Some of the most beautiful earlyanime from Japan are the silhouette animations of Noburo Ofuji (大藤 信郎, 1900-61) and Wagoro Arai (荒井和五郎, 1907-95). Inspired by the films of Lotte Reiniger –whose pre-war films were shown extensively in Japan (Donald Richie, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film
, p.247) – and drawing on the Japanese traditions ofshadow plays and 19th century utsushi-e (写し絵 / magiclantern shows), Ofuji and Arai created some of the most beautiful silhouettefilms of the 20th century.
, p.247) – and drawing on the Japanese traditions ofshadow plays and 19th century utsushi-e (写し絵 / magiclantern shows), Ofuji and Arai created some of the most beautiful silhouettefilms of the 20th century.In his later years, Ofuji becameinterested in Buddhist and ocean themes. The animator KōjiYamamura citesthe themes of death, eros, and the human ego as examples (Shirarezaru Animation). Ofuji's artistic masterpiece Kujira(くじら/ Whale, 1952) isone such film. Like Kihachiro Kawamoto’spuppet films, which share Ofuji’s interest in Buddhist themes, Kujira featuresthe themes of female suffering, natural phenomena that allude to Buddhistthemes, and transformation.
Ofuji first made Kujira (鯨/Whale) in 1927 as a silent black and white film. Inspired by the possibilities of colour film,he remade the film in the early 1950s using not only shadow puppets (silhouettes)but also cutouts of transparent coloured cellophane (影絵とセロファン切り絵). The cutouts were assembled on a multi-planeanimation table. The backlighting of theanimation table used in combination with the transparent cellophane allowed Ofujito create highly complex layering of forms. It is a breathtaking experience to watch andhas beautifully rendered movement and transitions.
This 8 minute short opens with forebodingmusic that foreshadows the dark and mysterious events to unfold. The story begins with the creak of a mastbeing raised on an ancient sailing ship. Seagulls fly overhead as the ship navigates calm seas. Aboard the vessel, men clap and guffaw andwomen's voices ring with laughter as geisha entertain the men with music anddancing.
Ofuji dissolves between camera shotsof varying shot compositions which, combined with the ghostly layering oftransparent waves and clouds, give the film a dream-like quality. A storm descends upon the ship. The wooden ship creaks and groans as the seaviolently tosses it about. Agiant tail of a whale emerges from the ocean and the whale seems to befollowing the ship as if in anticipation of the ship’s demise. The ship’s crew struggle in vain to regaincontrol of their vessel, but with a series of loud cracks and women’s screams,the ship sinks into the murky waters.
When the sea calms, a number of survivorsfloat, their heads downcast, upon the wreckage. One of the men finds the body of a womanfloating in the water who appears to be dead. Suddenly, the mysterious female form begins to move, terrifying themen. As the woman cries out as shestretches herself into a standing position and one of the men immediatelyclutches her by the hair and drags her to him. The more the woman struggles to escape, the more desperate the menbecome, tearing the clothes from her body and fighting each other to be thefirst to claim her. The men’s fighting,as depicted by Ofuji’s shadow cutouts, begins to resemble a dance – their armsoutstretched and curved move up and down like an interpretive dance depictingthe waves of the ocean.
The tension rises, stoked on by thecrescendoing orchestra of the soundtrack, to a fever pitch. At which point the black tale of the whalerises and the woman screams out in terror. The whale, as in the ancient tale of Jonah, swallows the woman and hertormentors whole. This leads to the mostdazzling and abstract sequence in the film as the people float around theshadowy belly of the whale, desperately trying to escape. The men are so consumed by fear that theyhave forgotten their desire to rape the woman.
An exterior shot of the whale showshim to be contentedly bobbing up and down in the ocean. He blows water out of his blowhole and withit the woman and her three tormentors. Theyland on the whale’s back, but it doesn’t take the men long to recover fromtheir shock and resume their attack on the woman. The woman resists, screams in terror, and racesup and down the whale’s back in a bid to escape. Two of the men fall off the whale anddisappear and the one remaining man continues to chance the woman until hisevil plan is foiled by the whale who raises his tail and flings the man tocertain death in the sea. A femalenarrator concludes the story, telling us that since this incident the woman hasbeen spotted in the form of a mermaid.
Until this final narrative voice,the story has actually been told entirely through a combination of the visuals, the music of composer Setsuo Tsukahara (romanizedas Tukahara in 1952), and the sound effects. By sound effects, I mean not just creaks of the ship and the thunder butalso the gasps and laughter of the human characters. Thedialogue in Kujira is also more incidental than narrative in nature. Although the characters are clearly meant tolook like ancient Japanese people the story itself seems to be influenced by acombination of Asian and European influences. The mermaid, for example, resembles the mermaids and sirens of European mythologymore than she does the hideous ningyo of Japanese folklore. The idea of a whale swallowing people wholealso has very famous precedents in Western literature. Yet, as with the famous tales of Jonah andMoby Dick, the whale is intended to be symbolic not realistic. Ithink there are many possible readings that can be drawn from Kujira. For me, Ofuji is exploring the dark side ofhuman nature with the woman, who is the most virtuous character in the tale, being reborn in a new form at the end of the film.
Correcting historical facts about Kujira
In 1953, Ofuji’s Kujira (on theprogramme as “La Baleine”) was part of the official selection at the Cannes FilmFestival (under the name Noburo Ohfuji). Kujira is reputed to have received much praise from the Jury presidentJean Cocteau and festival attendee Pablo Picasso. Although it has been reported in many publications that the film won an award at this festival, the official Cannes website does not indicate this. Many people have claimed that Kujira won “Second Prize” at Cannes – but as Canneshas no such prize this seems odd. I haveyet to find a reliable contemporary Japanese or French source that confirms theevents that took place in Cannes that year – I may have to dive into the oldFrench film periodicals in the Frankfurt Museum archives again soon. I will update when I do.
It has also been often reported inerror that Kujira appeared at Cannes in 1952. The Japanese Movie Database and other onlineJapanese sources indicate that the film had its premiere in Japan in December1952 – much too late for it to screen at Cannes in the spring of 1952. The case for Kujira screening at Cannes in April1953 is backed up not only by the festival’s official website, but also by thefact that Jean Cocteau was the president of the jury in 1953. This would give more credence to the oft-mentioned anecdote about Cocteau praising the film. The suggestion thatPicasso saw the film at Cannes is also likely true, as Picasso had a studio in thenearby commune of Vallarius – as seen in this famous photograph of BrigitteBardot visiting Picasso in his studio during Cannes 1956.
A good transfer of Kujira isavailable on the Kinokuniya DVD Ōfuji Noburō: Kūkō no Tensai. Ofuji's original films are held in the archives of the NationalFilm Center.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011
