Each week members of the CAMERA JAPAN team pick their favourite Japanese films to watch at home on streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, MUBI and YouTube.
Nancy FORNOVILLE (Financial Director) picks Mt. Head (YAMAMURA Koji, 2002)
Mt. Head is a hand drawn animated short that tells the story of a stingy man who eats the pits of his cherries instead of throwing them away. As a result a cherry tree starts to grow on his head and, not able to get rid of it, this drives him to take extreme measures. It is an adaptation of the traditional Japanese Rakugo story “Atama-yama”, transposed to contemporary Tokyo. YAMAMURA Koji is an interesting filmmaker who uses different, very personal, styles for his films that are characterized by his, often slightly absurd, sense of humor. Mt. Head was a milestone in his career. It won many awards, such as the 2003 ANNECY Cristal, and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short.
Click here to stream Mt. Head for free on Youtube
Jelle SCHOT (Head of Marketing/programmer) picks One Cut of the Dead (UEDA Shinichiro, 2017)
This incredibly ambitious and daring film, that starts as a cheesy B-horror-zombie-movie shot in one epic take, won the audience award at our festival in 2018. Oh, and it also topped the audience rankings at Imagine, Udine Far East Festival, Fantastic Fest etc. etc.. It also has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And it made box office history in Japan by earning over a thousand times its budget. Simply put: One Cut of the Dead is a modern masterpiece and is not to be missed!
Click here to stream One Cut of the Dead on MUBI