On August 24, 2010, the famous Japanese manga artist and director Imatoshi died at the age of 46 at the Musashino Red Cross Hospital in Japan due to a diagnosis of spleen cancer. (This article will introduce Imatoshi's creative style and recommend 4 of his works))
Limited by the relatively niche works, in China, perhaps compared to his predecessors Miyazaki Hayao, Takahata Hoson, Hosoda Shou, Imatoshi's popularity is lower, and he is not as famous as the later generation of Shinkai Makoto.
But Imatoshi is recognized as a master of the Japanese animation film industry, and Time magazine in the United States named him "one of the top ten deceased people of 2010", and in the eyes of Jun Buya, he is an eternal god.
Jin Min's film "Red Hot Chili Peppers" was screened at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival, known as one of the most difficult films to grab at this year's Shanghai Film Festival, and The House Jun did not hope to grab it, and sure enough, it was not grabbed, and the Internet was full of information about this movie, and even was speculated to 1200 yuan.
This also shows the weight of Imatoshi in the hearts of movie fans.
Imatoshi's influence on his peers is equally profound, and his editing technique has been paid tribute to countless times.
From "Spider-Man Parallel Universe", which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, to "Happiness Road", which won the Golden Horse Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and even the fire-action live-action film "Busan Trip", these film directors have said that Imatoshi has given them a profound influence.
Imatoshi also had an influence on animation directors in Chinese mainland, and the "Imatoshi Award" was set up in China to encourage independent animation in China.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his departure, it is necessary to introduce you to this master who has an important position in the history of animated cinema and the works he left behind.
Born in 1963 in Kushiro City, Hokkaido, Imatoshi is a surname and "Min" is a given name.
He was praised at birth for "looking like a character in a manga," and Imatoshi joked years later, "I had the potential to become a manga artist at that time." "
In his sophomore year of high school, Toshitoshi became obsessed with Gundam and aspired to become a director.
He began to borrow to live in his brother's house and began to go to the "Yoyogi Lectures." After listening to the lectures in the mekusa college entrance examination review class, he finally successfully defeated other candidates under the harsh admission conditions of 1/17 and became a student at Musashino Art University, and began his anime career from then on.
Childhood memory is the first portrayal of life for many people, and the life after growing up is more or less imprinted with traces of childhood, and it is expressed in works of art, which will unconsciously affect the style of the work.
Another film master, Hayao Miyazaki, grew up in a well-to-do family, and although his work ponders many serious issues, such as peace and war, the future of mankind, and the alienated capitalist system, Miyazaki's animation will present these problems with a soothing and warm story, and the background of the work is bright.
And Now Toshi's family is ordinary, childhood has been spent in the parents' constant moving, long-term running life, so that Imatoshi has become very good at "observing the color", the background of the work is dark.
In Imatoshi's works, it is not difficult to find that he has always faithfully presented his world with a pessimistic core.
In The view of Motoya Jun, Miyazaki's films are a must-see for children, and Imatoshi is a must-see for adults, and the key word is "brain burning", he likes to use dreams and the behavior of various supporting characters to connect the entire story, and the supporting characters around the protagonist together constitute his imaginary world.
Imatoshi was not a prolific director, leaving only 4 feature-length animated films: "Unma's House", "Millennium Actress", "Tokyo Godfather", and "Red Hot Chili Peppers".
These four are all divine works, and the following Subya jun has come to take everyone into the wonderful world of Imatoshi.
Unma's House (1997)
Perfect Blue
"The House of Unma" tells the story of an idol singer Who is forced to be at the mercy of the company in order to transform into a film and television actor.
In the Wei Ma Room, the most precious tank of tropical fish symbolizes Wei Ma's vision of a free life, and the death of the tropical fish also indicates the break between Wei Ma and the dream self. (Imatoshi himself raises tropical fish as a pet)
Until the end of the story, many viewers still can't tell the truth of this world. Whether or Yoko Takakura, whether or not, which of the stories in this series is true, which one is fake, or all of them are fake.
An animated film that is more than 20 years old, but now it seems to be extremely frightening.
"The House of the Unma" is the opening of the Toshi-style animated film.
Under the connotation of suspense and thriller, there are a large number of conversion shots, character switching and scene switching. The transition between different shots brings a completely different look and feel to the audience, and the change of mentality of the idol singer Wei Ma during several transformations is reflected through each shot conversion. Let the viewer have a feeling of watching the movie with a lot of excitement and thoughtfulness, which is the charm of director Imatoshi's lens.
Soon, the film's editing method was imitated by foreign filmmakers, such as Elonovsky in the United States.
Eronovsky's "Black Swan" and "Requiem for Dreams" directly took the character setting and storyboard design of "The House of the Unma".
In response to Elonovsky's homage, Imatoshi bluntly said, "Isn't this plagiarism?" Later, Elonovsky bought the copyright as compensation.
The cross-dimensional editing technique used in the popular Hollywood animation "Spider-Man Parallel Universe" in the previous two years is also from "The Unma's House".
The main creative team said: "The creative methods of Japanese animation producers led by Toshi Imamoto are still world-leading, and we are still on the way to catch up. The artistic realizations we rely on to refer to are still almost entirely from Japan. ”
Millennium Actress (2001)
Millennial Actress
"Millennium Actress" is also based on showbiz people as the protagonist ("actress" in Japanese means actress, AV actress is one of the categories, not all actresses refer to AV).
The film tells the story of actress Chiyoko Fujiwara who suddenly bid farewell to the screen when she became popular, and 30 years later, fans found her in seclusion and presented a mysterious key that Chiyoko accidentally lost, opening the door of memory...
In 2001, at the 5th Agency for Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival (Animation Division) organized by the Japanese government, for the first time, the award was awarded to two works at the same time, one was "Spirited Away" and the other was "Millennium Actress".
Compared with "Spirited Away" which has won many awards internationally and is more cosmopolitan, "Millennium Actress" tells a pure Japanese story, which is close to reality and beyond reality in the hearts of Imatoshi's generation of Japanese people. Officially in Japan, its height is comparable to the Oscars and Berlin Golden Bear Awards for Spirited Away.
Through this film, you can see how Imatoshi, who has always been working with women as the protagonists, can show the history of Japanese cinema in his memory through the most familiar character images and film language. (The protagonist is based on Hara Setsuko, who starred in Tokyo Story)
In the film, when Fujiwara Chiyoko meets the horse thief, she enters the real film memory, from the shogunate period to the Sengoku period, from the pre-war to the post-war, there are both ninja movies, science fiction movies, and special films.
This shows the influence of cinema on the Japanese people in the middle and late last century. (With the development of television and the Internet, the influence of Japanese films is far less than before.)
In last year's Taiwan Golden Horse Awards Best Animation "Happiness Road", the heroine showed the epitome of Taiwan's past few decades in various time and space transitions, and this editing method actually pays tribute to "Millennium Actress".
Tokyo Godfather (2003)
Tokyo Godfathers
"The Godfather of Tokyo" tells the story of three Tokyo scavengers, Miyuki, Ahana and Kane, who accidentally pick up an abandoned baby girl and search for their biological parents for the baby girl.
This is the work with the least "showmanship" and the most easy-to-understand story connotation in all of Imatoshi's works, but it has brought full emotions to countless people and has more thinking about ordinary life.
When Imatoshi's films make you so pessimistic about reality and so cold about human nature, there is a kind of warmth and faith in his films, which makes you feel very valuable.
This may be more evident in "The Godfather of Tokyo", when three street dwellers in Tokyo, Japan, find a weeping abandoned baby on Christmas Eve, and the homeless homeless man decides to help the equally homeless child find his parents, and in the process of searching, the three tramps also find their spiritual belonging.
Red Pepper (2006)
paprika
"Red Hot Chili Peppers" tells the story of scientists who develop instruments that can display dreams, and people begin to use technology to enter other people's dreams to help solve their problems, but people with ill intentions confuse the dream world, and even make it difficult to distinguish dreams from reality...
Red Hot Chili Peppers is Imatoshi's last full-length animation and the culmination of his previous work techniques, and was shortlisted for the Venice Golden Lion Award.
A detective story that shuttles between dreams and the real world, "Red Hot Chili Peppers" is perhaps the most brain-burning of Imatoshi's films.
This story is also mixed with human nature, society, economy, love, character redemption and self-redemption, but for Mr. Imatoshi, it is his dedication to film and the art of shooting that attracts Buya Jun.
This work can be said to represent the highest level of filming of Imatoshi Films, using dreams that people cannot touch and understand, using unique film editing techniques that intersect time and space to create a fantasy scene of mixing dreams and reality.
Director Nolan's "Inception", which has received perfect praise around the world, is considered to be a "tribute" to "Red Hot Chili Peppers" from the story setting to the camera editing.
Although there is a high degree of similarity in the setting and camera language, Nolan denied watching "Red Hot Chili Peppers", and Imatoshi wrote in his blog, "I can't understand that I must hide my psychology of being influenced by others, and it is nothing to be affected by imitating others, anyway, it is not too much and will not be scolded for plagiarism (laughs), saying that I can't relax my body and mind...."
In August 2010, Imatoshi left his last words: "I want to put down my pen and leave with a gratitude for all the good things in the world." ”
A few days later, the ending song "LOTUS-2", which depicts the lotus flowers blooming again after sleeping for a thousand years, became imatoshi's funeral song, and perhaps he chased after the "innocent self" like Fujiwara Chiyoko.
Buya Jun's last words: When everyone laments the charm of Imatoshi's films, there is always a big regret in their hearts, that is, Mr. Imatoshi has been away for a while, and now only a few works are left. Every time I look at the work, there is a kind of sadness, such a good work, unfortunately, we can no longer have this master.
At this point, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Imatoshi.