Muybridge's Strings

Drama

The story takes place before WWII at a photo studio on top of a hill. Many people visit this studio to have their photos taken. One day, a couple comes, but the wife is so shy that she always lowers her head. The owner of the studio tries all kinds of tricks to get her to smile and eventually succeeds. One year later, the couple comes again, but this time they bring their daughter along. She always looks grumpy, and again, the owner has to try everything to get her to smile. Thus starts a long-running relationship between the girl and the owner, and time passes to years and then decades...

Drama / Psychological

A hapless country doctor describes with breathless urgency a night-time summons to attend a young patient. Events soon take on a surreal aspect as "unearthly horses" transport him instantaneously to the bedside. The doctor, preoccupied with personal distractions and grievances against those he is employed to care for, fails to find what is revealed to be a vile, fatal wound. He is humiliated by the villagers, who are "always expecting the impossible from the doctor," and doomed to an endless return trip, losing everything. (Source: Anime News Network)

Drama

An experimental animation and documentary about the life of a boy who wants to become a manga artist.

Adventure / Fantasy

North is everywhere solitary. Here is all North. This is a record of the people I met in these Norths. However, my memory is fragmented and does not get the point at all. Now I'm starting to wonder my efforts came to nothing. I'm just getting the occasional recognition of the existence of the world through the dull pain changes shape little by little. "The basis for the animated film “Dozens of Norths” is the series of cover illustrations and short texts that I made across 32 issues of the monthly literary magazine “Bungaku-Kai” (Published by Bungeishunju) from April 2012 to December 2014. In this work, by fantasizing about a fictional movie, I thought of each independent cover as a scene of one larger story and wrote a text for each illustration I made." - Yamamura Kouji A joint production between 'Yamamura Animation' based in Japan, and 'Miyu Productions' based in France. The film had it's world premier at the '8th New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival' on 6 November 2021.

Drama

A very old crocodile, so old that he had witnessed the building of the pyramids, was suffering from rheumatism, and no longer able to catch his food. In desperation, he decided to eat his great grand son. Although his thousands of years of longevity entitled him to much respect, the family decided he would have to be put down. Unable to bear the disrespect of his family, the old crocodile said goodbye to the Nile. One day the old crocodile met an octopus. The octopus treated her new friend to a variety of fish that she caught just for him. When the night fell, he couldn’t restrain himself from eating one of the octopus’s legs. Since then, the old crocodile began to help himself to the octopus’ leg every night… (Source: AniDB)

Fuyu no Hin is a 2003 animated film directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto. It is based upon the renga of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Basho. The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material—the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names of animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn's, though, is nearly two minutes long). The released film consists of the 40-minute animation, followed by an hour-long "Making of" documentary, including interviews with the animators. Fuyu no Hi won the Grand Prize of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2003. (Source: Wikipedia)

Comedy / Music

When you’re a bored teenager looking for thrills, sometimes the only thing you can turn to is rock ‘n roll. Having no skill, money, or even a full set of drums, a feared trio of high school delinquents nevertheless decide they are destined for musical glory in a quest to impress their only friend Aya, avoid a rival gang, and – most importantly – jam out. Animated almost entirely by director Kenji Iwaisawa, and featuring a lead performance by Japanese alt-rock legend Shintaro Sakamoto, ON-GAKU: OUR SOUND brings its own sound and vision to the Hiroyuki Oohashi manga from which it was adapted. With pitch-perfect deadpan humor, the film presents a highly original take on the beloved slacker comedy: a lo-fi buddy film with a blaring musical finale that will leave you wanting an immediate encore. (Source: GKIDS)