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I Have A Question Koji Yamamura

In which Chris Robinson asks animators profound and inane questions that have little to do with animation. This week's guest is the great Japanese animator, Koji Yamamura.

'Kafka's A Country Doctor' by Koji Yamamura

I get the greatest pleasure from....
Dessert. Sweets make me smile. Especially cakes and Japanese sweetened bean paste. Of course, I also get the greatest pleasure from making animation.

The sport I do or would like to play is...

In my teens I used to do track and field, 100-metre hurdles and the discus.

But today, I don’t play any sports.

I try to walk every morning for my health.  I’m also interested in swimming, but for instance it’s hard to make time for that on my production days, ha ha…

A (non-family member) person I idolize is....
Jacques Tati and Jorge Luis Borges. Unfortunately, both have passed away.

Tati’s Play Time is a my all-time favourite film. I’m stimulated by Tati’s quest for perfectionism and fineness.

Borges’s way of thinking and his knowledge overwhelms me.

I also love their humour.

The song that makes me tingle is....

I often listen to Baroque music and some other Instrumental music while I am producing.

I like Leopold Weiss, J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Prokofiev, Kurt Weill, some other piano music played by Glenn Gould, Cello Music by Anner Bylsma, Arvo Pärt, Pascal Comelade, Willem Breuker...
I also listen to some old jazz songs and contemporary female singers.

There are two songs that shake my heart with songs. One is Kurt Weill “Lost in the Stars” by Elvis Costello with The Brodsky Quartet, another is the lovely “Cocoroni utawo” by Toshio Nakagawa.

The funniest thing that happened to me….

Oh my goodness. This question has made me realize that funny things have not often happened to me.
I will just tell one episode. Once, I mimicked an animation character's voice while sleeping.

Chris Robinson's picture

A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.