New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival selection

Autumn from Antonio Vivaldi “The Four Seasons”

Japan | 2017 | 11m10s | advPG | Wada Atsushi

This inspired animation portrays the activities of the Autumn season from the various perspectives of humans and animals, hunters and the hunted, dreams and reality. Set to the Autumn Movement from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”.

In the Big Yard Inside the Teeny-Weeny Pocket

When it shrinks, it expands. It floats and it sinks. It separates but connects. When I think I’m watching them, they’re actually watching me. A charming animation rhyme that weaves together the many days of observing, recording, and experimenting.

A Bite of Bone

A little girl reflects on her last summer with her father at his funeral. Set on a small island in Japan where the director was born and raised, the film explores the relationship between the death of her father and the bomb storage in the mountain behind the family house.

Estrange

On the eve of her wedding, Miyo’s best friend, whom she had invited to the party, cuts her off. Realising that friendships have a shelf life, Miyo thinks back to the days when they were young and joyful.

HIDARI

Japan | 2023 | 5m32s | adv12/15| Kawamura Masashi, Ogawa Iku | Japanese with English Subtitles

Stories of legendary craftsman Jingoro Hidari, during the Edo-era, inspired sculptures that can be found today throughout Japan, but his very existence is yet to be confirmed. Having lost his foster parent and right arm to the betrayal of his senior apprentices, Jingoro is out for revenge with a prosthetic arm and his sidekick, “Sleeping Cat.” People soon came to call him Jingoro “Hidari” because of his ability to artfully use his carpentry tools with only his left arm (“hidari” means “left” in Japanese). Finally, Jingoro faces his adversary “Inumaru” and the curtains rise on a fight to the death.