The 31st Busan International Film Festival announced a curated 13-film Japanese Animation Special program that spans a century of animation history. The lineup features formative classics, contemporary works, and one influential European film that shaped Japanese animators. Many titles have rarely screened in Korean theaters, and several will receive their Korean premieres at the festival.
The program’s classics section includes foundational works such as Yabushita Taiji’s 1958 feature “The White Snake Enchantress,” recognized as the first full-color Japanese animated film, and Yamamoto Eiichi’s 1973 experimental work “Belladonna of Sadness,” which later became a cult title following a 2016 restoration. The retrospective also features films by prominent directors including Tezuka Osamu’s “Phoenix 2772,” Oshii Mamoru’s visually distinctive “Angel’s Egg,” and Otomo Katsuhiro’s omnibus piece “Memories,” which last appeared at the festival three decades ago in a newly remastered 2025 version.
Rintaro, known for directing “Metropolis” and “Galaxy Express 999,” will attend the festival alongside four contemporary filmmakers—Kadowaki Kohei, Katanosaka Ryo, Natsume Shingo, and Shinomiya Yoshitoshi—representing the medium’s current generation. Four new feature and short films from these directors complete the lineup, with recent credits including works that have screened at major festivals such as Cannes and Berlin.
The program concludes with Paul Grimault’s “The King and the Mockingbird,” a European work completed in revised form that influenced subsequent Japanese animation, including Miyazaki Hayao’s directorial debut. Festival director Jung Hanseok characterized animation as one of the most dynamic forms in global cinema, serving as a bridge between East and West.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI