Directing
An animated film based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese 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 animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names in 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).
Seiji is tormented by horrible tsunami-flashback dreams, but one night he wakes up and his beloved grandfather has appeared. With a strum of his grandfather's guitar, Seiji is transported to a colorful, slightly strange, psychedelic world and finally manages to have a good dream.
This experimental work was boldly created minus one of UrumaDelvi’s trademarks – vivid coloring. By limiting the color, the deformation (metamorphose) in which line and surface are irrelevant becomes free, resulting in a great work that can be described as a “moving graphic design.”
