Miss Hokusai
Gorgeous! A small poetic wonder! That an anime film can explore such complex subjects so beautifully...is a blessing in itself.
-- Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter
Miss Hokusai
From award-winning director Keiichi Hara (Colorful) and Japanese powerhouse Production I.G (creators of Ghost in the Shell) comes a remarkable story of the daughter behind one of history’s most famous artists.
As all of Edo flocks to see the work of the revered painter Hokusai, his daughter O-Ei toils diligently inside his studio. Her masterful portraits, dragons and erotic sketches – sold under the name of her father – are coveted by upper crust lords and journeyman print makers alike. Shy and reserved in public, in the studio O-Ei is as brash and uninhibited as her father, smoking a pipe while sketching drawings that would make contemporary Japanese ladies blush. But despite this fiercely independent spirit, O-Ei struggles under the domineering influence of her father and is ridiculed for lacking the life experience that she is attempting to portray in her art. Miss Hokusai‘s bustling Edo (present day Tokyo) is filled with yokai spirits, dragons, and conniving tradesmen, while O-Ei’s relationships with her demanding father and blind younger sister provide a powerful emotional underpinning to this sumptuously animated coming-of-age tale.
“SHINES AS AN EXAMPLE OF ONE CREATIVE SOUL PAYING TRIBUTE TO ANOTHER! A stellar example of the oft-cited principle that animation is an art form, not a genre.” - Variety
“GORGEOUS! A SMALL POETIC WONDER! That an anime film can explore such complex subjects so beautifully in what's nominally an artist's biopic is a blessing in itself.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“A WORK OF BEAUTY AND INTELLECT! Yokai spirits, Buddha and dragons hiding in wind-storms heighten the periphery of how an artist might see the world.” - Screen Anarchy
As all of Edo flocks to see the work of the revered painter Hokusai, his daughter O-Ei toils diligently inside his studio. Her masterful portraits, dragons and erotic sketches – sold under the name of her father – are coveted by upper crust lords and journeyman print makers alike. Shy and reserved in public, in the studio O-Ei is as brash and uninhibited as her father, smoking a pipe while sketching drawings that would make contemporary Japanese ladies blush. But despite this fiercely independent spirit, O-Ei struggles under the domineering influence of her father and is ridiculed for lacking the life experience that she is attempting to portray in her art. Miss Hokusai‘s bustling Edo (present day Tokyo) is filled with yokai spirits, dragons, and conniving tradesmen, while O-Ei’s relationships with her demanding father and blind younger sister provide a powerful emotional underpinning to this sumptuously animated coming-of-age tale.
“SHINES AS AN EXAMPLE OF ONE CREATIVE SOUL PAYING TRIBUTE TO ANOTHER! A stellar example of the oft-cited principle that animation is an art form, not a genre.” - Variety
“GORGEOUS! A SMALL POETIC WONDER! That an anime film can explore such complex subjects so beautifully in what's nominally an artist's biopic is a blessing in itself.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“A WORK OF BEAUTY AND INTELLECT! Yokai spirits, Buddha and dragons hiding in wind-storms heighten the periphery of how an artist might see the world.” - Screen Anarchy
Genre
Bio-pic,
Animated,
Festival Favorite
Runtime
90
Language
Japanese
Director
Keiichi Hara
Awards:
Nominee, Cristal, Annecy International Animated Film Festival
FEATURED REVIEW
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
The year is 1814 and a demure kimono-clad young woman walks across a crowded bridge in Japan's capital city of Edo. Have we heard, she asks us, about "a nutty old man" who creates enormous paper canvases and also paints two sparrows on a grain of rice? "That nutty old man," she concludes as, out of ...
Played at
Claremont 5 10.21.16 - 10.27.16
NoHo 7 10.21.16 - 10.27.16
Monica Film Center 10.21.16 - 10.27.16
Playhouse 7 10.21.16 - 10.27.16
Royal 10.28.16 - 11.03.16
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