Coffee falls into the stomach …
ideas begin to move, things remembered arrive at full gallop … the shafts of
wit start up like sharp-shooters, similes arise, the paper is covered with ink
…
-
Honoré
de Balzac (オノレ・ド・バルザック, 1799-1850)
Mornings are the most productive
time for me. I usually wake with a fresh
perspective on whatever project I am working on and as soon as the kids are off
to school, I begin to write. By
mid-morning; however, my brain clouds over and things that seemed so
clear when I first woke jumble together and lose focus. The remedy to this situation is coffee. Coffee has the remarkable ability to bring
order to the chaos of the mind, and to stimulate the imagination when one’s
imagination is ready to curl up and take a catnap.
Taku Furukawa encapsulates the
ability of coffee to inspire a weary mind in his 1977 animated short Coffee Break (コーヒー・ブレイク). In the film, a man sits working busily away at his desk – typing into
his typewriter, comically scratching his behind, talking on the phone, having a
smoke, leafing through a book. It is a
minimalistic line drawing scene with just the man and his desk and door drawn
in thin black lines on white paper. The man - likely a caricature of the animator himself - then makes himself a cup of coffee and as the cup approaches his mouth we hear
the sound of a countdown to a rocket launch.
As the coffee pours into the man’s mouth, the screen explodes into a
colourful multi-layered image of food floating in the air like debris in outer
space. The floating objects transform
from food into animals, then into vehicles, buildings, and people until the
sound of the rocket ship is replaced by the wail of an electronic guitar that
brings home the nirvana of the experience of drinking a good cuppa Java.
In just three short minutes, Coffee Break
demonstrates all the qualities that make Furukawa such a genius of his craft:
his ability to transform a simple concept into a thought-provoking work of art,
his playful nature, and his limitless imagination. Earlier this year, in celebration of Furukawa’s 70th
birthday, two of his former students, Tomoyoshi Joko and Hiroco Ichinose, created
an homage to Coffee Break entitled Coffee
Tadaiku (コーヒータダイク, 2011).
The newly married animation team of Joko and Ichinose studied animation under
Furukawa at Tokyo Polytechnic University and work under the name Decovocal – a name
that was suggested to them by Furukawa (see JMAF 2010 Symposia Report).
Joko and Ichinose emulate Furukawa
in their use of simple line drawing animation to create highly imaginative
works. Coffee Tadaiku mimics the
original Coffee Break right down to the style of the opening credits. “Tadaiku” refers to Furukawa’s given name Furukawa Tadaiku 古川肇郁 – a name which
only appears in the credits of his mentor Yoji Kuri’s films. When the international version of Kuri's Au Fou! (殺人狂時代) was released in 1967, Furukawa’s given name
was shortened to just one kanji 古川肇 in the credits and by the time he left Kuri’s studio he had adopted his
katakana nickname 古川タクas his official nom de plume.
In this
updated version of Coffee Break, Furukawa is depicted typing away at a computer
instead of a typewriter – but he still pauses comically to scratch his bottom. Joko and Ichinose then depict a series of
images that they associate with their sensei: a bespectacled Furukawa working
with a pencil on an animation table, Furukawa as a baseball fan enthusiastically watching the game on a
tablet computer, filing his nails at his desk, watching one of his wind-up
toys on the floor (Furukawa is a collector of White Knob wind-up toys), and so
on. Instead of a closed door, Coffee
Tadaiku features an open door to a staircase with a small dog quietly sitting
in front of it. When the caricature of
Furukawa drinks the coffee, the scene explodes into a sky full of floating
objects associated with celebration: cake / champagne / red snapper / onigiri /
flowers. The electric guitar comes in
much sooner in this tribute to the animation master ushering in an image of
Furukawa drinking coffee as the numbers 7 and 0 float around him followed by
Happy Birthday wishes.
A brilliant tribute for a brilliant animator.
A brilliant tribute for a brilliant animator.
Watch it
for yourself on Youtube.
Coffee
Break appears on Takun Films (1998) which can be ordered from Anido.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011
