Toronto - Yet another night spent in Cumberland4 - I might as well live there…

“Japanese Spotlight”
Yakizakana no uta. A Country Doctor (Inaka Isha). Around.

You might already know that I’m a big fan of anime - but not your regular Naruto type of fare - I like Matrix-style mind-fucks as only the Japanese is capable of. Oh, and Kafka. So this series was such a treat that I almost cried as I walked out craving for more. Yamamura’s Inaka Isha had already won so many awards that it’s a no-brainer to recommend. The art style is immediately Kafka-friendly - spatiotemporally twisted yet emotionally familiar. What really stood out was the bulging and flexing of characters - tonnes of academic analytical essays can be written on it and not explain fully what it might represent. Just see it with your own mind’s eyes. Ryu Kato’s Around is another interesting lens into daily life as it is lived out everyday. The blue-hue really give city-living a bad reputation, though. And last but not least, check out Yakizakana no Uta - the Song of a Mackerel. The hilarity begins when a student buys a fish from the supermarket, hops on a mamachari and goes home to the prospect of a good meal. Only, the fish tries to talk its way out! As it sings out: “Can’t we just be friends?” and a delegate of the UN with a fish head, the entire theater errupted. I couldn’t find it on youtube… but I’m sure it can be obtained somehow…

“Sci-Fi: Out there”
Ascension. Rocket Science. Primitive Technology.

It was late, but plenty of people stayed on for more shorts… There was a lot of fanfare for Martians Go Home! and J03. These were good enough for a recommendation, if only that the British humour didn’t steal the thunder. Ascension is so quinessentially Brit that you would think they revived Benny Hill. Watch as a semi-organized religious cult around Sagittar (or something. Archers?) comes undone during the hours of its own predicted apocalypse. There’s naked homosexuals, wannabe virgins, and trains. For a drama and character development you’d want Primitive Technology. An underground movement aims to turn modern technology upside-down, basically Junkyard Wars. But there are only 3 of them… when they recruited someone new, the ring leader became annoyed as the new kid was a genius and invented a telescope that’s a time-machine. Look for friendships made and broken. It’s not Rocket Science… watch this one. That’s all I have to say!

“Midnight Mania: Creepy”
Violeta. The Dreamhouse.

Once you’ve seen the grand-daddies such as Shaun/Dawn of the Dead, you’ve seen them all. So I sat through the last two shorts quite bored and feeling a little cheapened out since the selection promised “creepy”, not “zombie”. What was definitely creepy was Violeta. Many in the audience - maybe just to keep themselves awake at 1AM - cringed and groaned as the little girl stuffed her dead mother’s mouth full of rancid fish innards. Yes. That is what’s politically correct in Violeta’s world. There are more disgusting (and if you’re me, awesome) moments that should be seen to believe. The stop animation reminds one of Tim Burton, only on steroids and experienced a horrific childhood. The shock value is enough to recommend, but the deeper results of WHY anyone would do this, can really creep one out. The Dreamhouse is a play on self-similarity, with dolls in a dollhouse having the potential of being a real person - perhaps even the puppeteer himself. After the last film, this would seemed like a small “creep”. But it is very much worth the effort of searching. If you insist on a gore-fest, I’ll put one in honorable mention: Psycho HillBilly Cabin Massacre. Insanely (or inanely) hilarious that it’s not to be missed.

MOMMY!! IT’S OVER!!