Ibara hime matawa Nemuri hime

This is an unusual production. The animated film was made by a Japanese director and the film is in Japanese, but the project was made in Czechoslovakia (just before the peaceful division of the country) by the Jirí Trnka Studio. In the 1940s-60s, Trnka was one of the few animators who used stop-motion. Now, decades later, Kihachiro Kawamoto, who had done some lovely stop-motion films in Japan, went to work with the studio created by Trnka--combining the best of both talents.

The merging of Japanese and Czechoslovakian elements made for a very unusual film. The Czechoslovakian aspects of the film seemed to be in the overall style of the sets and characters. They appear to be European from about the 15th century and there isn't a trace of Japan in this. As far as the characters go, they are like works of art--truly beautiful and the costumes they wear are amazing. The Japanese aspect of the film is the story. I have watched and reviewed quite a few Japanese films and unlike traditional European stories, the films aren't as predictable and the stories are often more melancholy. Additionally, nudity and sex aren't as taboo in Japanese films and so when there is a nude scene, I wasn't all that surprised--even though the story is ostensibly a re-telling of a fairy tale.

And this takes me to what I think is the weakest part of the film. The story itself wasn't all that satisfying, as the many story elements didn't necessarily create a satisfying whole. It wasn't bad, really, just not the strong point of the story. But, because the film is so visually stunning, I still recommend you watch it. However, you may think twice about showing it to younger viewers.

Saw this on the K.Kawamoto collected short film works. Audio track was either Czech or Japanese with English subtitles. The artist is not widely known outside Japan though he is one of the best stop-motion animators worldwide. Having visited Prague in 1963 as a disciple of the great Jiri Trnka, he returned again after the Velvet Revolution in 1990 to produce in collaboration with Jiri Trnka Studio this short feature, namely the adaptation of the "Sleaping Beauty" fairy tale.

Having followed Trnka's guidelines how to make successful stop-motion and also with the help of other Czechoslovakian stop-motion masters, Kawamoto made one masterpiece. Though this is a co-production and it is clear that there are some differences with the other works of the artist, this short movie has both the features Kawamoto had used in his previous film (House of Flames, Dojoji Temple, Demon)and the features that made Czechoslovakian stop-motion cinema known word wide: dark fairy-tale atmosphere and characters faithful to the Brother Grim text, lyricism, amazing puppet design and animation, very good soundtrack and most importantly it leaves its mark on the viewer and it is mainly for adults as here the fairy tale has a twist most fairy tale adaptations for children would deliberately omit.

Since it is only 21 minutes long it doesn't turn tedious.

One feels that only the settings, the costumes and the people changed from Oriental to European but in essence this has Kawamoto's marks and the rest of the staff offered mainly guidance and advice.

Too bad that good animation films are known and appreciated only by a select few. If you get the chance to watch this in a festival don't miss it.