Mi
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Masayoshi Nakamura, Zak Engel
Genres: animation, experimental, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, mythic, surreal
A young boy walks through a series of doors that open onto visions of past and future — his father in a rainy forest, an underwater city, memories that may or may not have happened yet. A surreal animated tone poem on boyhood and imagination.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Animated shorts about fatherhood usually wallow in greeting-card sentiment. This one drowns the dad in an underwater city instead — much more my speed.
Doorway-as-portal animation drifting between memory, fantasy, and possible futures — Spirited-Away-logic in a Hertzfeldt body with Tarkovsky's patience. That stack alone earns my attention.
Doorway-as-portal structure leaping between memory, fantasy, and possible futures without explanation — that's Tarkovsky-grade trust in the audience. The boy-and-father-in-rainy-forest image alone earns it.
Reviews
Beautifully animated, vibrating with color, shape and possibility.