Japan in Germany 4: Japan Media Arts Festival Dortmund

The Japan Media Arts Festival has been held annually in Tokyo since 1997.  Sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the festival aims to promote the development of innovative media arts.  They accept entries from all over the world and award prizes in four creative divisions: Art, Animation, Entertainment, and Manga.  Last year they had a total of 2,645 works entered into the competition including 694 from overseas.  Check out their website for their current call for entries.  

Dortmund U is hosting a selection of the best of the Japan Media Arts Festival this fall from September 9th until October 2nd, 2011.  The event has been curated by Stefan Riekeles (Les Jardins des Pilotes, Berlin).  The Exhibition itself will be open daily except for Mondays:

Tuesday - Wednesday 10:00 -18:00

Thursday - Friday 10:00 - 20:00

Saturday - Sunday 11:00-18:00

Featured Artists will include:

Art

HIRAKAWA Norimichi / QUE Houxo, KUROKAWA Ryoichi, KUWAKUBO Ryota, MIYAMOTO Naotaka, ONISHI Yasuaki, SHINTSUBO Kenshu, SHINTSUBO Kenshu / IKEGAMI Takashi, UKAWA Naohiro

Entertainment

FUJIKI Jun / SUZUTA Ken / SUZUKI Tatsuya, HAYASHI Tomohiko / SENBO Kensuke / KOYAMA Tomohiko, MASE Jitsuro / NAGAE Tom, MIYAWAKI Osamu, MIZUGUCHI Tetsuya, NAKAMURA Haruki, UCHIDA Shinya

Manga

AZUMA Kiyohiko, INOUE Takehiko, IWAAKI Hitoshi, YAMADA Yoshihiro, YAMAMOTO Naoki, YOSHINAGA Fumi, Nichimandoku

Animation

ANNO Hideaki, HARA Keiichi, HOSODA Mamoru, ISO Mitsuo, KOIKE Takeshi, MIYAZAKI Hayao, OSHII Mamoru, SHINKAI Makoto, TANIGAWA Nagaru / ISHIHARA Tatsuya, YUASA Masaaki

Concert

sasakure.UK feat. Hatsune Miku, Momoiro Clover Z 

For me, the highlight is of course the animation on offer.  I am planning on going up to Dortmund on the first Sunday of the event to see the Film Talk with Masaaki Yuasa.  He won the Grand Prize in 2010 for The Tatami Galaxy.  He also won the Grand Prize in 2004 for Mind Game and an Excellence Prize in 2008 for Kaiba.  All of these films/TV series will be screening at the Dortmund U event.  I also highly recommend the selection of short films on offer:

JMAF Short Film Special 

Sept. 9 (at the opening event), 24 and Oct. 2nd

ISHIDA Hiroyasu: Fumiko's Confession

ITO Naoki / Frank HAHN: Nike Music Shoe

MASHIMA Riichiro: Ski Jumping Pairs

MIZUGUCHI Tetsuya / TAMAI Kenji: make.believe / Genki Rockets

NAKAMURA Magico u.a.: Hibi No Neiro (Tone of everyday)

OKAMOTO Noriaki: Algol

OKAWARA Ryo: Animal Dance

SAKAMOTO Yusuke: the river

SEKI Kazuaki: arukuaround / sakanaction

TAKAHASHI Nobuo: Musashino Plateau

TAKEUCHI Taijin: a song like a fish

YAMAMURA Koji: A Child's Metaphysics

YKBX: natsu wo matteimashita / amazarashi

Here is the Full Film Program:

Saturday, September 10th

20:00 Redline (Takeshi Koike, 2009)

Sunday, September 11th

16:00 Kaiba (Masaaki Yuasa, 2008, TV series)
18:00 Film talk with special guest: Masaaki Yuasa
20:00 Mind Game (Masaaki Yuasa, 2004)

Thursday, September 15th

20:00 Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (Hideaki Anno/Masayuki/Kazuya Tsurumaki, 2007)

Friday, September 16th

20:00 Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (Hideaki Anno/Masayuki/Kazuya Tsurumaki, 2009)

Saturday, September 17th

16:00 Summer Wars (Mamoru Hosoda, 2009)
18:00 The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda, 2006)
20:00 The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (Tatsuya Ishihara/Yasuhiro Takemoto, 2010)

Sunday, September 18th

16:00 Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki, 2008)
18:00-23:00 The Tatami Galaxy (Masaaki Yuasa, 2010, TV series)

Thursday, September 22nd

20:00 Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)

Saturday, September 24th

16:00 JMAF Short Film Special | 13 Films, 60 min.total
17:00 Den-noh Coil  / CyberCoil (aka  Dennō Koiru, Mitsuo Iso, 2007, TV series)
18:00 Summer Wars (Mamoru Hosoda, 2009)
20:00 The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda, 2006)

Sunday, September 25h

16:00 Crayon Shinchan: The Storm Called: The Battle of the Warring States (Keiichi Hara, 2002)
18:00 Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone  (Hideaki Anno/Masayuki/Kazuya Tsurumaki, 2007)
20:00 Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Mamoru Oshii, 2004)

Thursday, September 29th

20:00 Buttgereit's Monster Film Selection (TBA)

Friday, September 30th

19:00 Talk with Director Jörg Buttgereit
20:00 Buttgereit's Monster Film Selection (TBA)

Sunday, October 10th
.
16:00 Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki, 2008)
18:00 JMAF Short Film Special | 13 Films, 60 min.total
20:00 Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (Hideaki Anno,  2009)


This blog post is part the Japan in Germany series.

Japan in Germany 3: Nippon Puffed Rice Chocolate Squares

Nippon puffed rice chocolate squares are common sight on the chocolate shelves of German grocery stores and kiosks. Made by the Hosta company in Stimpfach, Schwäbisch Hall, the squares appear to simply be puffed rice covered in chocolate, but the ingredients actually include other grains or grain derivatives.

The squares come in a variety of sizes and occasionally can be found in dark bitter and white chocolate varieties. The official website for Nippon squares does not give any history as to why the product was called “Nippon”.  Perhaps the logic was that the product  contains rice and rice is a staple food in Japan.  It is possible that the snack was inspired by Tochoco’s Rice Chocolate bar. It is featured on the Showa Navi because the product was launched in 1953 – Showa 28 on the Japanese calendar. The Tochoco puffed rice chocolate bar contains a lot more chocolate than the German Nippon square.  Read a product review of the Tochocho Rice Chocolate at Japanese Snack Reviews to learn more.

Although I have not yet tried it the German company Wawi apparently has a competing line of chocolate rice squares which they claim won the award for Best Brand of Puffed-Rice Chocolate in Germany in the Lebensmittel Zeitung (a grocery consumer publication) in March. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for it next time I’m at the supermarket. Other similar products include the Australian company Sunrice’s Tumbles.

My children really like Nippon, but they are not really to my taste. I prefer dark chocolate and I had the impression when taste-testing them that they contain quite a lot of vegetable oil and fatty cacao butter as it left my mouth feeling quite greasy afterwards. I recommend taste-testing them with a strong coffee to counteract this.  While looking in vain for historical information about the Nippon squares, I discovered an intriguing recipe using them as the base of a cake.

You can find the rest of the recipe for Nippon Chocolate Cake with Yogurt Cream & Strawberries at lecher.de.  I have worked the cake table at Kindergarten events before and the cakes heavy with cream are always a big hit here in Germany.  I will have to give this one a try the next time we have guests.


This blog post is part of a new series called Japan in Germany.  

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

Pictures at an Exhibition (展覧会の絵, 1966)

In 1967 Osamu Tezuka picked up his second Noburo Ofuji Award for his animation Pictures at an Exhibition (展覧会の絵, 1966). Among other domestic honours, this 39-minute film (33 minutes in its current cut) also picked up the award for Best Animated Film at the Asia Pacific Film Festival that year.

The film is a modern interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” (1874), a suite in ten movements composed for the piano. The music was inspired by an exhibition of the works of Mussorgsky’s late friend Viktor Hartmann. The first movement is the famous Promenade, which represents the visitor walking around the exhibition. This is followed by various movements that are meant to either create the picture in the mind’s eye or at the very least capture the mood of the picture. Each movement is interspersed with a reprise of the Promenade theme in order to depict the visitor moving on to the next picture.

Tezuka commissioned the composer Isao Tomita to arrange Mussorgsky’s composition for the orchestral accompaniment to the animation. The arrangement was performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. The Geneon DVD of the animation adds the original 1966 ending of the film as a 3 minute extra. It shows the orchestra performing the piece before segueing into the credits.

In the accompanying information, written by Masahiro Katayama, he describes Pictures at an Exhibition as the “antithesis of Mushi Pro’s TV animation.” Katayama feels that the film demonstrates the “journalistic eye of Tezuka throughout.” The film was, like Tezuka’s later film Legend of the Forest (1987), made as a kind of homage to Disney’s Fantasia (1940)

The film opens with the camera gracefully tracking up to the doors of a Western-style museum (post a comment if you recognize the building). Once inside, the film switches to animation as the camera pans along a wall of portraits in a nod to Mussorgsky’s original theme. However, the pictures are not those of Viktor Hartmann (which would be actually impossible as not all of them survived), but modern illustrations of people and character types that would have been easily recognizable to audiences in the late 1960s. Many of them: Shakespeare, William Tell, Sigmund Freud, the Beatles are still recognizable to us today. Some, like the Beatnik, are now a bit dated. Following the musical cues of the Promenade, the camera pans along at an irregular pace and pauses at various portraits. All 10 portraits are given an animated interpretation, followed by an extended “Allegorical Conclusion”.

In the English opening credits – which are replete with errors including the odd spelling of Tezuka’s name as Osam Tezka (unless this is an inside joke which explains his son’s unusual choice of Romanization of the family name) – explain that “This picture is constituted of the conventionalities of various heroes today.” My own interpretation of each “portrait” is that they are meant to be tongue-in-cheek satires of important figures in society. Here is a summary of each “portrait.”

Journalist

I actually think that the English title of this section is inaccurate. The old, spider-like, pipe-smoking negative stereotype that is depicted is really more of a media magnate / newspaper publisher along the lines of figures like Rupert Murdoch and William Randolph Hurst. There really are no positive attributions given to this dictatorial figure. He is shown as being corrupt, publicity seeking, self-serving, and power-hungry. All in all the portrait leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Gardener of the artificial landscape

An insect is flying through a world of skyscrapers. He is exhausted from his long journey and searches out water and flowers in order to find some nourishment. Each flower he encounters turns out to be fake. The garden of fake flowers is tended to by a large man with an entourage of fans who dusts and perfumes the flower and cuts out any real ones and disposes of them. When the gardener finds the bug, he throws him away as well, but his fate is left ambiguous. Although the title card on the Geneon DVD suggested that this film was a kind of homage to Fantasia, the second portrait reminded me much more of the Fleischer Brothers’ Mr. Bug Goes to Town (Dave Fleischer, 1941). Not only does Tezuka’s bug resemble Hoppity the Grasshopper, the theme is also similar: nature (in the form of insects) being threatened by modernity (the city).

Order Mr. Bug Goes to Town (EN/JP) from Studio Ghibli

Cosmetic Surgeon

This is one of the more amusing portraits in Pictures at an Exhibition – and one which uses a more pared down sketch style animation on a watercolour background. In this scenario, Tezuka mocks the profession of cosmestic surgeon by showing a number of over-the-top techniques being performed on various people. One person is being expanded with air, another is put through a giant pencil sharpener, yet another is treated with a hammer in the backside. The most amusing moment comes in the form of a close up on the surgeon’s face when it is distorted by a sneeze.

Big Factory Proprietor

This portrait seemed heavily influenced by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). Tezuka wrote a manga called Metropolis loosely inspired by the film in 1949 – which was of course adapted into an anime by Rintaro in 2001. Like the portrait of the “Journalist” the factory boss is depicted as a dictatorial, greedy, soulless creature. Eventually the whole factory, including the big boss himself, are taken over by machines.

Beatnik

Although the portrait on the wall looks like a beatnik, the animation is of dancing chicks who seem to be recreating one of the Sharks vs. Jets dance numbers from West Side Story (Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise, 1961). This is easily my favourite sequence in the animation because it is so delightful. The use of chicks is a direct reference to the Mussorgsky score because this suite is known as “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks.” The original watercolour by Harmann was amusingly surreal and can be seen here. 

Boxer

The boxer in this portrait is an elephant with a boxing glove on his trunk. The suggestion is that boxers, like circus animals, are being exploited by their managers for financial gain. It is a pessimistic portrayal in a similar vein to  the first and second portraits.

TV Talent

Like the “Cosmetic Surgeon” portrait, this portrait uses a sketching animation style. This time black on a coloured background. The TV Talent is an attractive woman cruising about in an expensive car while people at the TV studio panic because she is late for the shoot. The TV Talent carelessly runs over staff on her way into the building and the world of television is literally shown to be world in which people tear each other apart.

Zen Priest

This portrait suggests that Osamu Tezuka questioned the sincerity of practitioners of Zen Buddhism. A grumpy looking Zen priest sits immobile in this portrait. Neither earthquake, nor rain and storm, rocks falling from the sky, nor fire can move him. The screen fades to black, but then returns to the Zen priest, catching him yawning and stretching and he immediately goes back to his meditative pose as if he had never left it.

Soldiers

The use of cutouts and abstract shapes in this “picture” are quite cleverly done. It depicts a negative stereotype of soldiers and the brutality of war. The soldiers appeared to be American – in fact one looked African American – and in a combat situation. The film suggests that the soldiers have a lack of empathy for civilians and are only interested in their baser instincts. I know from having attended an exhibition in Tokyo in 2007 at the Showakan called Osamu Tezuka War Memories and Drawings that the war that Tezuka’s wartime experiences had a significant impact on both his outlook on life and his art. This vignette offers a very pessimistic view of the role of the soldier in times of war.  I have a feeling that the theme of this "picture" was strongly influenced by American military involvement in the Vietnam War, which was such a bone of contention at the time this animation was made.

Allegorical Conclusion

Order Now: Osamu Tezuka Jikken animation sakuhin shu (JP)

The conclusion of the film adapts the final movement “Great Gate of Kiev” quite literally. A procession of people, including many characters from the previous “pictures”, walk through a giant archway – which appeared more Greco-Roman than Russian to my eye but then I am no expert in architecture. I found the ending strangely unsatisfying, mainly because I didn't fully understand what Tezuka was trying to say with it. It seemed to suggest that the people were walking up to the “Pearly Gates” of heaven, but for what purpose I cannot say with any certainty.  There seemed to be a message about supporting others and togetherness, but it was a bit convoluted.

There are many who find Pictures at an Exhibition pessimistic and “weird” (see Hayao Miyazaki’s comments in Starting Point, p. 195), but I think it was Tezuka’s honest attempt to use animation in an original way. Most of the “pictures” are clearly meant to be read as satire – which is a rhetorical form renowned for rubbing people the wrong way. Although I found the “Allegorical Conclusion” a bit over the top in its use of allegory, it does however match the pomposity of Mussorgsky’s score. What Tezuka was trying to “say” with Pictures at an Exhibition is a matter of debate, but the quality of the animation is irrefutably high. It is an intriguing example of animation inspired by music.

© Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

This review is part of Nishikata Film Review’s  2011 Noburo Ofuji Award Challenge.