Rotterdam Turns to Japan

Rotterdam Turns to Japan
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Arcade games seemingly have not advanced, except that some are clearly now aimed at women. The cynic would observe (rightly) that this makes complete sense in a Japanese context -- probably the greatest pool of spending power in Japan is controlled by those girls between school/university and marriage (and this control probably extends to after this as well). I've always despaired at the appeal of random violence in video and computer games, because, ultimately it shows a failure of imagination; the games only present variations on a single theme. The prospect of a wider selection of themes outside of sports and war is encouraging and should help widen the perspectives of designers, and animators, working in these fields.

Guitar Freaks. Courtesy of International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Dancing Stage. Courtesy of International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Of great appeal -- if only I was younger -- are two new arcade games. The first is Dancing Stage which teaches the correct steps for the dance of your choice (by following the patterned floor as it lights up) with your fantasy partner up on a screen in front of you, and Guitar Freaks, which allows you to live your wildest dreams as a rock star. Both are great fun.

Anime Screenings
The films selected for screening were the main body of manga films available with English sub-titles and as such would be familiar to followers of the genre and especially fans of Oshii Mamoru. Nevertheless, seeing the films together emphasizes how much the Japanese are exploring, no matter how simplistically, major political themes rarely tackled in popular feature films. They represent a cry of pain from within modern urban (where over 90% of the Japanese population lives) society.


Night falls in Okiura Hiroyuki's Jin-Roh. Courtesy of International Film Festival Rotterdam.	A scene of despair from Okiura Hiroyuki's Jin-Roh. Courtesy of International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The most recent film screened, Jin-Roh, otherwise known as The Wolf Brigade, is not Mamoru's. Although he wrote it, the film was directed by his protégé, Okiura Hiroyuki, who supervised the animation on Ghost in the Shell. Surprisingly, Jin-Roh is not futuristic but set in a Tokyo of the early 1960s. Ambitious in its exploration of human motivation and the politics of state versus individual freedom, it suffers from a lack of story development. The result is that whilst its themes are potentially thought-provoking, it is leaden in its plot development. Hollywood would certainly know how to handle this -- at the expense of losing sight, in all probability, of the wider issues explored.

Nevertheless there is undoubtedly an ambitious school of animation working on features in Japan. With the right care for story and character development, whilst not losing sight of the larger issues being explored, there is the potential for an animation masterpiece. And that must be good news for all lovers of animation.

Thank you Rotterdam for bringing these films to a wider festival going audience and setting a fine example for other live-action festivals to follow.

Iain Harvey of The Illuminated Film Company is an independent, U.K.-based producer who produced the award-winning T.R.A.N.S.I.T, directed by Piet Kroon, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Stories, directed by Andrew Goff. He is currently developing an animated feature.