Every Thursday, Chris Robinson takes a look at films from animation’s past. This week he screens an informal trilogy by Koji Yamamura.
Koji Yamamura’s informal Karo and Pyrobupt trilogy (A House, Imagination, Sandwiches, 1992 ) celebrates the magnificence of the mundane, the beauty of the moment. There is no past or future in their world. In a fever of scattered senses, Karo and Pyrobupt embrace, breathe, smile and cry the moment. It’s in these small moments that we find the essence of our lives. To live in the moment is to savour each morsel. No matter how seemingly insignificant, the crumbs make the person.
In this world, life is sacred. Every ounce is consumed and enjoyed. Life is pleasure. Pleasure comes from those individual moments. Karo and Pyrobupt are the anti-Vladimir and Estragon. They await no one. They embrace the moment. In A House, they build a house together before winter approaches. In Imagination, they use their imagination to forget about a rainy day. Friendship. Collaboration. Communication. Imagination. Satisfaction. That’s it. That’s all. Life shared. Life loved.
In the world of the child, the mundane is as significant as the spiritual. Children see the greatness in little things. They don’t worry about the end or the deed, existing only for the process. The completing not the completion.
Yamamura unearths the forgotten spaces, the cracks, gaps, and out-of-frame moments that embody the essence of adult and child. The unframed memories breathed as the irrevocable instant of a child.
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.
