Synopsis
A woman taking a trip encounters a nightmarish landscape juxtaposed against scenes of classical beauty.
1973 ‘旅’ Directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto
A woman taking a trip encounters a nightmarish landscape juxtaposed against scenes of classical beauty.
The Anime Marches On! 2019 Challenge (24/26)
One Anime Film from the Seventies (bonus short)
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Kihachirō Kawamoto's The Trip is like noticing there's a small person walking around inside the paintings during your visit to the Museum of Modern Art circa 1973, or at least that's where you thought you were until you realized you're actually trapped inside Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
Holy shit was this a weird little animated cutout nightmare rich in thematically-suggestive possibilities but short on specifics. Kihachiro is better known in his home country for his puppetry work while his short films have garnered international acclaim, but unfortunately for us information about The Trip (including any specifics about the meaning of it that the director might've at some point mentioned) is pretty hard to come by. One thing this short did make clear is that I should investigate additional films produced by this very unusual filmmaker.
A canvas of trippy experimental Renaissance artwork displayed in a mysterious labyrinth of surreal psychedelic otherworldly domian. 🍄
War mir in Bild und Ton zu anstrengend für eine trippy-artsy Erleuchtungserfahrung; trotz Escher, Dali und verstörender Baby-Snacks.
Bad-trip ins MoMa: The Anime
idk why i subject myself to these nightmarish films lol but yea this was an interesting watch. so unsettling and the music gave me anxiety but i couldnt tear my eyes away. i think the art was a surrealist take on classicism but i dont know art well enough to know for sure. the staircase scene is def inspired by mc escher.
as for what the trip is supposed to explore, i'm kinda unclear on it ngl but there's a lot to unpack. if i had to guess i would say it's a critique on the west, and the concept of travel maybe? and how seeking meaning in the temporal unfamiliar forces one to grapple with their inner self.
the…
i was expecting some cute anime, they got her going through literal hell while mischievous ass music plays in the back. It didn't disappoint me in anyway tho, I enjoyed it.
A short film that was far too fast paced for me to process and take in, I would probably benefit more from being able to freeze the frames and study the stills to better appreciate the creative vision behind "The Trip."
There was too much going on; it was like an assault to the eyes, an artist's fever dream or like being strapped to a cold chair in a colder, sterile room with your eyelids pulled open by fishhooks as you're nonconsensually hopped up on hallucinogens, forced to watch otherworldly, nightmarish imagery flashing before your eyes, begging for an end to the cruel and unusual punishment.
The bizarre, chaotic execution of The Trip left me experiencing anxiety and dread, and…
A Japanese woman visits Europe in search of her ideal chiseled greek marble torso, and the trip becomes a total surrealist nightmare. The cut-out animation is minimal, but there's plenty of visual interest to sustain it in the painted elements and environments -- really any composition from this could be pulled out and framed. Always interesting to see these non-western takes on western classicism, and... whatever that ending is conveying.
Someone tell me what drugs I need to take to have a trip like this.
Real psychedelic stuff here. Feels very 70s. Like a Pink Floyd music video or some shit.
Actually kind of like it, I think it betrays the unconscious experience accurately.
Vu avec Lou
Je trouve que derrière ce court-métrage surréaliste, Kawamoto a dû mal à rendre clair ce qu'il souhaite nous dire. Je vois qu'il y a un fond sur la souffrance dans le bouddhisme, la liberté, ce genre de thème. C'est une expérience assez particulière, de voir avec une approche surréaliste, avec une absence de son et de la stop-motion pour raconter cette histoire. Cela dit, ça reste joli et impressionnant.
Kawamoto, who honed his craft in both Japan and Czechoslovakia, seems to have been comfortable with duality. In the space of his first four short works he swerves confidently between traditional and avant-garde, familiar and foreign.
The Trip is about a young Japanese woman visiting Europe and being confronted by apocalyptic visions of art, history, and sexuality. This reckoning rises to the level of surreal psych-horror, underscored by what I assume is a fugue by Bach. Needless to say I adored it.
I’m happy that there is this really groovy little delicatessen right around the block from my hotel here in Ginza
they offer various fancy Italian/French dishes that are reasonably priced
I had ratatouille for the first time in my life there and it was yummy
they even had some jazz playing in the store so I will definitely be returning there for my lunch/dinner over the next few days