Voyant Cinémathèque

When we try to change the miscellaneous world that surrounds us into a truly simple form, what will we find? Working in mass media, Mukahira constantly sets various experimental challenges towards the film medium. This super 8 piece is one of his earlier works. Wrapping the living consciousness with gloves and tracing the things around us as triangular, lozenge, circular figures, the world turns out to be a very unexpected collection of inorganic symbols. If such is the case, would the person who is the so-called "symbol" of this country be coded indifferently as well?

The ecosystem series which started in 1981 counts 15 and is still growing, becoming Koike's lifework. Through the series, Koike has shot a huge amount – thousands – of still photos of objective motifs, from ocean creatures, microbes, and granite to artificial material such as fishing nets. Those photos are developed with a specialized method then reshot with movie film. The style has been thoroughly continued. The images that are created as a result tower before our eyes as an overwhelming visual experience. Each motif has been repeatedly decomposed and reconstructed of its "attribution" and "meaning", causing a shocking Gestalt breakdown for the audience.

A masterpiece of the creator who has continually been expressing the minimal world overflowing with solitude by fixing the gaze on a subject. The camera does not take its focus off the underpass ground. In the beginning of the piece, Ohtani films the floor as he walks, and the paving looks like any ordinary paving. When he stops and repeatedly zooms focus on the floor, the pale floor reflected by fluorescent light starts to transfigure into some cosmic form; a field of clouds or an ocean surface. Eventually, when the humming of the film particles vibrate the light on the floor like a mysterious organism, we encounter the power of minimal gaze that can only be expressed with 8mm film.

Roofs of tin and tile, passing by trains and cars, walls of modern buildings – surfaces of solid objects and those of soft, such as water – sunlight evenly shines on both those surfaces. These lights change into various expressions with the characteristics of the objects they reflect on. By controlling light, Hirata exaggerates the reflecting rays. This act purifies the light itself and is solely an attempt to abstract the world of vision that is formed by the reflecting of radiant energy. The power of the beam is relative to that of the filmmaker's gaze. The rays eventually gather, become a mass, and repeat intense expansion and contraction. At this moment, Hirata, using light as the medium, is facing this world with complete precision.

If "light" is the protagonist of film, the idea would not change if "darkness" replaces "light". Yoshimoto proves this point with most simplicity. Placing a tiny point of ray in pitch black, his darkness achieves a limitless depth. This style goes under trial from around 1988 – a squirming object in drowning darkness goes through a transition from a solid machinery part to a soft Japanese architectural fixture to a misty female figure. Each of the objects, a subject of fancy, is placed in good balance, mingling with Rei Harakami's sound effects. This is one of Yoshimoto's most intense works.

Mainly working with simple, soft-lined drawing animation, Yamamoto aggressively takes in live action images from the late 1980s. Though this piece starts out with live action filming, the eventual appearance of the "phenakistoscope" animation composed with live action images is a true gem. Yamamoto always has been acknowledged for her skill in blowing in "anima – spirit" and boldly tries out a new experiment of blending it in with the live action image. What is awesome is that the huge phenakistoscope that appears in the live action shooting with no composites has power to nullify virtual distance and existence within what is called the image. There, a "composite-like reality" emerges.

This is the first piece shot in Tokyo when Aoi moved from his hometown Kyoto where he had never before left. Responding to the tiniest light, a total stranger in an lien town, Aoi's vision and camera keep on wandering through downtown alleys. By controlling time, he discovers a new way of existence in "light", and his brisk solitude can be felt all over the screen. Aoi's true masterpiece – turning a perfectly ordinary daily scene into a completely extrinsic object, this unique tone and texture have received high praise in and out of Japan.

Akemi Edo, the leading vocal of the legendary 80s rock band ,"Jagarta", dies a sudden death in 1990. This piece is triggered by the shocking news of his death. Though launched with such reason, other than Akemi Edo's still photo shot in the opening of the film, there is no sign of directly grieving the singer's death. What evolves is Yanase's impoverished poetry overlapping a view of a town cut into tiny pieces. "The eyes were married", "My life is long", "From here to there. Here here here here...". The repeated typing of words that seem to be squeezed out of the unconscious shows a strange unity with Akemi Edo's live concerts – conveying funky loneliness – and intrigues the souls of the viewers.

Light reflecting on a dark water surface, a drop of light with blurred outline, the sea at night, illumination in the distance, a close-up of a lying female – these are basically all the objects that appear in this piece. Nevertheless, the scale of the story this simple composition weaves out is awesome. The first piece made after moving into Tokyo, this work sieves out Nishimura's negative feelings such as anxiety and solitude and the scent of death from the dark water face. So who is this lying woman, her blank gaze that at some moments gleam with light? The mystery deepens and interpretations expand. Nishimura's true masterpiece, aiming to make "film that the audience can conceive without strain".

Originally working with super 8 animation pieces, Noshioka switches on to video-making from 1991. From time control with frame shooting to gaze fix with live action filming, her technology and texture change greatly. This first work in video indeed straightforwardly defines the relationship between "living space" and "physicality". Through repetition of thundering and quietude, the power of Nishioka's pure solitude and intense observation turn and reshape the warmhearted town of Osaka into something hard and inorganic. The adherence to a suddenly rising unrealistic and gigantic vapor pillar, the ever-turning ventilation fan and the ever-watching eye – All of these are ways to love Osaka permissible only to this filmmaker.

The piece is dedicated to Fukuoka filmmaker Yoshio Fukuma, who was a very good friend of Sakurai's. Making good use of bulb shooting – extended exposure – which was Fukuma's specialty, responding to the light and shadow of water and fire, the moon and the sun, Sakurai traces the historic spots of Kyoto, his living ground. Contradicting with the glorious music, the view is a total lamentation and can be taken as a requiem toward the sudden loss of Yoshio Fukuma. With no after-treatments, this non-edited shooting creates a complete harmony of distinguished camerawork and solid lyricism, offering full satisfaction for Sakurai's original and extraordinary talent.