Independent Japanese Animation - Vol. 1 (15 Films) ( BELUGA / SOUGIYA TO INU / 663114 / COLUMBOS / MODERN NO.2 / TATAMP / FUTON / KAPPO / HAND SOAP / DREAMS / RED COLORED BRIDGE / PIKA PIKA / MAZE / GURETO RABITTO / HARU NO SHIKUMI )

Independent Japanese Animation - Vol. 1 (15 Films) (Blu-Ray) (*)

Out of Stock

Original Title: BELUGA / SOUGIYA TO INU / 663114 / COLUMBOS / MODERN NO.2 / TATAMP / FUTON / KAPPO / HAND SOAP / DREAMS / RED COLORED BRIDGE / PIKA PIKA / MAZE / GURETO RABITTO / HARU NO SHIKUMI
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Berlin International Film Festival
Rotterdam International Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Subtitles )
Japanese ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Silent ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
91 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Blu-Ray & DVD Combo

Movie filmed in 2006 - 2012 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Japan ( India, Eastern Asia )
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Shin Hashimoto
Isamu Hirabayashi
Kawai Okamura
Mirai Mizue
Yoriko Mizushiri
Kei Ôyama
Takeshi Nagata
Atsushi Wada

Written By:
Shin Hashimoto
Isamu Hirabayashi
Kawai Okamura
Mirai Mizue
Yoriko Mizushiri
Kei Ôyama
Takeshi Nagata
Atsushi Wada

Actors:
Shin Hashimoto
Isamu Hirabayashi
Kawai Okamura
Mirai Mizue
Yoriko Mizushiri
Kei Ôyama
Takeshi Nagata
Atsushi Wada

Synopsis:

***ATTENTION***Most films are silent with occasional English & French subtitles for Japanese audio &/or Silent parts***Astonishing, mysterious, eccentric, adorable, melancholic, sensual and delightful - in recent years - the weird and fascinating world of independent animation in Japan has been flourishing and stronger than ever.
List of Films:
BELUGA Shin Hashimoto (2011)
SOUGIYA TO INU Shin Hashimoto (2010)
663114 Isamu Hirabayashi (2011)
COLUMBOS Kawai + Okamura (2012)
MODERN NO.2 Mirai Mizue (2011)
TATAMP Mirai Mizue (2011)
FUTON Yoriko Mizusiri (2012)
KAPPO Yoriko Mizusiri (2006)
HAND SOAP Kei Oyama (2008)
DREAMS Keiichi Tanaami, Nobuhiro Aihara (2011)
RED COLORED BRIDGE Keiichi Tanaami (2012)
PIKA PIKA Takeshi Nagata, Kasue Monno / Company Tochka (2006)
MAZE de Takeshi Nagata, Kasue Monno / Company Tochka (2012)
GURETO RABITTO Atsushi Wada (2012)
HARU NO SHIKUMI Atsushi Wada (2010)

The selection opens with two films by Shin Hashimoto of CALF, an up-and-coming Tama Art University graduate who has become known for the dark, atmospheric nature of his works. Beluga (2011) is a nightmarish take on the story of the little match girl which, won a special mention at Zagreb 2012. This is followed by his earlier film The Undertaker and the Dog (Sougiya to Inu, 2010), a deeply disturbing yet beautifully painted film that was widely praised by critics when it screened at international festivals.
The unique aesthetic of experimental filmmaker Isamu Hirabayashi became known to a wider audience in 2011/12 when his animated short 663114 (2011) received high honours from being invited to the Biennale in Venice to winning the Noburo Ofuji Award. As I wrote in my review of the film last year, it is one of the most profound responses to Tohoku disaster, and it is worth buying this selection just to see it on Blu-ray. Hiroki Okamura and Takumi Kawai, better known as Kawai + Okamura (since 1993), are a creative duo who both teach at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. As students at Kyoto City University, Okamura majored in oil painting and Kawai in sculptor, but today they are best known for their innovative films and installations that combine a number of different techniques from CGI to stop motion. Columbos (2012) is a reimagining of the legendary television detective Columbo with puppets. It is a unique puppet animation unlike anything I have ever seen before with unbelievable use of lighting, special effects, and choreography of figures. Acclaimed CALF animator, Mirai Mizue, has contributed two of his recent films Tatamp (2011) and Modern No. 2 (2011). Tatamp is an example of Mizue's distinctive 'cell animation' style that feature a chorus of little amoeba-like, colourful cells whose movements and shapes are inextricable from the soundtrack (read my full review). Modern No. 2 is an example of Mizue's experiments with geometric animation. Learn more about this style of animation in my post The Modern Films of Mirai Mizue. Yoriko Mizushiri is a graduate of the Joshibi University of Art and Design in Kanagawa. Her trademark animation style is to focus on individual parts of the body from an original perspective. Her 2012 animated short Futon won a number of prizes in Japan including the prestigious Renzo Kinoshita Prize at Hiroshima and the New Face Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. It has also been a big hit at international festivals, making the short list for Cartoon Brew's most well liked animated short of 2013. The second film of hers featured on this DVD, Kappo (2006), demonstrates that Mizushiri established her unique style early on in her career. Another CALF animator, Kei Oyama, also features on this DVD. His fleshy, disturbing, yet strangely poignant film Hand Soap (2008) won prizes at Oberhausen, Holland, and Hiroshima. Read my review here. The animation community is anxiously awaiting the release of his latest work After School, which crowdsourced funding on Camp-fire in 2012. He's taking a risk by trying out a totally new style - can't wait to see the results. Dreams (2011) is the last collaborative film by long-time friends and colleagues Keiichi Tanaami and Nobuhiro Aihara (1944-2011). Up until Aihara's sudden death in 2011, the two well-established artists made 15 films together in just over a decade - many of which can be found on the 2011 Chalet Pointu/CaRTe bLaNChe/ARTE DVD Portrait of Keiichi Tanaami. The films came out of the fact that both artists were teaching at Kyoto University of Art and Design. The collaborative process consisted of one of the artists drawing a picture for a scene and leaving it on the other's desk. The other artist would add to it or remove some parts and put it on the first artist's desk, and so on back and forth until the film developed. This kind of artistic 'correspondence' was unique in the art world and it is a mesmeric experience to watch their complementary styles on screen together. Dreams is followed by the prolific Tanaami's latest offering: Red-Colored Bridge (2012). In his characteristic brightly coloured style, Tanaami uses the symbolic red bridge to heaven found in traditional Japanese gardens to take us on a psychedelic, erotic, and spiritual journey into his imagination. There are few animators today who truly embody the creative spirit of my favourite animator, Norman McLaren, and TOCHKA (1998) is one of them. TOCHKA is the husband-wife animation team Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno who are known for their innovative PiKA PiKA light animation films (read more about them and learn how you can order a DVD of their works). This DVD features their original 2006 film PiKA PiKA and their latest film MAZE (2012). In MAZE, Nagata and Monno have come up with yet another innovative new way to showcase their PiKA PiKA animation: on a grid pattern of 12x4 squares. A team of assistants with different coloured lights act like pixilated Bunraku performers colouring in and around the blocks with light. This film required meticulous planning and choreography. My favourite moment is the Pac-Man inspired sequence where a yellow arrow and a couple of stars negotiate a maze. The DVD/Blu-ray concludes with two recent films by acclaimed CALF animator Atsushi Wada. The Great Rabbit (2012) is Wada's most successful film to date winning him the Silver Bear at the 62nd Berlinale among other honours - read my review here. And finally, as I wrote in 2010, I consider The Mechanism of Spring (2010) to be 'Wada's most light-hearted film to date, capturing the delight that young children and animals take in the season. The young chubby boys examine the wildlife, take off their shirts and run about gaily, and observe a plant sprouting out of the earth, among other delights.' I like that they chose to end the DVD with this uplifting film. On the whole, this is a terrific selection of recent independent animation from Japan - the best collection since Image Forum's Thinking and Drawing: Japanese Art Animation in the New Millennium (2005) and Tokyo Loop (2006). The greatest thing about this DVD/Blu-ray is that it is called Volume 1, suggesting that we can expect more DVDs in the future. It has French and English subtitles and can be ordered via Amazon France. For those of you in Tokyo, Koji Yamamura's new animation museum/shop Au Praxinoscope in Setagaya has the film on their list.

The French indie label Les Films du Paradoxe collaborated with CaRTe bLaNChe to release Japanese independent animated shorts made between 2006 and 2012. The selection features a wide range of experimental techniques from drawn animation to pixilation.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 09 June, 2014.

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