Iwa ni Hana

'Franz Kafka Ein Landarzt (カフカ 田舎医者)' by Yamamura Kouji (山村浩二)

Click here to see gallery of screencaptures

[Spoilers ahead]

So this animation adaptation turns out to be quite faithful to Franz Kafka's original story. You can find the plot summary on Wikipedia here, and the text of the story here.

1) I made a conscious effort to block out any spoiler of this animation ever since I learned of it last year. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I heard the Noh-theatre-like recital of the lines throughout this animation. In fact, I have to say I was much more drawn to the voice-acting aspect than the visual aspect of this animation. I was extremely curious as to who the voice actors could be, and the cast credits at the end finally dispelled this mystery - quite a number are members of the Shigeyama family, the Kyogen masters! The man who plays the country doctor is none other than Shigeyama Sensaku (茂山千作), a human national treasure of Japan. That explains why the voice-acting is heavenly.

(Interestingly, Director Yamamura Koji also casts himself as one of the characters.)

[Newsflash] 'Franz Kafka Ein Landarzt (カフカ 田舎医者)' by Yamamura Kouji (山村浩二)

So it's in the news that Director Yamamura Kouji is working on a project called Franz Kafka Ein Landarzt. Since his official website is bilingual, for once I actually do not have to do much by way of explanation and translation:

ttp://www.yamamura-animation.jp

And Shochiku's official website thereof, though not yet open, looks to be a bilingual one as well:

ttp://www.shochiku.co.jp/inakaisha/

As with the director's previous arthouse fare, I would expect this project to be a creative exercise in absurdism.

(Incidentally, this is the only work of Japanese animation other than Genius Party which actually has a bilingual website in my memory... which only goes to show how different the tastes of overseas fans can be...)