Iwa ni Hana

'The Apple Incident' and 'Fantasy': from the director of 'The Diary of Tortove Roddle'

Do you remember that little gem The Diary of Tortov Roddle? Apparently, two fantastic animation shorts by the director Kato Kunio (加藤久仁生) are included in the DVD:

The Apple Incident

You may check it out here at Stage6. While I do not purport to understand the idea behind this surreal animation short, my educated guess is that it speaks of how the abnormal gradually becomes normal. The short begins with apples of various sizes falling from the sky and rolling out from nowhere etc. People are amazed. Then they consume the apples. Before long, apples grow on their heads. The apples have become part of their system, so to speak.

Fantasy

A charming little short. I have no word to describe it, except that this is what animation would look like if animation were poetry. You can check it out here on Stage6.

'The Diary of Tortov Roddle (或る旅人の日記)'

Gallery of screen captures

Watching this 16-minute animation reminded me of two things:

• The art of Raymond Peynet. I used to buy a lot of my Raymond Peynet stationery at the Japanese 100 yen store Daiso (they are mass-produced from his more expensive lithographic works).

• A children's storybook about an uncles's travels I once saw at a Japanese bookstore. Unfortunately I just can't remember the storybook's title, but the art style looks strikingly similar.

I tried to resist dissecting too much into the symbolism and simply enjoyed this short animated film for what it is. As readers of this blog know, usually things like a fish jumping out of a cup of coffee to devour a butterfly flying by are a fair game to me. But there are times when a story just defied analysis and should simply be enjoyed as a magical experience.

The only thing I will say is that the last story arc where the protagonist Tortov Roddle falls in love with the flower lady is simply quintessential. The passage of time is signalled by the blossoming and withering of flowers, and when the love is no more, he puts away the (now dried-up) flower she gave him into his diary, which the title explicitly refers to and which we see only for the first time after 16 minutes. I think this is the thing he has been searching for to fill his diary with. The irony is that by the time the experience of love (fresh flower) is crystalized into a more or less durable form (dried flower) for the record, the romance is no more.

Another thing I will say is that the translation of the Japanese title 或る旅人の日記 or 'The Diary of a Certain Traveler' as The Diary of Tortov Roddle in English seems to reinforce the different aesthetics of the East and West. The West traditionally favours long and specific names for paintings. Here is a random example: Schwur des Heeres auf den Kaiser nach der Verteilung der Adler auf dem Marsfeld in Paris am 5. Dezember 1801 - you know the 'who', 'what', 'when', 'where' and perhaps the 'why' just by reading the title of the painting. The East traditionally favours short and vague titles for paintings that do not give away the 5W's. The Japanese title  The Diary of a Certain Traveler makes it clear that the name of the protagonist is not as important as what he does with his life, whereas the English title The Diary of Tortov Roddle seems to suggest that what he does with his life is not as important as who he is by name. A very interesting point indeed.