Viewed at Teatro Verdi, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, in prints with English subtitles by Dean Shimurachi and with e-subtitles in Italian, 6 Oct 2011. Music: Mie Yanashita (grand piano, koto, bells, percussions).
Tribute to Noburo Ofuji
Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström (GCM Catalogue): "Noburo Ofuji (1900-1961), born in Tokyo’s Asakusa District as Shinshichiro Ofuji, was the seventh of eight children. His mother died in 1907 and he was raised by an elder sister. He entered the film industry at the age of 18, becoming a pupil of pioneering animator Junichi Kouchi at Sumikazu Eiga, and began to make his own films in the mid-1920s. In 1925, he established his own studio, the Free Cinema Institute (Jiyu Eiga Kenkyujo), where he made Burglars of “Baghdad” Castle (Baguda-jo no tozoku, 1926, screened at Pordenone in 2005) in homage to the Douglas Fairbanks vehicle, The Thief of Bagdad (1924). This film, which apparently ran for 3 reels on its first release (though surviving viewing copies are only 14 minutes long), earned a commercial release and helped to boost its director’s career. Jasper Sharp comments that “Ofuji is best remembered for his idiosyncratic and highly creative use of the cut-out technique[…] His favoured choice of medium for his cut-out work was chiyogami, a coloured paper with woodblock-printed patterns.” Ofuji’s facility with this technique was recognized in 1927 when he renamed his studio the Chiyogami Film Company (Chiyogami Eiga-sha). However, he also worked creatively with silhouette and cel animation. Ofuji was a seminal figure in establishing the animated cartoon as an art form in Japan. In Giannalberto Bendazzi’s words, he “refused to consider animation as a comic art form: he conceived of a dramatic form of cinema, for adults, and did not eschew erotic themes.” In addition, Ofuji made pioneering use of sound; in the silhouette animation Whale (Kujira, 1927), he sought to synchronize the image with a recording of music from Rossini’s William Tell, played on record, while Black Cat’s Meeow (Kuronyago, 1929) was the first film to make use of the Japanese sound-on-disc system Eastphone. Ofuji continued to work well into the sound era, and became one of the first Japanese animators to gain international acclaim, with his films Whale (Kujira, 1952) and The Ghost Ship (Yureisen, 1956) winning prizes at Cannes and Venice respectively. After his death, in 1962, the Noburo Ofuji Prize recognizing distinction in animated film was established in his memory." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
KEMURIGUSA MONOGATARI [Una storia di sigarette / A Story of Tobacco] (Tokyo Jiyu Eiga-sha, JP 1924) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 280 ft, 3’ (24 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"Ofuji's earliest existant film blends live footage and cut-out animation as it explores 'the mysterious connection between a woman and a cigarette' (Akira Tochigi). It is not clear as to whether this was a test film, or whether it is a surviving fragment of a longer lost film." - Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Live action woman with an animated man, the battle of the sexes.
KIRIGAMI ZAIKU: SAIYUKI SONGOKU MONOGATARI [La storia del Re Scimmia / The Story of the Monkey King] (Jiyu Eiga Kenkyujo, JP 1926) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 478 ft, 8’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"The Monkey King Songoku, or Sun Wukong in the original Chinese, is one of the protagonists of the Ming-dynasty novel Journey to the West (Xiyouji, or Saiyuki in Japanese), considered one of the four masterpieces of classical Chinese prose literature. Having rebelled against heaven, Sun Wukong eventually becomes a disciple of a Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, who travelled to the “Western Regions” (Central Asia and India) during the Tang era in quest of Buddhist scriptures. This is a chiyogami retelling of the Monkey King’s perennially popular story." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Stylish design, natural movement. Motifs: holy mountain, sacred text in the pagoda. I love the Wan brothers' Monkey King animations. It is fascinating to see an early adaptation of the same material. From a battered source.
MIKANBUNE [Un bastimento di arance / A Ship of Oranges] (Ofuji Noburo Productions, JP 1927) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 386 ft, 6’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"This film recounts the story of an Edo-period merchant, Bunzaemon Kinokuniya (1669-1734), who traded in citrus fruits, among other commodities. The film shows how he brought mandarin oranges (mikan) from the southwestern island of Kyushu to the capital city of Edo." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Cut-out animation about the orange ship that faces the calamities of the wind god, the mountain god and the lighting. Fine storm and rain animation. From a battered Baby Pathé source.
KOGANE NO HANA [Il fiore d’oro / The Golden Flower] (Chiyogami Eiga-sha, JP 1929) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 1003 ft, 17’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"This incomplete film tells the story of how a villager named Dangobei is caught by a giant snake on his way home from a local festival. He outwits and defeats the monster, even managing to triumph over the ghost of the snake when it returns for a posthumous revenge, and ends up wealthy as a result. Although the extant print, restored from a 9.5 mm Pathé Baby print, is monochrome, it is thought that Ofuji originally made it as an early experiment with colour stock. The colour version appears never to have been screened publicly, however." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Meta-aspect in the start: how cut-out animation is made. A fine festival scene. Elements include: a wrong turn during the journey takes Dangobei into the infamous Darkness Pass; footsteps echo in the dark (seen in animation); the Buddhist statue refuses help; money changes people; a fight against the giant snake; stardust. From a battered source.
KURONYAGO [Il miao miao del gatto nero / Black Cat’s Meeow] (Chiyogami Eiga-sha, JP 1929) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 268 ft, 3’ (24 fps), sd.; from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"Digitally restored from a 9.5 mm Pathé Baby print and an SP record, this so-called “Record Talkie” film was a pioneering attempt at synchronized sound in Japanese animation. The “Record Talkie” sound-on-disc system, also known as Eastphone, was used only very briefly with 35 mm prints designed for theatrical release, but endured longer in the case of home exhibition on 9.5 and 16 mm. Although an SP record was a 78rpm record, it was necessary to play it back at 80rpm in order to achieve synchronization with the film. This example of a “Record Talkie” shows two cats, a black cat and a tabby, dancing in time to a jazz score. The soundtrack features the lyrics of a popular song for children with a number of nonsensical Japanese verbal puns." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: A dance animation.
MURAMATSURI [Festa di paese / Village Festival] (Chiyogami Eigasha, JP 1930) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 238 ft, 2’ (24 fps), sd.; from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"Another “Record Talkie” film, this chiyogami animation, digitally restored from a 16 mm print and an SP record, “recreates the lively atmosphere of a village festival” (Akira Tochigi). The accompanying children’s song had featured in a national school textbook, becoming familiar to many as a result, and its lyrics appear in Japanese hiragana script onscreen, with a bouncing ball and festival masks taking turns to keep the pace." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: A song animation with the bouncing ball, inventive visualization.
KOKKA: KIMIGAYO [L’inno nazionale / National Anthem] (Chiyogami Eiga-sha, JP 1931) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 297 ft, 3’ (24 fps), sd.; from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"In this brief silhouette animation, the legendary beginnings of Japan are told to the musical accompaniment of the national anthem, “Kimigayo”. This film was apparently often used to open educational film screenings, a fact which surely testifies to the growing nationalism of the country during the early 1930s." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: A nationalistic animation: Japan emerges from the sea in the primordial haze, mythical warriors in silhouette, words of the anthem appear on the screen, the mountain, the clouds, the sun, the birds, the kaleidoscope.
HARU NO UTA [Canzone di primavera / Spring Song] (Chiyogami Eiga-sha, JP 1931) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 201 ft, 3’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"The cherry blossom (sakura), which spreads northwards across the Japanese archipelago over the springtime months, remains Japan’s most potent national symbol. In this dreamlike depiction of the cherry in full bloom, falling petals are represented by cut-out chiyogami designs, which are subsequently transformed into the figures of a boy and girl dancing. This film, which also includes among its imagery the lyrics in kana script and the musical notes of the “spring song” of the title – another’s children’s song – was originally a “Record Talkie”, although the SP record containing the synchronized soundtrack was not available for this restoration. This viewing copy was restored from a 9.5 mm Pathé Baby print tinted in magenta." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Mie Yanashita played the song of this "music video", a film to a phonographic record, such as the ones Germaine Dulac directed in France at the same time. Fine animation.
KOKORO NO CHIKARA [La potenza del cuore / Power of the Heart] (Ministry of Education, JP 1931) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 1051 ft, 18’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"This short chiyogami film tells the story of Dangobei, a coward who receives the gift of strength from a god and defeats a monster. This educational film was intended to teach the message that even a coward can become brave. It was based on comedian Harold Lloyd’s similarly themed film Grandma’s Boy (1922)." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Fine cut-out animation. Dangobei defeats the sea monster believing he has magic powers. I like the stylized impression of the storm. "Bravery and cowardice are both states of the mind".
Shigeji Ogino (1899-1991)
“Ogino’s rhythmic, abstract animation has re-written the history of experimental and animated filmmaking in Japan,” claims Sylvia Chong. A leading amateur filmmaker, working in 8 mm, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm formats, he produced over 400 films between 1929 and 1976. Among his other achievements, he was a pioneer of colour filmmaking, using the Kodachrome and Sakura Colour Film processes." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
FELIX NO MEITANTEI [Il detective Felix nei guai / Detective Felix in Trouble] (JP 1932) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 680 ft, 9’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"The influence of animation from the United States helped to transform and modernize the style of Japanese animation in the early 1930s, when numerous American cartoons were screened in Japan. Among the most popular was Otto Messmer’s Felix the Cat, who features in this light-hearted puppet film in the role of a detective, enlisted by a girl, Hanako, to search for her stolen shoes. Ogino used miniature sets, decorated both in Asian and in expressionistic fashion, as a backdrop for the actions of his animal puppets." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Rather clumsy puppet animation. A duped look in the print.
? [HATENA] / SANKAKU NO RIZUMU / TORANPU NO ARASOI [Triangoli ritmici / Rhythmic Triangles; Carte battagliere / Fighting Cards] (JP, 1932) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 269 ft, 4’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"A relatively early example of Ogino’s style of abstract animation, this film depicts a sequence of images moving in rhythm. A question mark starts things off, to be followed by footsteps (“The Owari Street viewed from below the ground”, an intertitle announces), triangles, and symbols from playing cards." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Abstract animation based on a parallelogram through which bar-like forms traverse upwards. Then there are footprints from below, and moving figures such as triangles, stars and playing-card signs.
* HYAKUNENGO NO ARUHI [Un giorno dopo cento anni / A Day after a Hundred Years] (JP, 1933) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 655 ft, 11’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"Described by Akira Tochigi as an “existentialist sci-fi animation”, this prophetic film features the filmmaker himself as the protagonist. He is killed in a world war in 1942, a decade after the film was made, but a descendant of his restores his spirit to life in 2032, in a Japan where Tokyo has been renamed “Central City”. The future capital’s visual resemblance to the urban milieu depicted by Fritz Lang in Metropolis (1927) is arguably another fairly accurate prophecy! This remarkable film concludes by sending its protagonist on an ill-fated trip to Mars." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: The big surprise of this program, an incredible science fiction story that predicts WWII, nuclear power, etc. Stylish siluette animation. The final scene is a trip to Mars, but they lose control, because "there is a spirit from the past on board"!*
RHYTHM (JP, 1935) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 149 ft, 2’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
PROPAGATE (JP, 1935) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 256 ft, 4’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. English intertitles.
AN EXPRESSION (JP, 1935) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 385 ft, 3’ (30 fps), col.; from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"These three abstract films, screening in prints blown up from 9.5 mm originals, typify Ogino’s experimental style. They are exercises in pure cinema not unlike the films of Oskar Fischinger, whose Composition in Blue (Komposition in Blau) was made in the same year. Rhythm simply depicts patterns of lines in rhythmic motion. Propagate uses the theme of the growth of plant seeds as a peg on which to hang Ogino’s abstract imagery, and may have been inspired by contemporary avant-garde poster art. An Expression depicts the motion of geometric forms, and was shot in colour using a two-colour additive process which employed red and green filters in imitation of the Kinemacolor process devised by British pioneer George Albert Smith in 1906. Hand-painting in red and green was also used, and the print was projected at 32 frames per second, twice the regular 16 fps projection speed of the original Pathé Baby print, to achieve the best visual effect. (An approximation of 30 fps will be attempted at the Pordenone screening if the theatre projector’s variable speed mechanism permits.) The three films won prizes at the First International Competition of Small-Gauge Films in Budapest in 1935." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Three different items of abstract animation: (a) curves, (b) abstractions based on the idea of plant growth, (c) colour studies with triangles, circles, and sliding bars and circles.
SHIKISAI MANGA NO DEKIRU MADE [Come si fa un film animato a colori / Until the Colour Animation Is Made] (JP, 1937) D, P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 302 ft, 5’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"Restored from the original 16 mm reversal print, this silent documentary follows the making of Noburo Ofuji’s first Kodacolor animation, The Wigged Princess (Katsura hime, 1937). Ofuji and Ogino had been associates in the milieu of avant-garde filmmaking in the late 1920s." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: A good documentary plus the resulting The Wigged Princess animation.
Tribute to Noburo Ofuji
Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström (GCM Catalogue): "Noburo Ofuji (1900-1961), born in Tokyo’s Asakusa District as Shinshichiro Ofuji, was the seventh of eight children. His mother died in 1907 and he was raised by an elder sister. He entered the film industry at the age of 18, becoming a pupil of pioneering animator Junichi Kouchi at Sumikazu Eiga, and began to make his own films in the mid-1920s. In 1925, he established his own studio, the Free Cinema Institute (Jiyu Eiga Kenkyujo), where he made Burglars of “Baghdad” Castle (Baguda-jo no tozoku, 1926, screened at Pordenone in 2005) in homage to the Douglas Fairbanks vehicle, The Thief of Bagdad (1924). This film, which apparently ran for 3 reels on its first release (though surviving viewing copies are only 14 minutes long), earned a commercial release and helped to boost its director’s career. Jasper Sharp comments that “Ofuji is best remembered for his idiosyncratic and highly creative use of the cut-out technique[…] His favoured choice of medium for his cut-out work was chiyogami, a coloured paper with woodblock-printed patterns.” Ofuji’s facility with this technique was recognized in 1927 when he renamed his studio the Chiyogami Film Company (Chiyogami Eiga-sha). However, he also worked creatively with silhouette and cel animation. Ofuji was a seminal figure in establishing the animated cartoon as an art form in Japan. In Giannalberto Bendazzi’s words, he “refused to consider animation as a comic art form: he conceived of a dramatic form of cinema, for adults, and did not eschew erotic themes.” In addition, Ofuji made pioneering use of sound; in the silhouette animation Whale (Kujira, 1927), he sought to synchronize the image with a recording of music from Rossini’s William Tell, played on record, while Black Cat’s Meeow (Kuronyago, 1929) was the first film to make use of the Japanese sound-on-disc system Eastphone. Ofuji continued to work well into the sound era, and became one of the first Japanese animators to gain international acclaim, with his films Whale (Kujira, 1952) and The Ghost Ship (Yureisen, 1956) winning prizes at Cannes and Venice respectively. After his death, in 1962, the Noburo Ofuji Prize recognizing distinction in animated film was established in his memory." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
KEMURIGUSA MONOGATARI [Una storia di sigarette / A Story of Tobacco] (Tokyo Jiyu Eiga-sha, JP 1924) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 280 ft, 3’ (24 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"Ofuji's earliest existant film blends live footage and cut-out animation as it explores 'the mysterious connection between a woman and a cigarette' (Akira Tochigi). It is not clear as to whether this was a test film, or whether it is a surviving fragment of a longer lost film." - Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Live action woman with an animated man, the battle of the sexes.
KIRIGAMI ZAIKU: SAIYUKI SONGOKU MONOGATARI [La storia del Re Scimmia / The Story of the Monkey King] (Jiyu Eiga Kenkyujo, JP 1926) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 478 ft, 8’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"The Monkey King Songoku, or Sun Wukong in the original Chinese, is one of the protagonists of the Ming-dynasty novel Journey to the West (Xiyouji, or Saiyuki in Japanese), considered one of the four masterpieces of classical Chinese prose literature. Having rebelled against heaven, Sun Wukong eventually becomes a disciple of a Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, who travelled to the “Western Regions” (Central Asia and India) during the Tang era in quest of Buddhist scriptures. This is a chiyogami retelling of the Monkey King’s perennially popular story." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Stylish design, natural movement. Motifs: holy mountain, sacred text in the pagoda. I love the Wan brothers' Monkey King animations. It is fascinating to see an early adaptation of the same material. From a battered source.
MIKANBUNE [Un bastimento di arance / A Ship of Oranges] (Ofuji Noburo Productions, JP 1927) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 386 ft, 6’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"This film recounts the story of an Edo-period merchant, Bunzaemon Kinokuniya (1669-1734), who traded in citrus fruits, among other commodities. The film shows how he brought mandarin oranges (mikan) from the southwestern island of Kyushu to the capital city of Edo." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Cut-out animation about the orange ship that faces the calamities of the wind god, the mountain god and the lighting. Fine storm and rain animation. From a battered Baby Pathé source.
KOGANE NO HANA [Il fiore d’oro / The Golden Flower] (Chiyogami Eiga-sha, JP 1929) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 1003 ft, 17’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"This incomplete film tells the story of how a villager named Dangobei is caught by a giant snake on his way home from a local festival. He outwits and defeats the monster, even managing to triumph over the ghost of the snake when it returns for a posthumous revenge, and ends up wealthy as a result. Although the extant print, restored from a 9.5 mm Pathé Baby print, is monochrome, it is thought that Ofuji originally made it as an early experiment with colour stock. The colour version appears never to have been screened publicly, however." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Meta-aspect in the start: how cut-out animation is made. A fine festival scene. Elements include: a wrong turn during the journey takes Dangobei into the infamous Darkness Pass; footsteps echo in the dark (seen in animation); the Buddhist statue refuses help; money changes people; a fight against the giant snake; stardust. From a battered source.
KURONYAGO [Il miao miao del gatto nero / Black Cat’s Meeow] (Chiyogami Eiga-sha, JP 1929) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 268 ft, 3’ (24 fps), sd.; from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"Digitally restored from a 9.5 mm Pathé Baby print and an SP record, this so-called “Record Talkie” film was a pioneering attempt at synchronized sound in Japanese animation. The “Record Talkie” sound-on-disc system, also known as Eastphone, was used only very briefly with 35 mm prints designed for theatrical release, but endured longer in the case of home exhibition on 9.5 and 16 mm. Although an SP record was a 78rpm record, it was necessary to play it back at 80rpm in order to achieve synchronization with the film. This example of a “Record Talkie” shows two cats, a black cat and a tabby, dancing in time to a jazz score. The soundtrack features the lyrics of a popular song for children with a number of nonsensical Japanese verbal puns." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: A dance animation.
MURAMATSURI [Festa di paese / Village Festival] (Chiyogami Eigasha, JP 1930) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 238 ft, 2’ (24 fps), sd.; from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"Another “Record Talkie” film, this chiyogami animation, digitally restored from a 16 mm print and an SP record, “recreates the lively atmosphere of a village festival” (Akira Tochigi). The accompanying children’s song had featured in a national school textbook, becoming familiar to many as a result, and its lyrics appear in Japanese hiragana script onscreen, with a bouncing ball and festival masks taking turns to keep the pace." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: A song animation with the bouncing ball, inventive visualization.
KOKKA: KIMIGAYO [L’inno nazionale / National Anthem] (Chiyogami Eiga-sha, JP 1931) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 297 ft, 3’ (24 fps), sd.; from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"In this brief silhouette animation, the legendary beginnings of Japan are told to the musical accompaniment of the national anthem, “Kimigayo”. This film was apparently often used to open educational film screenings, a fact which surely testifies to the growing nationalism of the country during the early 1930s." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: A nationalistic animation: Japan emerges from the sea in the primordial haze, mythical warriors in silhouette, words of the anthem appear on the screen, the mountain, the clouds, the sun, the birds, the kaleidoscope.
HARU NO UTA [Canzone di primavera / Spring Song] (Chiyogami Eiga-sha, JP 1931) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 201 ft, 3’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"The cherry blossom (sakura), which spreads northwards across the Japanese archipelago over the springtime months, remains Japan’s most potent national symbol. In this dreamlike depiction of the cherry in full bloom, falling petals are represented by cut-out chiyogami designs, which are subsequently transformed into the figures of a boy and girl dancing. This film, which also includes among its imagery the lyrics in kana script and the musical notes of the “spring song” of the title – another’s children’s song – was originally a “Record Talkie”, although the SP record containing the synchronized soundtrack was not available for this restoration. This viewing copy was restored from a 9.5 mm Pathé Baby print tinted in magenta." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Mie Yanashita played the song of this "music video", a film to a phonographic record, such as the ones Germaine Dulac directed in France at the same time. Fine animation.
KOKORO NO CHIKARA [La potenza del cuore / Power of the Heart] (Ministry of Education, JP 1931) D, anim: Noburo Ofuji; 35 mm, 1051 ft, 18’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"This short chiyogami film tells the story of Dangobei, a coward who receives the gift of strength from a god and defeats a monster. This educational film was intended to teach the message that even a coward can become brave. It was based on comedian Harold Lloyd’s similarly themed film Grandma’s Boy (1922)." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Fine cut-out animation. Dangobei defeats the sea monster believing he has magic powers. I like the stylized impression of the storm. "Bravery and cowardice are both states of the mind".
Shigeji Ogino (1899-1991)
“Ogino’s rhythmic, abstract animation has re-written the history of experimental and animated filmmaking in Japan,” claims Sylvia Chong. A leading amateur filmmaker, working in 8 mm, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm formats, he produced over 400 films between 1929 and 1976. Among his other achievements, he was a pioneer of colour filmmaking, using the Kodachrome and Sakura Colour Film processes." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
FELIX NO MEITANTEI [Il detective Felix nei guai / Detective Felix in Trouble] (JP 1932) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 680 ft, 9’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"The influence of animation from the United States helped to transform and modernize the style of Japanese animation in the early 1930s, when numerous American cartoons were screened in Japan. Among the most popular was Otto Messmer’s Felix the Cat, who features in this light-hearted puppet film in the role of a detective, enlisted by a girl, Hanako, to search for her stolen shoes. Ogino used miniature sets, decorated both in Asian and in expressionistic fashion, as a backdrop for the actions of his animal puppets." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Rather clumsy puppet animation. A duped look in the print.
? [HATENA] / SANKAKU NO RIZUMU / TORANPU NO ARASOI [Triangoli ritmici / Rhythmic Triangles; Carte battagliere / Fighting Cards] (JP, 1932) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 269 ft, 4’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"A relatively early example of Ogino’s style of abstract animation, this film depicts a sequence of images moving in rhythm. A question mark starts things off, to be followed by footsteps (“The Owari Street viewed from below the ground”, an intertitle announces), triangles, and symbols from playing cards." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Abstract animation based on a parallelogram through which bar-like forms traverse upwards. Then there are footprints from below, and moving figures such as triangles, stars and playing-card signs.
* HYAKUNENGO NO ARUHI [Un giorno dopo cento anni / A Day after a Hundred Years] (JP, 1933) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 655 ft, 11’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"Described by Akira Tochigi as an “existentialist sci-fi animation”, this prophetic film features the filmmaker himself as the protagonist. He is killed in a world war in 1942, a decade after the film was made, but a descendant of his restores his spirit to life in 2032, in a Japan where Tokyo has been renamed “Central City”. The future capital’s visual resemblance to the urban milieu depicted by Fritz Lang in Metropolis (1927) is arguably another fairly accurate prophecy! This remarkable film concludes by sending its protagonist on an ill-fated trip to Mars." Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: The big surprise of this program, an incredible science fiction story that predicts WWII, nuclear power, etc. Stylish siluette animation. The final scene is a trip to Mars, but they lose control, because "there is a spirit from the past on board"!*
RHYTHM (JP, 1935) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 149 ft, 2’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
PROPAGATE (JP, 1935) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 256 ft, 4’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. English intertitles.
AN EXPRESSION (JP, 1935) D, anim., P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 385 ft, 3’ (30 fps), col.; from: National Film Center, Tokyo. No intertitles.
"These three abstract films, screening in prints blown up from 9.5 mm originals, typify Ogino’s experimental style. They are exercises in pure cinema not unlike the films of Oskar Fischinger, whose Composition in Blue (Komposition in Blau) was made in the same year. Rhythm simply depicts patterns of lines in rhythmic motion. Propagate uses the theme of the growth of plant seeds as a peg on which to hang Ogino’s abstract imagery, and may have been inspired by contemporary avant-garde poster art. An Expression depicts the motion of geometric forms, and was shot in colour using a two-colour additive process which employed red and green filters in imitation of the Kinemacolor process devised by British pioneer George Albert Smith in 1906. Hand-painting in red and green was also used, and the print was projected at 32 frames per second, twice the regular 16 fps projection speed of the original Pathé Baby print, to achieve the best visual effect. (An approximation of 30 fps will be attempted at the Pordenone screening if the theatre projector’s variable speed mechanism permits.) The three films won prizes at the First International Competition of Small-Gauge Films in Budapest in 1935." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: Three different items of abstract animation: (a) curves, (b) abstractions based on the idea of plant growth, (c) colour studies with triangles, circles, and sliding bars and circles.
SHIKISAI MANGA NO DEKIRU MADE [Come si fa un film animato a colori / Until the Colour Animation Is Made] (JP, 1937) D, P: Shigeji Ogino; 35 mm, 302 ft, 5’ (16 fps); from: National Film Center, Tokyo. Japanese intertitles, with English subtitles.
"Restored from the original 16 mm reversal print, this silent documentary follows the making of Noburo Ofuji’s first Kodacolor animation, The Wigged Princess (Katsura hime, 1937). Ofuji and Ogino had been associates in the milieu of avant-garde filmmaking in the late 1920s." – Alexander Jacoby, Johan Nordström
AA: A good documentary plus the resulting The Wigged Princess animation.
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