Kawauso
2023 · 15m · Japan
Directed by Akihito Izuhara
Genres: animation, documentary, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
A girl walks through tall grass as a Japanese river otter—a species declared extinct in 2012—catches up and joins her. The two try in vain to communicate while humanity's consumer junk slowly rains from the sky, threatening to bury everything beneath it.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Single right-to-left tracking shot in black-and-white pencil animation, girl walking with the extinct Japanese river otter as consumer junk rains from the sky — that's a thesis-level formal commitment for an elegy. Fifteen and a half minutes. Yes.
Black-and-white pencil animation tracking right-to-left to honor an extinct Japanese river otter, with consumer junk raining from the sky — that direction-reversal as elegiac syntax is the precise formal choice the subject demands. Fifteen minutes; mournful and exact.
15:26 detailed black-and-white pencil animation as a single meditative right-to-left tracking shot — reversing convention to create elegiac farewell to the Japanese river otter (declared extinct 2012). Akihito Izuhara on Labocine; the reversed-track formal choice is the entire film's mournful argument.
Reviews
Izuhara has realized a fantastically drawn short film that conveys its serious message in detail-rich and easily accessible images that stick in the memory.
How lively the black and white animations are becomes evident when the two main characters look wordlessly into the camera. Japanese folklore, mysterious events and environmental messages flow together beautifully.
Festivals
- Berlin International Film Festival 2024
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2024
- Krakow Film Festival 2024
- SPARK Animation Festival 2024
- Vilnius International Short Film Festival 2024
- SEMINCI - Valladolid International Film Festival 2024