2020 Short Film Challenge - The Short Films of Japan

This will be one of my shorter weeks. I hope the Emperor can forgive me for my small celebration for his birthday (23 Feb).

Let's start as usual:

Films Already Seen:

152 (2006)
Cat Soup (2001, animated)
Chiruri (2012, animated)
Fastening Day (2014, animated)
Fastening Day 2 (2016, animated)
Geharha, The Long and Dark-Haired Monster (2009)
Geshu the Cellist (1982, animated)
Jumping (1984, animated)
Le Maison en Petits Cubes (2008, animated)
Man and Whale (2007, animated)
Mei and the Kittenbus (2002, animated)
Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess (2010, animated)
Monmon the Water Spider (2006, animated)
MRA: Monster Removal Agency (2007)
Negadon: The Monster from Mars (2005, animated)
On Your Mark (1995, animated)
Paulette's Chair (2014, animated)
Pikachu's Vacation (1998, animated)
Pikachu's Rescue Adventure (1999, animated)
Playground (2014, animated)
Skinny and Fatty (1958)

So, what happened?

I have to admit, I tried not to view Animation this time. Yes, I love Animated Films, especially those of Japan. But I felt that it would be interesting to try to see live action this time. Great idea....until you try to link them with IMDb to verify that they are short films. I had plenty of possible views, but had nothing to show that they were listed on IMDb.

As a result, I only have four films to show for a four day week at work. All are live action.

Automation (2017)

A lonely man orders a mail-order robot to fill the void in his life. It doesn't take long before the man finds his new companion equally unfulfilling. (No, not a remake of Cherry 2000).

Yoko of the Dead (2012)

A rather dull look at a sword-wielding protector of the forest. Not as good as many of the zombie features that Japan produces.

Electric Town (2014)

Returning to the loneliness theme, an old man misses his dog about the time robotic dogs are being marketed. Unable to pay 500,000 yen for the real thing, he buys a 5000 yen knock-off. The situation becomes far more than interesting.

And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool (2016)

A quartet of girlfriends look at the plainness and pointlessness of their life, seemingly trapped in the town of Sayama.


So there you have it. It really took some doing just to find these. Hopefully, I won't go through this during weeks of other foreign language shorts.

Thanks to YouTube and IMDb, along with Viddsee.com, which is another great source of short films.

Next week...

Celebrating the birthday of the King of Cartoons, Fred Bean "Tex" Avery (born 26 February 1908)

Number of films viewed:  4
Total films viewed:  113