Search This Blog

Showing posts with label Czech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Czech. Show all posts

31 August 2022

Hiroshima Animation Season 2022: Day 1

The first day of Hiroshima Animation Season 2022 was the easiest for me to negotiate because there were fewer scheduling conflicts than on other days. While on one hand it is wonderful for an animation festival to be jam-packed with excellent films and events, on the other hand it forces hardcore animation devotees like myself to make difficult screening choices. 

As with the original Hiroshima International Animation Festival, the central venue was JMS Aster Plaza with its two large concert halls and community spaces. The new festival opened up screening venues to include local businesses and institutions such as the Hiroshima City Cinematographic and Audio-Visual Library, Yokogawa Cinema, and Salon Cinema. I had hoped to be able to squeeze in seeing some of the anime classics on the big screen such as The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (わんぱく王子の大蛇退治, 1963) and The White Snake Enchantress (白蛇伝, 1958), but it was simply impossible. Even though I was unable to partake in these offsite screenings, I feel that it was a good idea to include local businesses. These screenings were more likely than the central venue to draw in local crowds and engaging with the local community is an important part of any festival. From what I understand, many of these events were well-attended, which bodes well for future collaborations with local establishments. 

The first thing I noticed on Day 1 was that instead of stalls run by animators and artists from elsewhere in Japan, all of the vendors were local businesses selling their crafts and other wares. One really big problem for the festival is that the JMS Aster is not close to many restaurants and the one in-house restaurant takes its Obon summer holiday during the festival. It was great to see stalls selling coffee, baked goods, and even fresh hamburgers, so that we could grab a quick bite between screenings. 

I began the festival with one of the Hiroshima Animation Season Classics screenings: Karel ZEMAN’s Inspirace (水玉の幻想, 1949) and Invention for Destruction (CZ: Vynález zkázy / JP: 悪魔の発明, 1958). Inspirace had no dialogue and needed no subtitles and Invention for Destruction was shown with Japanese subtitles only. There were several screenings without English subtitles that offered a “whispering” where one could sit in a section of the theatre where an interpreter would live “whisper” the proceedings in English to those who could not understand the Japanese. As someone with sensitive hearing, I found this really obnoxious. Even though I sat far from the whispering section, I could still hear the whispering and it felt like someone was rudely talking during the screenings and events where it was happening. I don’t understand Czech and I can’t read Japanese quickly enough for the subs, but as I was familiar with the film, and I just focussed on enjoying the animation on the big screen. Zeman’s films may be more than 60 years old now but they have not lost their ability to inspire wonder at their technical brilliance. 

After briefly considering hopping on a streetcar to the Cinematography Library to see The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, I decided to listen to my stomach instead and headed to the legendary local restaurant Otis! with its delicious Tex-Mex and vegetarian dishes. The walls are filled with the signatures and drawings of animation guests past as the venue opened in 1987 and is an easy walk from the JMS Aster. I was delighted to find the interior and the hosts unchanged from my last visit in 2014, and I found fellow animation researchers Jason Cody Douglass (Yale) and Chris Taylor (John Hopkins) at a table inside. We discussed our viewing plans for the festival and just as I was about to pay my tab, I heard my name spoken behind me by the stop motion animator Masaaki MORI (森まさあき). 

I first discovered Mori’s work when he participated in the Kihachirō KAWAMOTO omnibus work Winter Days (冬の日, 2003) with his delightful clay pig figures. Mori retired from Tokyo Zokei University last year and I went to see his retirement exhibition on the Zokei campus (see the above instagram post). Since joining JAA late last year, I have encountered Mori often and we seem well on our way to becoming fast friends. In Otis!, Mori introduced me to Yoshimi KAKURAI (加倉井芳美) and Masaaki OIKAWA (及川雅昭) , the PR rep and producer for TECARAT studios. Unfortunately, director and stop motion animator Takeshi YASHIRO (八代健志) could not come to Hiroshima due to the production of Hidari – you can follow the exciting progression of this new stop motion animation on Tecarat’s Instagram. 

I had not yet met Yashiro, but my Nippon Connection selection for this year featured his Noburō Ōfuji Award-winning short animation Pukkulapottas and Hours in the Forest (プックラポッタと森の時間, 2021) and I had been fascinated by his adaptation of Nakashi NIIMI’s Gon, the Little Fox, which I saw at a stop-motion animation in Kichijoji shortly after I moved back to Japan in 2019. 

Even though Yashiro was not at the festival – I was able to meet Gon the fox! Such a beautifully crafted puppet: 

 After getting to know more about Tecarat Studios, we headed to the Opening Ceremony and Golden Carpstar Award Ceremony, which I will discuss in my next post. 

Coming Soon: Hiroshima Animation Season: Day 1 Opening Ceremony

2022 Cathy Munroe Hotes

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

12 December 2013

The Little Drummer Boy (リトル・ドラマー・ボーイ, 1968)


The Little Drummer Boy (リトル・ドラマー・ボーイ, 1968)
Debut: 19 December 1968 on NBC
Available to purchase as an Instant Video on Amazon:  The Little Drummer Boy


Rankin Bass’s 1968 Christmas Special, The Little Drummer Boy, was inspired by the popular mid-20th century Christmas carol “The Little Drummer Boy” by Katherine Kennicott Davis, Henry Onorati, and Harry Simeone.  Davis claimed to have based her 1941 song on a Czech carol.  It was initially recorded by the Trapp Family Singers under the title “Carol of the Drum”, and Harry Simeone’s 1958 arrangement of the song for The Harry Simeone Chorale album Sing We Now of Christmas became a big hit in the US.   


Song Lyrics:

Come they told me, pa rum pum pum pum
A new born King to see, pa rum pum pum pum
Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pum pum pum
To lay before the King, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

So to honor Him, pa rum pum pum pum,
When we come.

Little Baby, pa rum pum pum pum
I am a poor boy too, pa rum pum pum pum
I have no gift to bring, pa rum pum pum pum
That's fit to give the King, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum,
On my drum?

Mary nodded, pa rum pum pum pum
The ox and lamb kept time, pa rum pum pum pum
I played my drum for Him, pa rum pum pum pum
I played my best for Him, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,

Then He smiled at me, pa rum pum pum pum
Me and my drum.

The purported Czech origins of the song have never been verified, but the drummer boy story shares many similarities with Anatole France’s adaptation of the medieval legend “Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame” (1892), a religious miracle story of a juggler turned monk who has no gift to offer a statue of the Virgin Mary but his ability to juggle.  The other monks accuse him of blasphemy, but the statue comes to life and blesses the juggling monk.


The perennial nature of the song has led many to believe that the story has its origins in the bible, but it is actually a fictional narrative that imagines what that first Christmas might actually have looked like through the eyes of a young boy.  It seems likely that the spirit of the story was inspired by the biblical story of “The Widow’s Offering” about a poor woman who gives all her meagre wealth in charity:

  1. As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.
  2. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.
  3. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.
  4. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:1-4 




Romeo Earl Muller, Jr. – credited as Romeo Muller – adapted the song into the teleplay.  Muller had been with Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass of Rankin Bass from the very beginning writing their first network specials Return to Oz (1964) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964).  Having started off his career writing material for Jack Benny, Muller was adept at injecting comedy into his scripts, and The Little Drummer Boy is no different – Ben Haramed (José Ferrer) and his motley gang of performers bring some screwball levity to an otherwise serious tale. 

The little drummer boy is a misanthrope orphan called Aaron (Ted Eccles), who comes from a family of shepherds.  It seems quite remarkable that a boy so young could have developed such bitterness towards the human race, but he has been scarred by the slaughter of his family by thieves who burned down their home.  He now wanders the desert with his drum – a gift from his parents – with his animal friends Samson, a donkey, Baa Baa, a lamb, and Joshua, a camel.   The animals love Aaron’s playing and dance whenever he performs.

Ben Haramed and his accomplice Ali capture Aaron and force him to travel with them to Jerusalem to perform for the public with their ragtag troupe of acrobats.  Aaron’s act is the only one to please the crowds, but the cheers only enrage Aaron who is reminded of what people like them had done to his family and he shouts his hatred at them, calling them thieves and bandits.  The people chase them out of Jerusalem. 



In the desert, they encounter the three “wise men from the east”, Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, on their way to Bethlehem.   Although the narrator – the incomparable Oscar-winning screen legend Greer Garson (Mrs. Miniver, Pride and Prejudice) – tells us these three are from the “Orient”, they actually represent three very different racial types.  In Western church tradition, Melchior is depicted as a king of Persia, Gaspar as a king of India, and Balthazar as a king of Arabia.  In The Little Drummer Boy, Melchior looks like Henry the 8th, Gaspar is a tall slender African wearing a turban, and Balthazar looks like a Chinese stereotype.  Paul Frees – a regular Rankin/Bass collaborator – voices all three.  Gaspar does most of the talking and Frees gives him a deep, “Ol’ Man River” kind of voice.  At least he doesn’t go for an “Oriental” accent for Balthazar.  I found the depictions of the wise men odd (Africans and Europeans from the east?), but not offensive – it’s certainly mild compared to other ethnic stereotypes in animation of this era (Mr. Magoo’s houseboy Cholly springs to mind).  The most offensive stereotype in The Little Drummer Boy is the depiction of an Arab (Ben Haramed) as a crook – a stereotype still abundant in US pop culture – but at least he’s being voiced by the suave José Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac, Moulin Rouge) who makes Ben Haramed charming.

The magi need a new camel, and Ben Haramed sells Aaron’s camel friend, Joshua, to them.  Aaron refuses his “share” of the gold Ben Haramed gets in his deal and goes off in search of Joshua.  They follow the star to the town of Bethlehem and see the shepherds doing the same.  Aaron finds Joshua among the crowds gathered at the stable, but before he can rescue him Baa Baa, the lamb, gets run over by a speeding Roman chariot.  Distraught, Aaron approaches the stable and is filled with wonder at the sight at the manger.  After King Gaspar presents his gift to the baby Jesus, Aaron asks him to save Baa Baa, but Gaspar tells him he is a mere “mortal king” and suggests that the “king among kings” could help him.  Aaron does not understand how this is possible, and Gaspar explains that he does not need to understand he should only go to him.  “But I have no gift to bring,” explains Aaron, which of course cues the Vienna Boys Choir to begin singing “The Little Drummer Boy.”  Aaron plays his drum for the infant Jesus, and all around nod their heads in encouragement.  This heartfelt gift, “given out of the simple desperation of pure love” is rewarded with his lamb being healed.  The story ends with the voice of Greer Garson proclaiming, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”
The Little Drummer Boy was restored in 2005 for DVD release, but they did not go overboard with digitally remastering it to look pristine.  The flecks and scratches of the film are still present, but the colours are good and the soundtrack is very clean.   While I do think that animation classics should be preserved and restored, I do not like it when they go too far so I was glad to see that the Rankin Bass films have kept their unique 1960s charm.  There is an odd little moment where Paul Frees reads one line of narration instead of Greer Garson – but only keen listeners would really notice this.  Perhaps she was unavailable to record additional dialogue?  There is no explanation for this in Rick Goldschmidt’s The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass.


The Japanese staff do not receive any onscreen credit.  While the script and design were all done State-side, the task of making the puppets and doing the Animagic stop motion animation went to Tad Mochinaga’s MOM Productions in Tokyo.  Arthur Rankin normally supervised the Rankin Bass animation projects in Japan, but grunt animation work was done by Takeo Nakamura (中村武雄) and Hiroshi Tabata (田畑博司).  The sets are truly spectacular and the puppets have been beautifully crafted.  The stop motion has been expertly done, with a wide variety of camera distances and angles.  There are nice little touches such as the credits superimposed over the drum and the use of light to denote holiness.  My favourite moment is Baa Baa dancing to Aaron’s drum.  Although I prefer “The Insane Paganism of Rankin and Bass”, the final manger sequence of Aaron playing his drum to the sound of the Vienna Boys Choir is undeniably lovely. 

Songs:
“When the Goose is Hanging High” (José Ferrer)
“Why Can’t the Animals Smile?” (Ted Eccles)
“One Star in the Night” (The Vienna Boys Choir)
“The Little Drummer Boy” (The Vienna Boys Choir)

Produced and Directed by:
Jules Bass
Arthur Rankin Jr.

Animation (uncredited):
Takeo Nakamura (中村武雄)
Hiroshi Tabata (田畑博司)

Teleplay:
Romeo Muller

Production Design:
Charles Frazier

Sound:
Jim Harris
Phil Kaye

Music:
Colin Romoff

Continuity:
Don Duga

Cast:
José Ferrer as Ben Haramed
Paul Frees as Aaron’s Father / the Magi
June Foray as Aaron’s Mother
Ted Eccles as Aaron
Greer Garson as Our Story Teller
The Vienna Boys Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben)

Production Companies:
Rankin/Bass Productions
MOM Productions (uncredited)


Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , ,

05 December 2013

Ningyōgeki Sangokushi 1: The Oath of the Peach Garden



Puppet Theatre: Romance of the Three Kingdoms
(人形劇 三国志 / Ningyōgeki: Sangokushi, 1982-4, 45’ x 68話, TV)

Episode 1: The Oath of the Peach Garden
桃園の誓い / Tōen no chikai  (2 October 1982)
Ningyou geki Sangokushi zenshuu / Puppet Show


Central Characters in Order of Appearance:


Ron-Ron  竜々　ろんろん
Shin-Shin  紳々　しんしん
Guan Yu 関羽雲長　かんう　うんちょう
Liu Bei 劉備玄徳　りゅうび　げんとく
Lu Zhi  廬植　ろしょく
Sūrin  淑玲　すうりん
Zhang Jue 　張角　ちょうかく
Cao Cao 　曹操孟徳　そうそう　もうとく
Zhang Fei　張飛翌徳　ちょうひ　よくとく
Mei Fan　美芳　めい　ふぁん

Episode Plot Summary:

Part I

  • comic hosts Shinsuke Shimada and Ryūsuke Matsumoto introduce themselves and their puppet counterparts Shin-Shin and Ron-Ron
  • an oppressive regime ruthlessly rounds up people, torturing them, and threatening them with execution
  • Shin-Shin and Ron-Ron are thrown in jail where they meet the mighty Guan Yu (Kan-u Unchō), who demonstrates his super-human strength by busting them out of jail
  • introduction of Liu Bei (Ryūbi Gentoku), with his over-sized ears (apparently a sign of virtue in ancient China)
  • Liu Bei (Gentoku) learns of the preaching of the Taoist sect led by Zhang Jue (Chōkaku).  Suffering people have been told that if they follow his teachings they will be cured.
  • Liu Bei meets the lovely Sūrin and her family, who have been suffering in poverty. Her grandfather is unwell. Liu Bei gives her money and then finds out that she has given all the money to Zhang Jue for a cure for her grandfather.  Liu Bei is suspicious of Zhang Jue’s real motives.
  • Liu Bei and Zhang Jue meet and discuss the need for a revolt against the ruling regime.  Zhang Jue claims that the world is rotten from the inside and the emperor needs to be overthrown.  Liu Bei confronts Zhang Jue about why he abuses his alleged power to heal people by taking poor people’s money
  • Zhang Jue claims that in order for a revolution to succeed that poor people need to first be made desperate for change by starvation and suffering.
  • Liu Bei tells Zhang Jue that he is wrong, provoking Zhang Jue to attack him but they are interrupted by Cao Cao’s soldiers.
  • the soldiers want to punish Liu Bei as a traitor but Cao Cao recognizes that Liu Bei does not side with Zhang Jue.  Cao Cao and Liu Bei acknowledge their respect for each other as great men.

Part II

  • using a map, Shinsuke Shimada and Ryūsuke Matsumoto show the impressive 600km route south that Liu Bei took on foot from south of Youzhou (today Beijing) to Luoyang (洛陽/らくようし).  They compare it to walking from Aomori to Tokyo.
  • Shimada and Matsumoto are wearing yellow headscarves as they introduce the Yellow Turban Rebellion
  • the Yellow Turban rebels are on the move – a group of them attack Sūrin’s home, killing her family. Some of the men try to rape Sūrin but she is rescued by Zhang Fei (Chōhi Yokutoku)
  • Liu Bei returns to the home of Sūrin and finds only an old woman who tells them of their fate.  As he pay respects to the dead he is taken capture by Zhang Jue and his Yellow Turban rebels
  • Liu Bei criticizes Zhang Jue, who angrily tells Liu Bei that they are now enemies, declaring: “This is a world where he who wins is right and he who loses is wrong.”
  • Zhang Jue decides to hang Liu Bei, but moments before Zhang Jue whips the horse out from under Liu Bei, Guan Yu throws his dagger at the rope and rescues him.  Zhang Jue tries to whip Guan Yu but he startles Zhang Jue’s horse.  Guan Yu laughs as Zhang Jue’s men disperse in fear of him.
  • Zhang Fei takes Sūrin home with him and introduces her to his wife Mei Fan. Zhang Fei is a butcher, and he and his wife also sell sake.
  • Zhang Fei’s unusual method of preparing wild boar is to hang it in the well under a large boulder (I hope they don’t drink that water!).  He places a sign at the well telling people that they need to pay a fee for him to remove the boulder.  If they can remove the boulder on their own, they get the meat as a reward.
  • Guan Yu arrives, sees the sign, and easily removes the boulder.  Zhang Fei is shocked and tries to renegotiate his promise and the men start to fight one another.  Mei Fan tries in vain to stop the fight.  The fight is interrupted by the arrival of Liu Bei – much to the delight of Sūrin
  • the men realize that they share the same political aims and they form a brotherhood
  • the episode ends with Lui Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei feasting together at a table in the famous Peach Garden.  
Historical Context:

The Great Wall of China has already been built generations ago to protect the region from invaders from the north and continues to be kept up, or even expanded.  Since the year 168, the Eastern Han Dynasty has been under the rule of the very young Emperor Ling of Han (156-189) with the previous emperor’s wife, Empress Dou initially acting as regent.  168 was a tumultuous year in which Confusion scholars, who had bravely denounced the powerful court eunuchs, were arrested, killed or banished from the capital of Luoyang.  This is the second episode of the Disasters of Partisan Prohibitions, which did not formally end until 184 with the start of the Yellow Turban Rebellion (184-205).

Sometime before 183, a significant Taoist movement has emerged from Ji Province.  The Taoist Taiping Sect was led by Zhang Jiao (1??-184), who claimed that he could cure the sick with his magical powers.  His teachings and followers spread to eight provinces.  Many imperial officials became concerned about Zhang Jiao’s powers and recommended that the Taiping Sect be disbanded; however, Emperor Ling did not heed their warnings.

In fact, Zhang Jiao was actually planning a rebellion.  The plot was discovered in early 184, and one of Zhang Jiao’s commanders, Ma Yuanyi, was arrested and executed. Emperor Ling then called for the execution of all Taiping Sect members, causing Zhang Jiao to incite the rebellion.  The members of the rebellion wore yellow turbans as a declaration of their loyalties. 

Review:



In addition to the beautiful puppets, what makes this adaptation of Sangokushi unique is the introduction of modern day hosts to lead the spectator through the complicated historical and cultural circumstances.  The NHK could have chosen historians for this role, but instead have gone for popular entertainment figures Shinsuke Shimada (島田紳助, b.1956) and Ryūsuke Matsumoto (松本竜助, 1956-2006).  They play a crucial role not only in giving the historical context for the action, but also in injecting much needed humour into the proceedings.  As one also sees in Shakespeare, comedy is the counterpoint to tragedy, and Shimada and Matsumoto’s commentary provides much needed moments of levity to a story that is filled with bloodshed and loss. 

Shimada and Matsumoto also act as our bridge from the modern world into the ancient one in the form of their puppet counterparts Shin-Shin and Ron-Ron.  These are not characters found in the original novel but observers of the action, who do interact with the key figures and events of Sangokushi in order to elicit significant story or character information in addition to bringing added laughs.  They are bumbling characters who find themselves caught up in circumstances beyond their control, much like the peasants who are mostly secondary or even background figures in this drama. 



One gets so caught up in the drama that one often forgets that one is watching puppet theatre.  The puppets are so expressive – from Guan Yu’s scowling to Zhang Fei rolling his eyes and knitting his eyebrows, it is truly remarkable what a range of emotion the puppeteers can elicit throw movement and gesture.  While watching the first episode of Gao Xixi’s live action television series (China, 2010) for comparison, I was reminded of Kihachirō Kawamoto’s observations about the differences between puppets and live action in interviews over the years.  Kawamoto felt that puppets were best at depicting historical and mythological figures because they exist in their own puppet world.  I actually was distracted by the casting and performances of several of the actors in Xixi Gao’s adaptation, whereas I got completely caught up in the drama of the puppets in the NHK version.  The main difference is that actors can only play at being historical figures, but the puppets can really embody the characters when the puppet artisan and puppeteers get the balance right.  The great Czech puppet animator Jiří Trnka famously told Kawamoto in Prague in 1953 that when the puppets fail it is not the fault of the puppets but the fault of the director.  The more performances I see of Kawamoto’s puppets, the more I understand what Trnka meant.

The script does not follow the text of the novel religiously.  Many of the events do come from Chapter One, but many are also excluded.  The characters are introduced in scenarios that give some exposition about what kind of a person they are.  Thus, Liu Bei is shown to be noble in his demeanor yet empathetic to the sufferings of the poor, Guan Yu is a fierce fighter with a strong sense loyalty and of what is right, and Zhang Fei is comical in his scheming but his heart is in the right place.

The episode concludes with the lovely spring scene of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei feasting together at a table under the blossoms of the Peach Garden.  They pledge fealty to one another, forging the famous brotherhood that has inspired generations of male only societies in East Asia.  It is a fitting ending to the introductory episode – as if the men are also toasting the start of a really fine dramatic series. 

Previous Post: An Introduction to Puppet Theatre Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Next Post:
Episode 2: The Storm of the Yellow Turbans /黄巾の嵐 / Kōkin no Arashi





Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

28 November 2013

The Phantom Ship (幽霊船, 1956)



In September, the Tokyo International Film Festival unveiled digitally restored versions of 3 masterpieces by early anime pioneers Kenzō Masaoka and Noburō Ōfuji:  The Spider and the Tulip (1943), Whale (1952), and The Phantom Ship (幽霊船 / Yuureisen, 1956).  They also screened a newly discovered animated short by Ōfuji: Noroma na jiji (のろまな爺, 1924) – there is not an official English title yet, but I would suggest Foolish Old Man based upon plot descriptions I have read – and a test version of his incomplete final film Princess Kayuga (竹取物語/Taketori Monogatari, 1961).  In 1924 Ōfuji (大藤 信郎, 1900–1961)  had joined Sumikazu Film Studios (スミカズ映画創作社) where he was being mentored by Kōuchi Junichi (幸内純一, 1886-1970).   Noroma na jiji was Ōfuji’s first attempt at animation at Sumikazu.  The film was restored by IMAGICA West who transferred the film to black and white film stock in order to do the restoration, then tinted the film to match the original film (Source:  Kobe-eiga).  The films were introduced by Kōji Yamamura, who discussed the restoration process at the event.

NIPPON NO ART ANIMATION OOFUJI NOBUROU / Animation

I am looking forward to seeing these restored and rediscovered classics – particularly Whale and The Phantom Ship.  I have both of these film on the terrific DVD Animation Pioneers: Noburō Ōfuji Lofty Genius (アニメーションの先駆者 大藤信郎 孤高の天才, 2010). Although the transfer from film to DVD is well done, the film image had darkened with age and both films have the usual scratches and flecks that 35mm develop over time.  The films are silhouette animations which use coloured cellophane to add layers and visual interest.  With digital restoration, I imagine that the improved clarity of the coloured cellophane would look stunning.  Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, 1926), which was a huge influence on Ōfuji, was digitally restored and released on Blu-ray/ DVD in the UK this past August.  Although this film is tinted rather than using coloured cellophane, the colours and detail in the digital restoration are simply spectacular.   

The Phantom Ship (幽霊船 / Yuureisen, 1956), a film both directed and written by Ōfuji, opens with tantalising glimpse at the master at work: Ōfuji’s hands cutting waves out of coloured cellophane.  The opening title sequence is written in English, which suggests that he made the film with his international audience in mind.  His films Taeisei Shakuson (大聖釈尊, 1948) and Whale screened at Cannes in 1952 and 1953 respectively in the official selection for short films.  Ōfuji’s name is Romanised as “Ohfuji” in the opening credits.  The renowned composer and professor of music Kōzaburō Hirai (平井康三郎, 1910-2002) composed the soundtrack.  There is no dialogue or narration in The Phantom Ship; instead, the story is told purely through visuals and music (choir, strings instruments, percussion).   

During the opening credits, the camera rotates over a map of East Asia coming to stop over the Yellow Sea – the northern part of the East China Sea which lies between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula.  After a closer shot of the Yellow Sea, suggesting that this is where the story takes place, the opening sequence fades to black and opens with the parting of two wavelike silhouettes.   We see a rugged seascape which, combined with the low vocalising of the choir creates a feeling of unease.  Then, the shadow of a phantom ship appears.  The ship is a ruin, with its brightly coloured sails in tatters.  It is a ghastly scene.  One crew member hangs from his feet from the ship’s bow.  Another man stands impaled to the mast by a sword.  A pirate symbol seems to have been scrawled upon one of the tattered sails.  After a montage of the corpses, the camera returns to the pirate symbol.  The wordless chorus increases in volume and pitch as the boat magically comes back to life. The sails mend themselves and the crew of noblemen, armed with swords, also magically return to their formal selves.  They thrash their swords and look ready for a fight. 

The scene shifts to a more peaceful ship filled with elegant figures.  Women dance around a smiling figure of a Buddha. Some of the dancing scenes are set against a kaleidoscope of whirling colours.  A sentry walks the deck alert to any trouble.  Just as a pair of lovers look as though they are about to embrace, the phantom ship appears and interrupts their peace. The trouble begins with the shot of a cannon and soon the phantom pirates are invading the peaceful ship attacking both men and women indiscriminately.  Although the peaceful ship seems overwhelmed, they put up a valiant fight, with even the elegantly dressed ladies picking up swords and duelling with the invaders.  The pirates toss people overboard and set the ship alight.  The phantom pirate ship then quietly sails away.

In the next scene snow is falling, then a short montage suggests a shift in time from winter into the spring.  A white phantom ship approaches the pirate phantom ship.  The pirates shoot at it in vain, then shake with fear as the white phantom sailor approaches, his rapier brandished high.  Behind him sits a white lady.  It is the ghosts of the pirates’ noble victims.  The white phantoms now seek their revenge, in a marvelous sequence that uses an experimental technique of overlaying animated swirling lines and other shapes.  There are also overlaid images of white feet stomping on the pirates and hand prints slapping at them.  It is a nightmare sequence complete with images resembling dripping blood.  Even the waves seem determined to grab the pirates and dash them into the sea.  The white phantoms do not rest until the magic is undone and the pirates return to their original state as corpses on a ruin of a pirate ship.   

It is truly a spectacular film, and one of the top animated shorts of 1957.  At the time, there were no established international film festivals for animation – the oldest such festival, Annecy, would get off the ground in 1960.  The Oscars at this time were giving awards to “cartoons” – i.e. it was mainly a competition between Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, and UPA – Norman McLaren famously won an Oscar for Neighbours (1952) in 1953, but it was for Best Documentary Short because pixilation/stop motion techniques did not qualify as “cartoon” (i.e. drawn) animation.  Thus other animation techniques at international festivals like Berlin and Cannes were lumped into vague categories such as “Culture Films and Documentary”.

Many books and articles claim that The Phantom Ship won the “Grand Prix” at the 17th Venice Film Festival in 1956 which I have always found suspicious because of its wording.  To begin with, the Venice Film Festival’s grand prix is not called “Grand Prix”, but the Golden Lion. Secondly, no Golden Lion was awarded in 1956. Jury members were divided in opinion between Kon Ichikawa’s Harp of Burma and Juan Antonio Bardem’s Calle Mayor and so in the end did not give the award to anyone. The jury president that year was John Grierson (UK) with jury members including André Bazin (France), G.B. Cavallaro (Italy), Friedrich Ermler (USSR), James Quinn (UK), Kiyohiko Ushihara (Japan), and Luchino Visconti (Italy).  This was reported in English by Fred Roos in his article “Venice Film Festival, 1956.” [The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television, 11.3 (Spring 1957)]  The Special Jury Prize and Silver Lion were also not awarded in 1956.  But then, these aforementioned  prizes are also intended for feature films.  In the 1950s, short films received less press than they do today for the prizes that they receive so it is difficult to dig up spectator's impressions of the films.  Even in the QFRV, Roos only mentions that 14 prizes were awarded to documentary and children films, but he does not give their titles.  He praises the Chinese and the Czechs as being “particularly outstanding in their use of puppets and animation” (253), but he does not mention Noburō Ōfuji at all.  Digging through French film journals in the library of the Deutsches Filminstitut in Frankfurt, I have also been unable to find information about reaction to The Phantom Ship at Venice in 1956.

So I dug deeper and found that according to the Venice Film Festival’s digital archives, The Phantom Ship was awarded an Honorable Mention for Experimental Film (Menzione per i film sperimentali).  This is not the grand prix, but a runner-up to Peter Foldes’s animated short film, A Short Vision, which won the award for Best Experimental Film (Premio per il miglior film sperimentale).  Foldes’s anti-Atom bomb film, which the BFI calls “one of the most influential British animated films ever made, had caused a huge sensation when it screened on May 27, 1956 on the popular variety show The Ed Sullivan Show in the US.

I think that the mistaken attribution of a grand prix at Venice to Ōfuji likely came from an error of translation somewhere along the line, and the difficulty of checking the name of the award without access to physical archives.  The Biennale’s online digital archive only became available in recent years and is currently only available in Italian, so it was difficult to check without going to an archive.  Also, the multiple spellings of Ōfuji’s name in the Latin alphabet (Ofuji, Ohfuji, Oofuji, etc.) make searches of online databases challenging.  In the trailer released by the NFC in September for the screening event at TIFF (Tokyo), the award Ōfuji received as Tokubetsushō (特別賞) – lit. special award – which matches the Italian well.

The Phantom Ship is indisputably a special film – one of the best animated shorts to come out of Japan in the 1950s, and when one takes into account Ōfuji’s other silhouette animations, he ranks as one of the top silhouette animators of all time alongside Lotte Reiniger, Bruno J. Böttge, and Michel Ocelot.  While pouring through old journals in the library, I discovered a forgotten nugget of information: The Phantom Ship was screened in the UK in 1957.  According to Bernard Orna, writing in the now defunct journal Films and Filming, The Phantom Ship was one of the films that at the First International Animated Film Festival, nicknamed the “Festival of Cartoons”, at the National Film Theatre (now BFI Southbank) in London.  He describes Ōfuji’s “open[ing] the door on an exciting variant of a kind of film known to us otherwise through the work of Lotte Reiniger.” (3.7 April 1957, p.33).  The door has indeed been opened, and I do hope that more young animators – like Aki Kono in her film Promises – choose to follow Ōfuji’s lead and experiment with the medium of silhouette animation.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2013

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)