Nishikata Film Review: blogathon

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28 June 2011

Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (カケラ, 2009)

It is rare to find an individual who is completely happy with themselves. Most people, especially those without love in their lives, find themselves constantly searching for a way to improve or replace these pieces of themselves that they find lacking. Momoko Andō’s Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (カケラ, 2009) is peopled with characters who are unhappy with their present circumstances and are looking without rather than within in order to fulfill their needs and desires.

Kakera tells the story of a college student named Haru Kitagawa (Hikari Mitsushima of Love Exposure), who stays with her boyfriend (Tasuku Nagaoka of Moon and Cherry) despite the fact that he treats her quite badly. One day in a café, she is approached by an older woman named Riko Sakata (Eriko Nakamura) who finds her attractive. This awkward, yet tender scene marks the beginning of a complicated relationship between the two women which runs the gamut of emotions from warmth and affection to jealousy and confusion.

Momoko Andō has managed to capture the fragile beauty of a romance between women with an authenticity and sensitivity rarely seen in feature films. Each of the characters in the film has a kind of void in their lives that they try to fill with the love they have for another character and as in real life the course of these relationships never runs smooth. Riko’s love for Haru is complicated by Haru’s unresolved feelings for her boyfriend and her own sexuality. Haru’s boyfriend is one of those types of people who seem to always desire what he cannot have. And Riko’s client and lover Tōko (Rino Katase) is also consumed by desires that remain only partially fulfilled. This theme is visually represented in the film by the prosthetics that Riko designs for people who have lost body parts. Prosthetics allow their wearers to disguise the ravages of illness or accidents that they have suffered, but they are not a permanent replacement for what has been lost.

Kakera is a film that examines female sexuality in all its ambiguities. Riko’s love for Haru is complex. She can be loving and kind, but she can also be possessive and jealous. It is a brave film in many respects, though might have been even braver if Andō had included less chaste lovemaking scenes between the female protagonists. This would have been a welcome contrast to the cold, empty sex scenes between Haru and her boyfriend that look more like rape than love-making.

The film has a feeling of authenticity about it thanks to not only the sincere performances of the actors but also the use of recognizable locations from around Tokyo, which ground the film in a very realistic, contemporary setting. As a female spectator, I also took great delight in Andō’s use of female spaces that normally get left out of films. There is one wonderful scene in which Haru is shot from a high angle using a public squat toilet to put a menstruation pad into her underpants. It is an intimate moment that marks a new phase in Haru and Riko’s relationship. This scene should not have been as surprising as it was as it’s a part of women’s everyday lives, but startles because these moments always get omitted from films.

Kakera: A Piece of Our Life ( Kakera ) ( A Piece of Our Life ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]

Order the DVD

Kakera was adapted by Andō from the popular manga Love Vibes by Erica Sakurazawa and was filmed beautifully by cinematographer Hirokazu Ishii. The soundtrack was written by James Iha, the former guitarist of Smashing Pumpkins. It is available on DVD in the UK from Third Window Films. It is also available from cdjapan (JP only).

This post is part of the Queer Film Blogathon hosted by Garbo Laughs. To read more LGBT posts from the blogathon click here.

27 June 2011

Manji (卍, 1964)

The impassioned voice of Kiyoko Kishida in the lead role of Sonoko Kakiuchi dominates the narrative of Yasuzo Masumura’s 1964 classic feature film Manji (卍, 1964). Just as in the original novel Quicksand (Manji/卍, 1928-30) by Junichirō Tanizaki, the story is told from Sonoko’s point of view to a man she refers to as “sensei”.

The Taniguchi novel

Sonoko is stuck in a loveless arranged marriage to Kotaro Kakiuchi (Eiji Funakoshi). The marriage is childless because Sonoko is secretly taking measures to prevent pregnancy, and she fills her empty days with art. She attends art lessons at a local women’s college. During life drawing classes, it is brought to Sonoko’s attention that she has become the subject of gossip because instead of drawing the model’s face, she has been drawing the face of beautiful fellow student Mitsuko Sido (Ayako Wakao).

Sonoko is brought to her knees by Michiko's unadorned beauty

The two women develop a friendship with each other that blossoms into a full-fledged love affair. The passion Sonoko feels for Mitsuko is so strong that she brazenly conducts the affair in her own marital bed and defies her husband’s wishes for her to end the relationship. It does not take long however for cracks to appear in what Sonoko believed to be a perfect love. She soon discovers that Mitsuko has a secret fiancé Eijiro Wakanuki (Yuusuke Kawazu), a man whose impotence leads him to behave in a jealous, irrational manner. This awkward ménage-à-trois becomes even more complicated when Mitsuko also draws Sonoko’s husband into the fray.

Michiko embraces Sonoko.

It’s a frenetic narrative that rarely stops for air as it races towards its dramatic conclusion. Set among the Osakan upper classes, we rarely see a glimpse of the city streets as the story for the most part unfolds in the interiors of the Kakiuchi home or in anonymous rented rooms. The use of interior spaces and frequent use of close-ups adds to the stifled atmosphere created by the oppressive passions of the four narcissistic lovers. The Japanese title “Manji” is the Buddhist swastika with its four arms representing each of the four lovers. Sonoko also uses Mitsuko as the model for her painting of the Goddess of Mercy, which serves an ironic function in the plot as Mitsuko turns out to be anything but merciful in the way that she skillfully manipulates her lovers.

Sonoko and Michiko's love letters.

In the wrong hands, Tanizaki’s story of obsession and jealousy could have easily been turned into a tawdry film exploiting love between women. Masumura avoids this thanks to Kaneto Shindō's poignant script and his use of highly stylized framing. Love scenes are rendered in fragments with each frame carefully composed with the elegance of an oil painting. The pureness of Sonoko's love for Michiko is emphasized through one of the few outdoor scenes in which the two women stroll through a verdant forest and pause in front of some Buddhist statues. Throughout it all, the tremulous voice of Kyoko Kishida as Sonoko reminds us that with all the lovers’ threats of suicide at the very least one passionate woman will survive the maelstrom that is Manji.

This post is part of the Queer Film Blogathon hosted by Garbo Laughs. To read more LGBT posts from the blogathon click here. This film is widely available on DVD (Fantoma in the US, Yume Pictures in the UK - who have interestingly dropped the swastika from the poster). Click here to order from Japan (no subs).

11 November 2010

Angel : The Place Where We Were (エンゼル, 2008)

Naoyuki Tsuji’s beautiful, charcoal animations feel like an invitation into the poetic mind of the artist himself. This is due in a large part to their intuitive nature. Tsuji (辻直之, b. 1972) employs an animation method similar to that of the South African artist William Kentridge: drawing with charcoal, making erasures and changes to the image with traces of the earlier charcoal markings visible over multiple frames. The main differences between Tsuji and Kentridge are that Tsuji's work is less political, takes a stream of consciousness approach, and his drawings are more minimalistic. Tsuji’s minimalistic sketching always reminds me of the drawings of Jean Cocteau – an artist and filmmaker who shared Tsuji’s interest in dreams and the unconscious mind.

Angel: The Place Where We Were (エンゼル, 2008) begins by showing us the artist’s pixillated hand as he sketches the title of the film. Hands are an important motif in the film as the first image is that of hands coming together and clasping the centre of the frame – with the haunting traces of the rubbed out lines of previous frames still present. As in his previous films, the soundtrack is beautifully scored by Makiko Takahashi. The lilting music lulls viewers into the dream-world of Tsuji the animator-poet.

The camera pulls back to reveal a round-faced young woman with bobbed hair, her hands clasped in prayer as she raises her black eyes to look up to the heavens. Tsuji then cuts to a young male figure, also with blacked in eyes (reminiscent of the eyes in pre-war animation) at a table with a coffee, flipping through the pages of a book. A new angle reveals that the female figure is standing to his left.

The next shot is of the young couple standing in the window of a small house. As the camera pulls back, the house gets smaller and smaller, and again the traces of how big the house was at the beginning of this sequence remain in the frame. This process of pulling back, smudging out, and re-drawing creates an eerie feeling and it makes the clouds look as though they are smoking. Eventually, the camera begins to move upwards into the sky and we see a male angel with outstretched wings and ridges on his back flying through the air.

The camera moves in to a close up on the ridges on the back and reveals three square figures with eyes sitting around a table playing cards. The winning three matching cards have humanoid figures on them and the cards fall into a hole in the table and are carried away through a tube or tunnel into a womb or small cave where a young woman plays the harp. There the cards transform into round creatures with eyes and continue down the next tunnel. They then exit out what at first appears to be a window, but them transforms into one of the eyes of the angel.

One of the three creatures descends to the window of the house and enters the room of the couple as they lie naked on the bed and it then enters into the womb of the woman. In the next scene, the woman pats her now pregnant belly contentedly with a cat curled up on the floor next to her. The scene then cuts to the male figure running to a tree. When he nears the tree, the woman steps out naked rom behind it, smiling, and with a baby in her arms. The film ends with the baby turning its head, also smiling, to look into the eyes of its father.

This is perhaps the most accessible of Tsuji’s films so far. It is just as surreal as his previous films, but has a more discernable storyline. Sexuality has long been an underlying theme in Tsuji’s films, and it was interesting to see him take on the theme of fertility and prayer in this film. The medium of charcoal usually lends itself to dark themes, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Tsuji use his signature style to render an uplifting story.

Thinking and Drawing

You can support this artist by buying his reasonably priced DVD Trilogy about Clouds from Japan. Although there is no English in the packaging, one does not need to understand Japanese in order to enjoy the films. I would advise against buying the Facets DVD of Tsuji’s films because the company has violated the artist’s wishes by altering the films. Read more about it here. His film A Feather Stare at the Dark appears on Thinking and Drawing.

Related Posts:
Thinking and Drawing
15 Must See Art Animation Shorts

This blog entry is a part of the Japanese Film Blogathon 2010

Atsushi Wada and World Animation at Image Forum

Image Forum in Tokyo is presenting a showcase called Atsushi Wada and World Animation (和田淳と世界のアニメーション) November 20-26. Renowned surrealist animator Wada’s complete works so far are being screened in two packages alongside some of the best of world animation from the past year. I believe that most of the non-Wada shorts screened in the Official Selection at Annecy this year. In addition to the films, special guests will be on hand to discuss the films including film director Takuji Suzuki (Nov. 21), media artist Masaki Fujihata (Nov. 23), indie animator Taku Furukawa (Nov 24), and alternative manga-ka Shiriagari Kotobuki (Nov. 26). Attendees will have the opportunity of buying early copies of Wada’s CALF DVD, which will be officially released in December.

Program A (November 22/24/26, 9pm)

Atushi Wada Works (和田淳の作品)

Yume-tsutsu (夢現, 2002)
Fue (笛, 2002)
Zenchū maishū (蠕虫舞手, 2004)
Kakari (係, 2004)
Gentle whistle, bird, and stone (やさしい笛、鳥、石, 2005)
Day of Nose (鼻の,日 2005)
The Mechanism of Spring (春のしくみ, 2010)

World Animation (世界の作品)

Playground　(Mirai Mizue, Japan, 2010)
Sam’s Hot Dogs (サムのホットドッグ, David López Retamero, UK, 2009)
Troublantes caresses (悩ましい愛撫, Jérémy Boulard, France, 2009)
Wolves (オオカミたち, Rafael Sommerhalder, Switzerland/UK, 2009)
View　(Nayoon Rhee, South Korea, 2009)
Miramare (ミラマーレ, Michela Müller, Crotia/Switzerland, 2009)

Program B (November 23/25, 9pm)

Atsushi Wada Works (和田淳の作品)

This Mayonnaise is Too Runny (このマヨネーズはゆるすぎる, 2002)
kiro no hito (2003)
Kodomo no Kaiten no Koto (子供の廻転の事, 2004)
Manipulated Man (声が出てきた人, 2006)
Well, That’s Glasses (そういう眼鏡, 2007)
In a Pig’s Eye (わからないブタ, 2010)

World Animation (世界の作品)

Haunted Heart (ホーンテッド・ハート, Winona Regan, USA, 2009)
Väike Maja (Small House /小さな家, Kristjan Holm, Estonia, 2009)
Benigni (ベニーニ, Elli Viorinen /Jasmiini Ottelin/Pinja Partanen, Finland, 2009)
Woman Who Stole Fingers (指を盗んだ女, Saori Shiroki, Japan, 2010)
Sauvage (Wild/野生, Paul Cabon, France, 2009)
Lebensader (Lifeline/生命線, Angela Steffen, Germany, 2009)
Orsolya (オルソリャ, Bella Szederkényi, Hungary, 2009)

For those of us not lucky enough to be in Tokyo for this event, a selection of Wada and other CALF animators will be screening at the Zipangu Fest in London on November 28.

Related Posts:
Art of the Absurd: An Interview with Atsushi Wada
Mirai Mizue Works 2003-2010
Atsushi Wada’s Day of Nose

09 November 2010

Reiko Okuyama’s Top 20 Animated Films

Okuyama working on Winter Days (2003)

One of the most exciting discoveries in the publication of the 150 Best World and Japanese Animated Films is that one of the professionals included in the survey is Reiko Okuyama (奥山玲子, c. 193? – 2007). In the west, she is one of the little known and under-appreciated gems of the Japanese animation world. Her list 20 of what she considered to be the best animation of all time gives us an idea about the kind of films she would have made if she had been able to make more independent work during her long career.

First, a little background on the artist herself:

Like many other animators of her generation, Okuyama’s career in animation came about more by chance than by design. She applied for the job at Toei Doga because she mistakenly understood “doga” to mean picture books rather than animation (the term ‘doga’ was only invented in the early part of the twentieth century by putting together the kanji for movement and the kanji for picture). It turned out that she had a talent for inbetweening and took the job after passing a skill testing exercise.

Her first job was as an inbetweener on Legend of the White Snake (Kazuhiko Okabe/Taiji Yabushima, 1958). She went on to work as an animator on a number of classic Toei Doga works including the Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (Yugo Serikawa, 1963), Horus: Prince of the Sun (Isao Takahata, 1968) – where she was responsible for the design of many of the female characters – and Puss in Boots (Kimio Yabuki, 1969). Her final major project at Toei was Taro the Dragon Boy (Kiriiro Urayama, 1979), before she started drifting away from commercial anime.

In the early eighties she took jobs illustrating children’s books and teaching animation. She also took up the art of copperplate engraving, which led to Tadanari Okamoto inviting her in the late 1980s to work with him on his final film The Restaurant of Many Orders (1991). In the late eighties she also worked on the Studio Ghibli film Grave of Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988). In the 1990s she focused on her career as a copperplate engraver, holding many gallery exhibitions of her work.

In many ways, Okuyama was a feminist pioneer in the field of animation in Japan. At a time when most women were expected to give up their careers and become homemakers, she continued working after she married the legendary animator Yoichi Kotabe (小田部羊一, b.1936) in 1963. When she became a mother, she refused to switch from full-time employee status to working on a contract basis and both she and Kotabe faced a lot of opposition from the company for their determination to co-parent while working full-time as animators. For more detailed information about Okuyama’s career, check out her profile at Anipages.

It is a real shame that Okuyama was rarely given the opportunity to helm animation projects of her own. For me, her most moving work was her and Kotabe’s shared contribution to Winter Days: an elegy for a woman who has lost her child. This beautiful depiction of the maternal body was achieved by doing them in the style of Okuyama’s copperplate engravings.

Looking at her list of the top animation of all time – which she listed in no particular order – it is clear that Okuyama admired animation that is forward-thinking and pushes at boundaries:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

(真夏の夜の夢, Jiri Trnka, Czechoslovakia, 1959)

The Hand

(手, Jiri Trnka, Czechoslovakia, 1965)

A Drop Too Much

(飲みすぎた一杯, Bretislav Pojar, Czechoslovakia, 1954)

The Fantastic World of Jules Verne

(悪魔の発明, Karel Zeman, 1958)

Tale of Tales

(話の話, Yuri Norstein, Russia, 1979)

Hedgehog in the Fog

(霧につつまれたハリネズミ, Yuri Norstein, Russia, 1975)

Crac!

(クラック！, Frédéric Back, Canada, 1981)

The Man Who Planted Trees/L'homme qui plantait des arbres

(木を植えた男, Frédéric Back, Canada, 1987)

Norman McLaren’s Cine-Calligraphy

(ノーマン・マクラレンのシネ・カリグラフィ, Canada)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

(白雪姫, David Hand, et al., USA, 1937)

The Snow Queen

(雪の女王, Lev Atamov et al., Russia, 1957)

Le roi et l’oiseau

(王と鳥やぶにらみの暴君, Paul Grimault, France, 1948)

Dojoji Temple

(道成時, Kihachiro Kawamoto, Japan, 1976)

The Restaurant of Many Orders

(注文の多い料理店, Tadanari Okamoto/Kihachiro Kawamoto, Japan, 1991)

Legend of the White Snake

(白蛇伝, Taiji Yabushita/Kazuhiko Okabe, Japan, 1958)

Horus: Prince of the Sun

(太陽の王子ホルスの大冒険, Isao Takahata, Japan, 1968)

Taro The Dragon Boy

(龍の子太郎, Kiriro Urayama, Japan, 1979)

My Neighbour Totoro

(となりのトトロ, Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 1988)

The Work of Taku Furukawa

(古川タク作品)

The Snowman

(スノーマン, Dianne Jackson, UK, 1981)

List originally published in: 世界と日本のアニメーションベスト150

Related Posts:

Winter Days

Laputa's Top 150 Japanese and World Animated Films

Tadanari Okamoto Film Works

This blog entry is a part of the Japanese Film Blogathon 2010

04 November 2010

Laputa’s 100 Best World and Japanese Animation Directors (2003)

My husband returned from the Biodiversity talks in Nagoya on Sunday bearing a copy of the publication of the 150 Best World and Japanese Animated Films (世界と日本のアニメーションベスト150) that I had ordered from a secondhand bookshop. The book contains the result of questionnaires given to animation professions at the Laputa Animation Festival in 2003. I was expecting it just to be a brochure, but it is in fact a quite detailed book at 187 pages with illustrations.

The list of 150 films is accompanied by commentary and images. It also includes the actual lists made by the participants with their commentary. As I surmised in my previous post about the list, the professionals are heavily dominated by Japanese animators due to the location of the event. They range from commercial animators like Anpanman creator Takashi Yanase to independent animator and scholar Koji Yamamura. The international guests who participated include Yuri Norstein, David Ehrlich, the Brothers Quay, Raoul Servais, Jacques Drouin, Paul Driessen, and Michael Dudok de Witt, to name but a few. I will share some of the more interesting details from the publication in the coming weeks as I slowly make my way through the detailed contents.

The organizers seem to recognize the list’s shortcomings and have added a “Pick up 30” selection of films that didn’t make the final cut but that they feel are important and should be recognized. They also came up with a list of the 100 best animators of all time. Like the 150 list, this one is also flawed. Technical errors in the assembly of information have led to some quirky details – for example, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera appear on the list twice at #36 and #89. Once using their full names and once under their company name Hanna-Barbera. John Hubley also appears twice. Once on his own at #81, and together with his wife Faith Hubley at #90.

This is probably due to clerical errors on the part of the person typing up the list, compounded by the difficulties in transcribing foreign names in katakana. For example, last weekend I was trying to translate a list posted on the JAA website in which members listed their favourite animated works and animators. I was using the “search and replace” function on Word in order to speed things up a bit, and I discovered that names like 'Svankmajer' had been transcribed in katakana in at least 4 different ways. I would imagine that at the Laputa event this would have been made even more complicated by the international guests using a variety of different types of handwriting on their questionnaires.

It is also interesting to note that several of the animators being polled were reluctant to rank the films that they admired. Koji Yamamura, for example, awards a three way tie for what he considered to be the best films of all time and then says that the rest of the films in his list of 20 were in no particular order. Thus, this list of 100 top animators is all in good fun and not to be taken too seriously.

1. Yuri Norstein

2. Hayao Miyazaki

3. Walt Disney

4. Isao Takahata

Frederic Back Collection: L'homme Qui Planet Ait Des Arbres / Le Fleuve aux grandes eaux / Crack! / Animation

5. Frédéric Back

6. Jiří Trnka

7. Max and Dave Fleischer

8. Kihachiro Kawamoto

9. Norman McLaren

10. Nick Park

Short Stories "Jabberwocky" & more / Movie

11. Jan Švankmajer

12. Paul Grimault

13. Tadanari Okamoto

14. Osamu Tezuka

15. George Dunning

16. Osamu Dezaki

17. Yugo Serikawa

18. Alexandre Alexeieff

19. Mamoru Oshii

20. Tex Avery

21. John Lasseter

22. Kenzo Masaoka

23. Brothers Quay

The Snow Queen (Yuki no Joo) / Animation

24. Lev Atamanov

25. Aleksandr Petrov

26. Tim Burton

26. Caroline Leaf

28. Koji Yamamura

29. René Laloux

Karel Zeman Sakuhin shu (collection) / Animation

30. Karel Zeman

31. Taiji Yabushita

32. Roman Kachanov

33. Toshiyuki Tomino

34. Michael Dudok de Wit

35. Katsuhiro Otomo

36. William Hanna/Joseph Barbera

NFB Kessakusen Co Hoedeman Film Works / Animation

37. Co Hoedeman

38. Ladislas Starevich

39. Yoji Kuri

40. Brad Bird

The Looney Tunes Collection: Best Of Bugs Bunny / Animation

41. Chuck Jones

42. Taku Furukawa

43. Raoul Servais

43. Eduard Nazarov

45. Paul Driessen

46. Břetislav Pojar

47. Fyodor Khitruk

48. Hideaki Anno

48. Dianne Jackson

50. Masaaki Osumi

51. Gisaburo Sugii

51. Te Wei

53. Ryan Larkin

54. Ralph Bakshi

55. Priit Pärn

NFB Kessakusen Ishu Patel, Caroline Leaf, Jacques Drouin Film Works / Animation

56. Ishu Patel

56. Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich (Pixar)

58. Winsor McCay

59. Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis

60. Kimio Yabuki

61. Eiichi Yamamoto

62. Bruno Bozzetto

63. Rintaro

64. Hiroyuki Okiura

65. Oskar Fischinger

66. Sadao Tsukioka

67. Richard Williams

68. Tex Avery and Michael Lah (MGM)

69. Hiroyuki Yamaga

70. Mark Baker

"Mori wa ikite iru" + "Yuki no Joou" / Movie

71. Ivan Ivanov-Vano

72. Dušan Vukotić

73. Suzan Pitt

74. Peter Foldes

75. Nobuhiro Aihara

Emotion the Best Final Yamato (Uchu Senkan Yamato Kanketsu Hen) / Animation

76. Leiji Matsumoto

77. Noboru Ishiguro and Masaharu Kawamori (aka Shoji Kawamori)

77. Gerald Potterton

79. Will Vinton

79. Keiichi Hara

81. Charles and Ray Eames

81. Takashi Ito

81. Jonas Odell and FilmTecknarna

81. Richard Condie

81. Giannini and Luzzati

81. John Hubley

81. Ray Harryhausen

81. Jean-François Laguionie

89. Hanna-Barbera

90. John and Faith Hubley

91. Zbigniew Rybczyński

92. Terry Gilliam

93. Piotr Kamler

Lupin III "The Mystery of Mamo" / Animation

94. Soji Yoshikawa

95. Noburo Ofuji

95. Keita Kurosaka

95. Gianluigi Toccafondo

The Adventure of STRAY SHEEP / TV Animation

95. Tatsutoshi Nomura

99. Renzo Kinoshita

100. Piotr Dumala

Source: 世界と日本のアニメーションベスト１５０, ed. Ryo Saitani (2003)

Are there any surprises for you? I am glad to see that my favourite animator, Norman McLaren, made the top 10. If I were making a list of the best animators of all time, it would include Lotte Reiniger, Evelyn Lambart, and Ub Iwerks.

Is there anyone else who needs to be added?

This blog entry is a part of the Japanese Film Blogathon 2010

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28 June 2011

Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (カケラ, 2009)

27 June 2011

Manji (卍, 1964)

11 November 2010

Angel : The Place Where We Were (エンゼル, 2008)

Atsushi Wada and World Animation at Image Forum

09 November 2010

Reiko Okuyama’s Top 20 Animated Films

04 November 2010

Laputa’s 100 Best World and Japanese Animation Directors (2003)

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