Dan Oniroku/ Naomi Tani

[eigagogo@free.fr]

Dear all,

While Konuma's 'Hana to hebi' gets on screen with french cinema release this
very week (critics ranges from mild to good), i've noted some interesting minor
trivia. It is said that in the 'Oni production' era,  Naomi Tani and Oniroku
were in fact living together as husband & wife. Can anyone confirm this?


Selon Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu>:

> Venice just announced their line-up for the next festival, and three
> Japanese films are in competition: Takeshi Kitano's "Achilles and the
> Tortoise," Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo in the Cliff by the Sea," and
> Mamoru Oshii's "The Sky Crawlers." The new triumvirate to replace
> Mizoguchi/Ozu/Kurosawa!
>
> I'm just back from Japan, a busy trip where I managed to see only one
> film?Ponyo. The theater was packed and filled with energy, a nice
> change from the empty theaters I usually see in Japan. This film felt
> like a return to roots for Miyazaki. I won't go into the (green, and
> somewhat incoherent) narrative here, excepty to say that this is more
> Totoro than Mononoke. Kids will love it, and the audience in Tokyo
> cheered and clapped when it was over. But a word on the style. What CG
> he's used is pretty well hidden and seamless, while most cel-animation
> films these days are aesthetically schizophrenic. I appreciated that.
> The opening scene must have sucked up half the budget; set deep in the
> ocean, there are thousands of hand-drawn bubbles and stunning splashes
> of color. It subsequently settles into a less flashy style. The
> figures are fairly simple, often set in occasionally awkward movement
> through limited animation. Backgrounds are pretty pastel drawing that
> evoke picture books for young Japanese children. However, half-way
> through the film, a storm whips the animation into pure spectacle, the
> proportions of which few artists besides Miyazaki could achieve. It's
> a truly stunning sequence, and probably pretty scary for small
> children. The bright pastel palette of the backgrounds, turns dark;
> where they were frozen backdrops before, the ocean and trees begin to
> move and whip into a frenzy. It's masterful stuff. Finally, I'd note
> that the darkness of the storm is filled with subtle detail that will
> be lost on a television screen. Many scenes feature tiny animated
> objects that will probably fuzz into cloud, even on an HD monitor. I
> often found myself admiring an animator that is conceptualizing his
> film, start to finish, for the big screen. Be sure to see it in a
> theater.
>
> Now has anyone seen the other two films?
>
> Markus
>
>
>
> A. M. Nornes
> Professor
> Department of Screen Arts & Cultures
> Department of Asian Languages & Cultures
> University of Michigan
> Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
> Suite 6111, 202 South Thayer Street
> Ann Arbor, MI  48104-1608
> Phone:  (734) 647-2094; FAX: x0157
> Homepage: www.umich.edu/~amnornes
>
>
>
>