12th Japan Filmfest Hamburg

The 12th annual Japan Filmfest Hamburg opens next week. From the 25th – 29th of May, Hamburgers will have the opportunity to see a wide variety of films. This year they have been divided into five thematic areas: Naginata, Noh, Anime, Rakugo, and Osaka. In addition to the film programme, an exhibition entitled “TEGAMI – The Perspective of Japanese Artists” will be held in the lobby of the Metropolis Cinema.

Here’s an overview of the programme. Click here to learn more.

Naginata

• GANTZ | Shinsuke Sato | 2011 | 120 min | 35 mm | OmeU | NTV, Tiberius Film
• GUNHED | Masato Harada | 1989 | 100 min | DVD | OmeU | TOHO und Cult-Movie Entertainment
•  GOTHIC + LOLITA PSYCHO | Go Ohara | 2010 | 88 min | DVD | OmdU | I-ON NEW MEDIA | German Premiere
•  YAKUZA WEAPON | Tak Sakaguchi, Yudai Yamaguchi | 2011 | 106 min | DVD | OmeU | 8 Films | German Premiere
• BLOODY MARI | Ryota Mori | 2010 | 14 min | DVD | OmeU | Funyu Corporation | International Premiere
• KARAKURI | Haj Ishida | 2010 | 16 min | DVD | OmeU | Funyu Corporation | International Premiere
• ALIEN VS. NINJA | Seiji Chiba | 2010 | 81 min | DVD | OmdU | 8 Films
• MUTANT GIRL SQUAD | Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Tak Sakaguchi | 2010 | 90 min | DVD | OmdU | 8 Films
• HELLDRIVER | Yoshihiro Nishimura | 2010 | 106 min | DVD | OmdU | I-ON NEW MEDIA
• EROTIBOT | Naoyuki Tomomatsu | 2011 | 80 min | DVD | OmeU | 8 Films | European Premiere

Noh

• LOVE+LOATHING+LULU+AYANO (LLLA) | Hisayasu Sato | 2010 | 105 min | Blu-ray | OmeU | Makotoya | German Premiere
• HEAVEN’S STORY | Zeze Takahisa | 2010 | 278 min | Blu-Ray | OmeU | Stance Company / Free Stone Production
• BIRTHRIGHT | Naoki Hashimoto | 2010 | 108 min | 35mm | OmeU | Eleven Arts | German Premiere
• OUR BRIEF ETERNITY | Takuya Fukushima | 2009 | 105 min | DVD | OmeU | Makotoya
• NAGANOS KINDERLIEDER | Nadja Frenz | 2010 | 55 min | DVD | OmdU | Vidicom Media in co-produktion with NDR and ARTE
• SUPERIORITY OF ADDICTS | Kenichi Aikawa | 2007 | 80 min | DVD | Original ohne UT | Tenku | International Premiere
• ANDANTE | Satoshi Kaneda | 2010 | 108 min | DVD | OmeU | Eleven Arts | German Premiere
• DELTA | Masayuki Yonaha, Yoshiko Takano, Kazushi Ozawa | 2010 | 71 min | DVD | OmeU | Yasuko Nakada | International Premiere
• DOOR TO THE SEA | Reiko Ohashi | 2010 | 70 min | DVD | OmeU | Tokyo University of the Arts
• SHEEP IN THE NIGHT | Paul Young | 2010 | 73 min | DVD | OmeU | Tokyo University of the Arts
• TETO | Hiroshi Gokan | 2010 | 103 min | DVD | OmeU | Tokyo University of the Arts
• DRIFTING CLOUDS | Daisuke Hasebe | 2010 | 53 min | DVD | OmeU | Tokyo University of the Arts
• CAGE | Shinsuke Kurimoto | 2010 | 61 min | DVD | OmeU | Tokyo University of the Arts
• GOOD E – HEBANO | Bunyo Kimura | 2009 | 81 min | DVD | OmeU | Team Judas
• LOST PARADISE IN TOKYO | Kazuya Shiraishi | 2009 | 115 min | DVD | OmeU | Eleven Arts | German Premiere
• LUNAR CHILD | Akihiro Suzuki | 2009 | 108 min | DVD | OmeU | S.I.G. Inc. | German Premiere
• ASSAULT GIRLS | Mamoru Oshii | 2009 | 70 min | DVD | OmdU | 8 Films | German Premiere
• A CROWD OF THREE | Tatsushi Omori | 2010 | 131 min | 35mm | OmeU | Asmik Ace Entertainment
• HOTEL CHELSEA | Jorge Valdes Igo | 2009 | 74 min | DVD | OmeU | Ichigo Ichie Films
• WANDERING HOME | Yoichi Higashi | 2010 | 118 min | 35mm | OmeU | Siglo
• KIRITORU | Joe Tanaka | 2009 | 60 min | DVD | OmeU | Joe Tanaka | European Premiere
• UNIJAPAN 1 | various directors | 2010 | 75 min | DVD | OmeU | Uni Japan | German Premiere
• UNIJAPAN 2 | various directors | 2010 | 69 min | DVD | OmeU | Uni Japan | German Premiere
• ISAMU KATAYAMA – ARTISANAL LIFE | Koichi Makino | 2009 | 96 min | DVD | OmeU | Backlash Amenicam | International Premiere

Anime

• ARRIETTY | Hiromasa Yonebayashi | 2010 | 94 min | 35mm | OmeU | Universum Film
• THE ASYLUM SESSION | Takuto Aoki | 2009 | 60 min | DVD | OmeU | Comix Wave Films | German Premiere
• PATCHi UPDATE 1.1 | Kim-Quy Nguyen | 2011 | 10 min | DVD | Deutsch | Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
• NEGADON: THE MONSTER FROM MARS | Jun Awazu | 2005 | 26 min | DVD | OmeU | Anime Virtual
• PLANZET | Jun Awazu | 2010 | 53 min | Blu-ray | OmeU | KAZE | German Premiere

Rakugo

• SURELY SOMEDAY | Shun Oguri | 2010 | 122 min | 35mm | OmeU | Bogeydom Licensing | German Premiere
•  SWEET SILLY LOVE SONG – AMACHORO | Soukichi Miyata | 2010 | 104 min | DVD | OmdU | Isamu Matsue | International Premiere
• OVER 8 | various directors | 2009 | 105 min | DVD | OmeU | Jet Mania | International Premiere
• MILOCRORZE – A LOVE STORY | Yoshimasa Ishibashi | 2011 | 90 min | DVD | OmeU | 8 Films
• HIJOSHI – WHAT GIRLS WANT | various directors | 2009 | 105 min | DVD | OmeU | New Cinema Workshop | International Premiere
• YURIKO’S AROMA | Kota Yoshida | 2010 | 72 min | DVD | OmeU | Makotoya
• RECORD FUTURE | Kentaro Kishi | 2009 | 91 min | DVD | OmeU | @World
•  FILM OF THE DEAD | Ryusuke Shinada | 2007 | 25 min | DVD | OmeU | Ryusuke Shinada | International Premiere
• I ♥ RED LION | Naoki Nagashima | 2009 | 70 min | DVD | OmeU | Funyu Corporation | International Premiere

Osaka

• DOMAN SEMAN | Go Shibata | 2009 | 124 min | Blu-Ray | OmeU | Eleven Arts
• BEAUTIFUL METHOD | Takamasa Ooe | 2009 | 90 min | DVD | OmeU | CO2 (Cineastes Organization Osaka)
• 13 ASSASSINS | Takashi Miike | 2010 | 126 min | 35 mm | OmeU | Ascot Elite
• SAIKA – THE AGE OF CIVIL STRIFE | Masakazu Yamaguchi | 2011 | 21 min | Blu-Ray | OmdU | Masakazu Yamaguchi | International Premiere
• HARUKU | Yūka Kanaizuka | 2010 | 53 min | 16mm | OmdU | University of Arts Osaka Filme | International Premiere
• MISTAKE | Itō Hideyuki | 2010 | 23 min | DVD | OmdU | University of Arts Osaka Filme | International Premiere
• SCRAP FAMILY | Akihito Kajiya | 2011 | 85 min | DVD | OmeU | CO2 (Cineastes Organization Osaka) | German Premiere
• YUMEKO | Yōsuke Kaneko | 2010 | 27 min | DVD | OmdU | Kaneko Yusuke | International Premiere
• NIGHT OF FISH | Hiroshi Toda | 2010 | 55 min | DVD | OmeU | Skeleton Films | German Premiere
• PHANTOM OF THE TOWN | Hiroshi Toda | 2010 | 70 min | DVD | OmeU | Skeleton Films | German Premiere
• UNSER (UN)VERTRÄGLICHES ICH | Turuga Rei | 2010 | 36 min | DVD | OmdU | University of Arts Osaka Filme | International Premiere
• CAFE IN THE SUN | Masakazu Yamaguchi | 2011 | 41 min | Blu-Ray | OmdU | Masakazu Yamaguchi | International Premiere
• DIGITAL HOLLYWOOD OSAKA | various directors | 1996-2010 | 40 min | DVD | OmdU | Digital Hollywood Osaka | International Premiere
• MILK | Masayoshi Masugi | 2011 | 19 min | Blu-Ray | OmdU | Masayoshi Masugi | International Premiere
• SNIPPING GIRL | Chihiro Amano | 2011 | 30 min | DVD | OmdU | Chihiro Amano | International Premiere

Rokkasho Rhapsody (六ヶ所村ラプソディー, 2006)

In his famous poem “Ame ni mo Makezu”, Kenji Miyazawa writes of wandering bewildered in the summer cold. One does not normally apply the word “cold” to Japan in the summer, but in Tohoku and eastern Hokkaido a cold, wet wind known as Yamase blows in the summer months when a high pressure system comes down from Okhotsk in the north, bringing rain and fog with it.

The Yamase winds make the region ideal for the harvesting of wind power and while some wind mills do dot the landscape, their owners encounter problems with selling the energy to the grid because of the tight relationship between the big electricity companies and nuclear power. In Rokkasho Rhapsody (Rokkasho-mura Rhapsody, 2006), director Hitomi Kamanaka takes her documentary camera north in order to investigate the grassroots protests against the building of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant for spent nuclear fuel.  She interviews a cross-section of the community including people for, against, and unsure.

As the recent disaster in Fukushima has made clear, the nuclear industry in Japan has used its enormous power with government officials at local and national levels to push ahead with the building and maintaining of nuclear facilities in spite of the risks. They deliberately target remote communities with high unemployment in order to curry support from people desperate for any kind of work in order to support their families.

The handful of people who were willing to talk to Hitomi Kamanaka about in-depth about their reservations about the safety of building a nuclear reprocessing plant find themselves labeled as kooks who are standing in the way of progress. In actuality, they are kind-hearted, concerned citizens who fear that their local community won’t realize the mistake they have made acquiescing to the nuclear industry until it is too late. 

Keiko Kikukawa (read more about her) expresses herself through her love of the environment. Her parents resettled in Rokkasho during the war after their home on Sakhalin was burned to the ground. She runs a garden that she calls the Village of Flowers and Herbs and she regularly holds a Tulip Festival as a kind of peaceful protest against the nuclear reprocessing plant. Kikukawa speaks of trying to live her life in the open so that her community can see that she is an honest woman. In spite of her unthreatening appearance, she has endured police surveillance and she has heard that some believe that she is being paid by communists to spread propaganda.

Another voice of protest is the former squid fisherman Mr. Sakai in the Tomari District of Aomori. In the 1980s the local people became bitterly divided on the issue of bringing nuclear energy to the region. Sakai featured prominently in a documentary film that was made at the time called “Tomari is not losing the fight!” Although he is now getting on in years, he continues to hold fast in his anti-nuclear stance and he talks about the extreme pressures put upon his fellow protestors when plans for building went ahead anyway. Those who had been against the proposals lost their jobs. Many of them keep quiet about their beliefs today so that their children won’t lose their jobs. He had to move away. The bottom line was that power and money quashed local protests.

The people supporting the reprocessing plant are not depicted as some kind of evil force, but rather business owners and workers who are putting their practical present concerns ahead of the possibilities that the future may bring. People like the local dry cleaner who hopes to secure a contract with the company cleaning their uniforms, despite the obvious safety concern that he and his workers could come into contact with nuclear residues on the clothes.  The most dangerous opinions expressed by people in this film are the ambivalent ones - like the middle-aged couple who just shrugs and say that they don't care because they are old.

In order to investigate the long-term consequences of living with a nuclear reprocessing plant, Kamanaka travels to Sellafield in Cumbria, England. Here she meets with a local fisherman and a Scottish scientist on the Isle of Man, who talk about the problems of radiation in the Irish Sea. Most striking is Kamanaka’s interview with Janine Allis-Smith, a local activist against nuclear energy. Allis-Smith is of a similar age to Kikukawa-san – and even seems to have the same chubby black-and-white patchwork cat! She speaks about the serious effects the Sellafield plant has had on the health of the locals – particularly those with family working at the plant. Allis-Smith’s son was one of an alarming number of children to develop leukemia. Many of these children did not survive the illness and one common thread that most of them had was a parent working at Sellafield.

Order Now (with English subtitles)

The information about Sellafield forms an important part of the documentary’s message: not only to inform communities like the village of Rokkasho of the realities of living with a nuclear facility, but also that a reminder that this is not just a local but a global issue. Watching this film only five years after it was made I wondered how many disasters like Fukushima do we need to have before people wake up to the fact that we need to look to sustainable resources in order to provide a safe and successful future for the human race? The irony is that the same Yamase winds that make this coastal region ideal for environmentally friendly, sustainable energies such as wind power, will be the same winds that will spread radiation inland if/when disaster strikes.  As one of the scientists points out, it really is just a question of when not if, and sadly we learned in March in Fukushima that he was right.

This film ought to be picked up by public broadcasters around the world so that people can be better informed about the way in which the nuclear industry operates.  It is available on DVD (JP only). Order now from cdjapan.  UPDATE: Now available with English subs from Zakka Films

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Nippon Connection 2011

The PiKA PiKA Workshop at Nippon Connection 2011

 The PiKA PiKA Workshop by Tochka was one of the highlights of Nippon Connection 2011.  I got the chance to have a peek behind the scenes at the set up for the event, watched the workshop in progress, and joined in at the end to participate in the creation of a message of support to the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku.  This final part of the event was in support of Tochka's Safe and Sound Project.

Who are Tochka?

Nara-based artists Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno make up the collaborative art team Tochka.  They met at a film club while both were students at Kyoto University of Art and Design.  They have been making animated films, graphics, and manga since 1998 and are particularly famous for their innovative use of stop motion animation techniques.

A message of hope: I'm the turquoise heart at the top in the middle.

What is PiKA PiKA?

PiKA PiKA is the name of the lightning doodle technique that Tochka came up with in 2005.  It is stop motion animation made using coloured flashlights.

The name comes from the Japanese onomatopoeia "pika pika" (ピカピカ) which is associated with flashes of light.  Fans of Pokemon will recognize it as something that Pikachu, whose power involves electricity, says all the time.

What tools does do I need to make PiKA PiKA animation?

In addition to flashlights that have clear coloured paper taped over them, one needs a camera with long exposure capabilities, and a black background.

"Durchhalten" = hang in there - I'm the top "A" :-)

How does it work?

With the camera shutter open, the participants draw shapes in the air with their flashlights for 5 - 10 seconds.  They then repeat this process in order to create a series of images.  When the images are played back at normal speed, the PiKA PiKA animation comes to life. In the Nippon Connection workshop, the camera was positioned on top of a large screen.  After each round of filming, the resulting image was projected on the screen so that the participants could see how the results of their work.

I'm making a turquoise star in this one.

What happens during a PiKA PiKA Workshop?

The Nippon Connection workshop was run by Takeshi Nagata on his own.  He played funky music in order to create a cheerful atmosphere.  After a short introduction, he began with the simple shape of a small circle.  He then had the participants repeat this shape up high and down low, so that when the images were played back the circles of light resembled bouncing balls.  As the workshop progressed, the participants were encouraged to suggest their own ideas for shapes or words that they wanted to animate.

Here is the result of the Nippon Connection PiKA PiKA Workshop:

What makes PiKA PiKA so special?

 PiKA PiKA is a type of animation that anyone can participate in regardless of age or artistic ability.  It is a fun way of teaching the basics of stop motion.  When moving images were first invented many people believed that cinema had the ability to be a universal language. In this vein, Tochka's PiKA PiKA animation demonstrates how animation can be used to connection people from around the world in a positive way.

The best thing about the workshop was how much fun the participants had.

How can I book a PiKA PiKA Workshop?

You can contact them at tochka.jp(at)gmail.com or via twitter.

How else can I support Tochka?

You can support Tochka by purchasing their DVD Tochka Works 2001-2010 from CALF or the British Animation Awards online shop.  Read my review of the DVD to learn more.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Nippon Connection 2011