Winter Days
Encyclopedia
is a 2003
animated film
, directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto
. It is based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japan
ese poet
Bashō
.
The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animator
s. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names of animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn
's, though, is nearly two minutes long).
The released film consists of the 40-minute animation, followed by an hour-long 'Making of' documentary
, including interviews with the animators. Winter Days won the Grand Prize of the Japan Media Arts Festival
in 2003.
) as the special guest (kyaku). Chikusai is running around listening to trees, and meets Bashō. He's awed, but is amused to see that Bashō is picking bugs out of a cloak that is as torn as his own. He gives Bashō his own hat in exchange for Bashō's (which has a gaping hole at the top) and goes away. Suddenly, the wind picks up and blows the torn hat away. Chikusai chases after it and manages to catch it, but then with a shrug lets it go and allows it to fly off wherever the wind will take it. Meanwhile, Bashō is moving slowly and laboriously against the wind, with a hand on his new hat to keep it from flying away.
Speaking at the November 30, 2007 Russian theatrical premiere of Winter Days, Norshteyn said that he had made a longer, 3-minute version of this segment, but had not yet added sound to it.
Kawamoto animated the second (waki) and final (ageku) stanzas as the organiser (shōshō).
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
animated film
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto
Kihachiro Kawamoto
was a Japanese puppet designer and maker, independent film director, screenwriter and animator and president of the Japan Animation Association from 1989, succeeding founder Osamu Tezuka, until his own death...
. It is based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
Bashō
Matsuo Basho
, born , then , was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku...
.
The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
s. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names of animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn
Yuriy Norshteyn
Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn , or Yuri Norstein is an award-winning Soviet and Russian animator best known for his animated shorts, Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales...
's, though, is nearly two minutes long).
The released film consists of the 40-minute animation, followed by an hour-long 'Making of' documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, including interviews with the animators. Winter Days won the Grand Prize of the Japan Media Arts Festival
Japan Media Arts Festival
The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs since 1997. The festival for a nominal year was usually held during February or March next year, rather than at the end of the nominal year. For instance, the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival, where...
in 2003.
Animated segments
Norshteyn animated the opening stanza (hokkuHokku
is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, renga, or of its later derivative, renku . From the time of Matsuo Bashō , the hokku began to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in haibun , and haiga...
) as the special guest (kyaku). Chikusai is running around listening to trees, and meets Bashō. He's awed, but is amused to see that Bashō is picking bugs out of a cloak that is as torn as his own. He gives Bashō his own hat in exchange for Bashō's (which has a gaping hole at the top) and goes away. Suddenly, the wind picks up and blows the torn hat away. Chikusai chases after it and manages to catch it, but then with a shrug lets it go and allows it to fly off wherever the wind will take it. Meanwhile, Bashō is moving slowly and laboriously against the wind, with a hand on his new hat to keep it from flying away.
Speaking at the November 30, 2007 Russian theatrical premiere of Winter Days, Norshteyn said that he had made a longer, 3-minute version of this segment, but had not yet added sound to it.
Kawamoto animated the second (waki) and final (ageku) stanzas as the organiser (shōshō).
| # | Poet | Animator | Length (seconds) | Type | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheet 1 Side 1 - jo (introduction) | |||||
| 1 | Bashō | Yuriy Norshteyn Yuriy Norshteyn Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn , or Yuri Norstein is an award-winning Soviet and Russian animator best known for his animated shorts, Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales... |
110 | cut-out Cutout animation Cutout animation is a technique for producing animations using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or even photographs... |
Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... |
| 2 | Yasui | Kihachirō Kawamoto Kihachiro Kawamoto was a Japanese puppet designer and maker, independent film director, screenwriter and animator and president of the Japan Animation Association from 1989, succeeding founder Osamu Tezuka, until his own death... |
52 | puppet | Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
| 3 | Kakei | Fumio Oi | 44 | CGI Computer animation Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images.... |
Japan |
| 4 | Jūgo | Tatsutoshi Nomura | 48 | cel Traditional animation Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand... |
Japan |
| 5 | Tokoku | Shinichi Suzuki | 51 | cel | Japan |
| 6 | Shōhei | Haru Fukushima | 47 | vector animation | Japan |
| Sheet 1 Side 2 - ha (intensification) | |||||
| 7 | Yasui | Tatsuya Ishida | Japan | ||
| 8 | Bashō | Raoul Servais Raoul Servais Raoul Servais is a Belgian filmmaker. He was born in Ostend.-Filmography:* 1963: The False Note* 1966: Chromophobia* 1968: Sirene* 1969: Goldframe* 1970: To speak or not to speak* 1971: Operation X-70... |
Belgium Belgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... |
||
| 9 | Jūgo | Noriko Morita | Japan | ||
| 10 | Kakei | Tatsuo Shimamura | Japan | ||
| 11 | Bashō | Yōichi Kotabe Yoichi Kotabe , is a Japanese manga artist and animator who has worked with Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. He is a lecturer at Tokyo Designer Academy in their cartoon film course.... & Reiko Okuyama Reiko Okuyama , née , was a Japanese animator, notable for being one of the first female Japanese animators. She has also been credited as and .-Biography:Okuyama spent much of her early life confined to bed due to a series of illnesses. She developed her interest in drawing during this time... |
Japan | ||
| 12 | Tokoku | Aleksandr Petrov | paint-on-glass Paint-on-glass animation Paint-on-glass animation is a technique for making animated films by manipulating slow-drying oil paints on sheets of glass. Gouache mixed with glycerine is sometimes used instead... |
Russia | |
| 13 | Kakei | Maya Yonesho | Japan | ||
| 14 | Yasui | Yoji Kuri | Japan | ||
| 15 | Tokoku | Uruma Delvi Uruma Delvi are a Japanese husband and wife duo who recorded the song Oshiri Kajiri Mushi, or "bottom-biting bug." The song was intended to encourage people who live in big cities to spontaneously interact with each other.... |
Japan | ||
| 16 | Jūgo | Seiichi Hayashi | Japan | ||
| 17 | Yasui | Azuru Isshiki | Japan | ||
| 18 | Bashō | Břetislav Pojar Bretislav Pojar Břetislav Pojar is a puppeteer, animator and director of short and feature films.Born in Sušice, Czechoslovakia, Pojar started his career in the late 1940s with his work on The Story of the Bass Cello based on the story by Anton Chekhov and directed by master Czech puppet animator Jiří Trnka... |
Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... Czech Republic Czech Republic The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest.... |
||
| Sheet 2 Side 1 - ha (intensification) | |||||
| 19 | Jūgo | Katsushi Boda Katsushi Boda Katsushi Boda is a Japanese stop motion animator. He is most famous for creating the character Robot Palta.While much of his work is for advertisements, he has made several works of independent animation, including Pulsar , Form of Stress and Kiadoryoku REAL... |
Japan | ||
| 20 | Kakei | Masahiro Katayama | Japan | ||
| 21 | Bashō | Mark Baker Mark Baker (animator) Mark Baker is an English animator whose films include The Hill Farm. In 2003 he participated in the collaborative project Winter Days.... |
UK United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
||
| 22 | Tokoku | Yuichi Ito | Japan | ||
| 23 | Kakei | Keita Kurosaka | Japan | ||
| 24 | Yasui | Reiko Yokosuka | Japan | ||
| 25 | Tokoku | Yuko Asano Yūko Asano is a Japanese actress and singer. She won the award for best actress at the 19th Japan Academy Prize for Kura.-References:... |
Japan | ||
| 26 | Jūgo | IKIF | Japan | ||
| 27 | Yasui | Bairong Wang | |||
| 28 | Bashō | Isao Takahata Isao Takahata is a Japanese anime filmmaker that have earned critical international acclaim for his work as a director. Takahata is co-founder of Studio Ghibli with long-time collaborative partner Hayao Miyazaki. He has directed films such as the war-themed Grave of the Fireflies, the romantic-drama Only... |
Japan | ||
| 29 | Jūgo | Nori Hikone | Japan | ||
| 30 | Kakei | Masaaki Mori | Japan | ||
| Sheet 2 Side 2 - kyū (rapid finale) | |||||
| 31 | Bashō | Taku Furukawa | Japan | ||
| 32 | Tokoku | Co Hoedeman Co Hoedeman Jacobus Willem Hoedeman is a Dutch-Canadian filmmaker known for his mastery of stop motion animation and technical innovation in films that reveal his close observation of human and social interaction.-Biography:... |
Canada Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
||
| 33 | Kakei | Jacques Drouin Jacques Drouin Jacques Drouin is a Canadian animator and director most known for his pinscreen animations.-Biography:Jacques Drouin was born in Mont-Joli, Quebec province, Canada. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal for several years before leaving to study filmmaking at the UCLA in California.He... |
pinscreen Pinscreen animation Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows... |
Canada | |
| 34 | Yasui | Fusako Yusaki | Japan | ||
| 35 | Tokoku | Kōji Yamamura Koji Yamamura is a Japanese independent animator who, since leaving a career as a background artist at an animation studio, currently directs, writes, edits, animates, creates the model sheets and background art for and sometimes produces his own short films and has worked on many commissions such as music... |
40 | Japan | |
| 36 | Jūgo | Kihachirō Kawamoto | puppet | Japan |
DVD releases
The film is currently available in four DVD versions, none of which has English dubbing or subtitles.- Regular Japanese release, November 22, 2003 (R2DVD region codeDVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
, NTSCNTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
). Contains original film (40+65 min), no subtitles. - "Complete Box" Japanese release, November 22, 2003 (R2DVD region codeDVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
, NTSCNTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
). Contains film + eight additional DVDs with making-of featurettes (total: 945 mins). No subtitles. - Korean "RABA Animation" release, February 7, 2006 (R3DVD region codeDVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
, NTSCNTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
). Contains Korean subtitles; otherwise, identical to "regular" Japanese release in all but the region encoding and price. - French release, June 20, 2008 (R2DVD region codeDVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
, PALPALPAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
). Original animation with French audio, and 'making-of' with French sub-titles.
See also
- List of films based on poems
- List of animated feature films
- List of stop-motion films
- Renku
- Matsuo BashōMatsuo Basho, born , then , was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku...