Realised in collaboration with A.S.C.I.G. - Association for Cultural Exchanges between Italy and Japan, Ottobre Giapponese (Japanese October) is Ravenna Nightmare's section that every year explores one of the film industry that most contributes to the enhancement of genre cinema, through the screening of retrospective and contemporary films.
One of the events of the 2020 edition (online from 31 October to 8 November on MYmovies.it) will be dedicated to Kōji Yamamura, one of the most famous and appreciated independent animators of his generation. Among his best-known films, Mt. Head (Atamayama) - nominated for an Oscar as Best Animated Short Film in 2003 - and the three shorts The old crocodile (2005), Satie's Parade (2016) and Dreams into drawing (2019) are the films proposed by Japanese October in the focus dedicated to this contemporary master.
“The reflection underlying Atamayama is that we often live without having a precise sensation of our physical existence, detached from reality which instead seems to go on autonomously and automatically. This is why I chose as the protagonist a character who belongs to the Japan of the past who struggles to fit into a reality that does not represent him." (Koji Yamamura)
Based on an ancient tale from the rakugo repertoire, Mt. Head tells the surreal story of a miserly and mean man who finds himself with a sprout in his head after eating cherry pits. Over time, the sprout turns into a wonderful cherry tree in bloom, which is apparently harmless but which will have unexpected consequences instead. Adapted to modern Tōkyō, the work explores the theme of cohabitation and, more generally, of life in Japanese cities.
It is not only the story that is particular in this short: the animation takes up the dreamlike style typical of Yamamura's works, on the border between the comic and the disturbing. But even more remarkable are the soundtrack and voice acting, entirely done in the traditional roukyoku style. Modern interpretation of a traditional tale, a short film conducted on the thread of paradox and absurdity, with dreamlike and surreal inventions.
The plot follows the story of a millenary crocodile, now afflicted with rheumatism and an insatiable hunger. Short film from the essential plot and animation, but it is a deceptive simplicity, similar to that of old fairy tales.
A parade for 3 conductors and 4 performers. Blending quotes from French composer Erik Satie's pieces with band music, Parade is an animated project of re-creating images of realist ballets that transcend reality.
Painter Kuwagata Keisai lived over 200 years ago. One day he was drawing a carp when he suddenly fell asleep and, in a dream, transfigured into the carp enjoying a swim. When a fisherman caught her, things took a turn for the worse...
Koji Yamamura was born in Japan in 1964. His Mt. Head was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 and awarded six Grand Prix, including Annecy, Zagreb and Hiroshima. Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor was awarded the Ottawa Grand Prix. Fellow of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and professor at Tokyo University of the Arts.
In spite of the great commercialization of Japanese animation started in the sixties, whose boom also led many of the independent animators to choose the path of the great studios, it is singular that a young animator, a rookie in the eighties, chose the path of independence and, through this, to carry out an expressive work that in a short time would have given him fame both at home and abroad. Yamamura Kōji, a Japanese animation prodigy boy, made his debut at the age of thirteen. In a short time, through his own independent studio, he exported his name and his art to the main stages of quality animation, from Hiroshima and Annecy, to Chicago and Berlin. His works, in addition to the ways and methods of classical animation, cel-animation, also rest on the solid foundations of computer animation. Yamamura's is an "unusual" use of the electronic medium, where the interaction between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality gives the characters a poeticity rare for CG productions. This artist has become an idol among the younger Japanese.
