Playing at San Francisco Indie Festival, 8-9 Feb: Tokyo Loop

[Jonathan M. Hall]

Tokyo Loop


Directed by:  An omnibus film by: SATO Masahiko + UETA Mio & TANAAMI  
Keiichi & SEIKE Mika & OYAMA Kei

TOKYO LOOP is an animation anthology produced by ImageForum, a  
Japanese filmmakers? collective/workshop (originally called The  
Underground Center when it was founded in 1971 to commemorate the  
hundredth anniversary of the birth of the animated film, J.S.  
Blackton?s Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906). 16 animated films  
by 17 different directors convey a rich variety of Japanese graphic  
styles ? from cut-ups and cut-outs to crudely hand-drawn  
illustration, psychedelic kalaidescopes and anime.

Although certain indie animation pillars are represented here ? Yoji  
Kuri (making his first film in 20 years), Taku Siguyama - many of the  
filmmakers aren?t traditionally animators. Among the artists selected  
by curator Koji Yamamura are manga artists who had never worked with  
moving images, as well as experimental filmmakers, puppeteers and  
visual artists. The film has no dialogue, and though each piece of  
animation is done in a wholly distinct style, there are threads that  
run through them all: namely, personal impressions of Tokyo city life  
and a fluid score by legendary Osaka noise musician Yamamoto Seiichi  
(onetime member of The Boredoms). The result of this experimental  
concoction is a truly remarkable feast for the senses. (Kier-La Janisse)

Co-Presented by the Japan External Trade Organization



The segments in detail:

Tokyo Strut (Sato Masahiko, Ueta Mio): A man takes a walk with his  
dog. A work of ?undeniable expression."

Tokyo Trip (Tanaami Keiichi): The great graphic designer offers a  
morph of shapes, genders and sensations of the city.

Fishing Vine (Seike Mika): A new take on the construction boom,  
considered as an erotic encounter.

Yuki-chan (Oyama Kei): A young girl has died, an earthworm lives.  
Life is ephemeral, but living things have ?grotesque strength."

Dog & Bone (Shiriagari Kotobuki): Dog chases bone through the world  
and its wars, including Desert Storm. Shiriagari: ?It?s my first  
animated work, but while I was making it I really felt like I became  
a dog."

Public Convenience (Tabaimo): A sketch of everyday life in Tokyo, as  
seen from a women?s toilet.

TOKYO(Uda Atsuko): A bus ride through the night-time lights of Tokyo,  
with a title from HTML programming language.

Black Fish (Aihara Nobuhiro): Darkness and light, as seen by VIFF?s  
favourite Buddhist erotist.

Unbalance (Ito Takashi): A negative image of Tokyo--images of pain  
and suffering to suggest the upset of our emotional balance.

Tokyo Girl (Shimao Maho): Tokyo girls are naked. So are cats,  
penguins, raccoons, newts, elephants...

Manipulated Man (Wada Atsushi): How mothers teach their sons to  
behave--and conform.

Nuance (Murata Tomoyasu): The inner world and the outer world, as  
seen in "treated" photographs.

Hashimoto (Furukawa Taku): A cautionary study of the smoking zone on  
the opposite platform of Hashimoto Station.

Funkorogashi (Kuri Yoji): The first film in more than 20 years from  
one of Japan?s greatest animators. A protest against people who let  
their dogs shit on the street.

Fig (Yamamura Koji): A short story about one dark night in Tokyo, and  
a return to the origins of animation.

12 O?Clock (Iwai Toshio): What if the pre-cinema phenakistoscope had  
evolved into a clock?



Friday 8 Feb 5 pm Victoria Theater

Saturday 9 Feb 9:30 pm Victoria Theater
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