene, the zipping of the mouth, a family in chaos.  .  . the boy on the rooftop in the shape of rooster with glasses on.  .  .  does he fall to his death or fly to his freedom?    

Style

This is Ōkawara’s graduation film for the Geidai (Tokyo University of the Arts) graduate animation programme and his first in which he experiments with narrative form.  His earlier animated shorts were more conceptual.  Orchestra (2008), which he co-directed with fellow students Masaki Okuda and Yutaro Ogara, and Animal Dance (2009) bring music and movement together in a way reminiscent of the works of Norman McLaren, and insomniac (2008) visually depicts the way sounds and images clutter the mind and prevent sleep.

Stylistically, A Wind Egg, has much in common with the works of his Geidai mentor Kōji Yamamura.  The grey washed backgrounds and layering of the image with paint flecks during the dream (or rather nightmare) sequence are reminiscent of the techniques used by Yamamura in films like Mt. Head (2002) and Muybridge’s Strings (2011). Colour is kept to a minimal with grey and black being the predominant hues.  

Theme of Abuse

A Wind Egg played at Nippon Connection 2013 as part of the omnibus of Geidai films presented by Prof. Mitsuko Okamoto.  The audience at Nippon Connection has been following the Japanese independent scene for the past decade and there has been much discussion in recent years about the prevalence of abuse and violence in animation by young independent filmmakers.  This trend includes the films of Saori Shiroki – particularly MAGGOT (2007) and The Woman Who Stole Fingers (2010) – and Kei Oyama (Hand Soap, 2008), and Atsushi Wada’s Gentle Whistle, Bird and Stone (2010). 

I cannot speculate on if this reflects anything about modern Japanese society; however, I do believe the personal nature of independent animation allows for artists to address these darker issues of human nature.  I have long been of the opinion that animation has the power to address subject matter that is too difficult for viewers to witness with live action – Renzō and Sayoko Kinoshita’s Pica-don (1978) and Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies (1988) are two films that automatically spring to mind. 

Just as Pica-don and Grave of the Fireflies deal with the trauma of inhumane wartime violence, A Wind Egg takes on the deeply confronting issues surrounding the trauma caused by sexual perversion and domestic violence within the family unit.  The fractured nature of the narrative is indicative of the way in which abuse – be it psychological, sexual or physical – disrupts family life and traumatizes its victims.  Initially, this film appears to be full of despair, but upon further reflection there is indeed a glimmer of hope at the end.  Eggs are symbolic of birth and creation, and roosters are associated with Amaterasu, the Shintō goddess of the sun.  Perhaps the boy has indeed been reborn at the end of the film and is indeed flapping his way into a brighter future. 

A Wind Egg won the Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award for Animated Film at the Stuttgart Trickfilm Festival.  It appears on the DVD Geidai Animation 3^rd Graduate Works 2012.  You can follow Ryo Okawara on Twitter.

#nippon13 #nc2013

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Asura (アシュラ, 2012)

From the Roman legend of Romulus and Remus to Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli, tales of feral children – or what the Japanese call yaseiji (野生児) – have long captured the imagination of storytellers.  These folktales, legends, and myths fascinate because they deal with the age-old question of what distinguishes human beings from other animals.  Can an abandoned child who has had to survive on its own in the wild learn human traits such as empathy, social skills, language, and most importantly, love? 

 Order DVD: Asura

Of all the tales of feral children that I have read or seen on film, Keiichi Sato’s animated feature Asura (アシュラ/Ashura, 2012) is undoubtedly the most brutal.  It is adapted from George Akiyama’s infamous manga of the same name, which was banned in many parts of Japan when it was first published in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine (1970-1) for its depiction of grotesque acts of human violence including cannibalism.  However, Akiyama’s tale is no more depraved than the ancient Buddhist tales that inspired him.  According to legend, the Asuras were lower gods who were unduly influenced by human passions such as wrath, pride, envy, falseness, boasting, and bellicosity (a predisposition to violence).   The Asura represent the human soul at its most depraved and egotistical, overwhelmed by an urge to fight and argue with others.

The feral child in Asura acquires his name from a Buddhist monk (Kinya Kitaoji), who recognizes his similarity to the legendary Asuras.  The child Asura (Masako Nozawa) is born to a desperate world of drought and famine.  Set in 15^th century Kyoto at a time when the country is on the verge of a bloody civil war, Asura is abandoned by his mother and learns to survive in a dog-like manner.  He knows only suffering and uses violence as his only means of survival.

Most of the people that Asura encounters treat him with fear, disgust, or loathing but two kindly people try to help him and save him from his destructive tendencies.  The first is the Buddhist monk who teaches him how to speak a few words and tries to appeal to his humanity through Buddhist thought.  The second is a young woman called Wakasa (Megumi Hayashibara), who takes pity on Asura and secretly looks after him and makes a concerted effort to tame him. 

This is not an animation for the faint-hearted.  The violence is graphic and shocking.  Asura’s path to taming the beast within himself is filled with obstacles that he may not be able to overcome.  Although I am not usually a fan of films that depict extreme violence, it was impossible not to be impressed with the visual design of Asura.  A fascinating mixture of hand-drawn and CGI animation, the adaptation remains true to the spirit of the original manga while at the same time transporting us into the world of Asura in an emotional way that only animation can achieve. 

Asura tied for the Audience Award for Best Animated Feature at the 16^th Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.  I saw the film at Nippon Connection 2013. 

#nippon13 #nc2013

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

The film is available on DVD and Bluray in Japan (JP only). The soundtrack is also available for order.

Order: Asura [Blu-ray]

A2-B-C (2013)

A subjective documentary like Ian Thomas Ash’s A2-B-C (2013), is difficult for me to watch with any sort of objectivity.  Having been a mother of two young children when I lived in Tokyo, and having many close friends with children in Japan, the familiar scenes of dusty Japanese playgrounds, friendly hoikuen (nursery schools), and concerned parents’ groups stuck a deep chord with me.   

Ash also makes it clear from his opening confrontation 12 days after the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima with Dr. Shunichi Yamashita, the government advisor on radiation health, that he is firmly on the side of the families affected by the disaster. Although he does interview a wide range of people from workers hired to “decontaminate” houses to local politicians, the main focus of A2-B-C (still called by its earlier title A2 when it screened at Nippon Connection in June) is to give voice to the most at risk people whose views are not being taken seriously enough by the powers that be: the mothers and children affected by the fallout of the Fukushima disaster.

In particular, Ash turns his attentions to mothers and children living in Date City (pronounced with two syllables: “da-tay”), 60km northwest of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  Because the city lies outside of the 30km exclusion zone, the families living in this area have no access to funding to move elsewhere in Japan.   Although this community is further away, these communities northwest of Daiichi lie in the path of the radioactive plume.  Most of the families living here feel helpless.  They can’t sell their homes to fund a move because no one will buy them.  Without government assistance it is impossible to give up their property and jobs and start with nothing somewhere else. 

Having resigned themselves to the fact that they are stuck where they are, the mothers that Ash follows are educating themselves on how radiation works and are challenging the system when they feel that they are being given inaccurate or misleading information.  Mothers are afraid to let their children play outside, to allow their children drink school milk because it is being sourced locally, or even allow their children to go to school because there is a major radiation hotspot just on the other side of the school fence.  Recently, there has even been talk of feeding the schoolchildren locally sourced rice regardless of the hazards. 

The community is living with the fear of cancer hanging over their heads.  Rumours abound of young women having abortions or having already given up the idea of getting married for fear that they have already been affected by radiation.  The children go to school and to the playground with “glass badges” that monitor the amount of radiation they are being exposed to on a daily basis.  The title of the film is taken from the thyroid examination results that the children have taken.  One of the most disturbing scenes in the film is when a group of children discuss their A2 thyroid cysts and seem resigned to the fact that they will likely one day develop cancer.  The mothers don’t even trust the hospital thyroid test results because they are being prevented from paying private hospitals for independent results.

Ian Thomas Ash is the voice behind the camera for most of the 70-minute film, apart from a sweet scene where one of the young daughters turns the tables on him and photographs him and in a tension-filled scene when a school vice principle confronts him about filming on school property without permission.  One of the most interesting aspects of the film is how close Ash gets to the families whose stories he is telling.  You can really feel his genuine concern and compassion for these people who feel left adrift in a sea of misinformation. 

One of the more frustrating aspects of the film is this lack of clear information.  The average viewer does not understand what a safe radiation reading is, how radiation works, or what the thyroid test results really mean.  There is also a lack of context about how reasonable it is for the residents of Fukushima Prefecture to mistrust government information – after all, there is a long history of government officials from the local to national level in Japan putting industry ahead of the health and well-being of communities.  For many, the Fukushima disaster brings back memories of what happened in Minamata,Niigata, Yokkaichi, and elsewhere.  While I was frustrated by the lack of clear context in the film, at the same time that frustration mirrors that of the people living in the shadow of the nuclear plant.  Ash has made a film that puts us into the shoes of the people who are living daily with the fear of the unknown.  The fear of a future that may be filled with illness and suffering for themselves and their children.

It was a film that had to be made.  A2-B-C won the jury adjudicated Nippon Visions Award at Nippon Connection 2013 to much applause.  The award includes JVTA (Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy) funding for subtitling his next film.  Ash is working on a follow up film about Fukushima which will be his third film on the devastating effects of the nuclear meltdown.  His first film, In the Grey Zone (2012) was filmed closer to the Daiichi plant. 

To learn more about Ian Thomas Ash, check out his official website and Robin Caudell’s article on Ash winning the Nippon Visions Award.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

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Imamura Store (今村商店, 2011)

Aya Tsugehata (告畑綾, b. 1987) is an up-and-coming stop motion animator from Saitama Prefecture.  She graduated from Tamabi in 2010 and then continued to develop her puppet animation skills under the supervision of Yūichi Itō (伊藤有壱, b.1962) at Geidai.  The 5-minute short Imamura Store (今村商店 / Imamura shōten, 2011) was Tsugehata’s first film as a graduate student.  At Nippon Connection 2013, Prof. Mitsuko Okamoto (Geidai) called Imamura Store and Tsugehata’s latest film The Sakuramoto Broom Workshop (櫻本箒製作所, 2012) examples of “animation documentary” because of her use of documentary recorded sound. 

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An unseen first person female narrator (Masumi Takino) leads us back into the animator’s childhood memories of going to Imamura Store to buy candy.  The sense of nostalgia (natsukashii) is heightened by the sound of cicadas and the familiarity of the storefront.  Imamura Store is an example of what we in Canada would call a general store (or dépanneur in Québec).  The chain convenience store (konbini /コンビニ) has pushed out this type of family run store selling general merchandise in many places, but there are still many such shops that survive in tight knit communities with the customers valuing the atmosphere and local gossip to be acquired there.  The simple metal framed sliding glass doors on the front of the building and the old-fashioned wooden interior suggest that the shop has remained little changed for decades. 

We learn from the narrator that the central character, Toshiko, married into the Imamura family 60 years ago.  Unfortunately, her husband died of malaria he caught while overseas as WWII soldier and his mother passed away soon after.  Toshiko was left to run the family business on her own.  Only recently, Toshiko has lost her only son, whom she had raised by herself.  She tells people that when she dies, the shop will also cease to exist. 

The film alternates between narration telling us about Toshiko Imamura and quiet observations of the store itself.  The focus on the small details of the store from the few simple products displayed neatly on the shelves to the squeaky post box suggest that animator wanted to archive this special place which may soon disappear from the community.  Through the narrator, one senses Tsugahata’s admiration for Toshiko – a woman who follows a daily routine without complaint (sweeping the entrance first thing in the morning and again when closing at night), who enoys hard work, and appreciates the simple things in life such as the love and kindness of her community.  It is a slice of life animation made from the heart. 

The music and sound was directed by fellow Geidai student Miki Sakurai (櫻井未希).  Documentary audio of Toshiko Imamura and her friends/customers Chieko Tamba and Masakichi Furusho were recorded live at the Imamura Shōten.

Tsuguhata followed up Imamura Store with her graduate film The Sakuramoto Broom Workshop (櫻本箒製作所, 2012). It was awarded a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival 2013 and has played at many international festivals including Stuttgart and Fukuoka.  Keep an eye out at festivals for this excellent young stop motion animator’s work.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Imamura Store was featured in the Tokyo University of the Arts Animation screening at Nippon Connection 2013.  Many thanks to Prof. Okamoto for answering my questions about the making of this film.

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