Miss Hokusai | 百日紅 Animezing
Drama
Presented by JICC, Embassy of Japan
TWO SCREENINGS!
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.
Starring Anne Watanabe, Yutaka Matsuhige, Gaku Hamada, Kengo Kora
WOMEN IN CINEMA
ABOUT THE ANIMATOR
A veteran animator that has worked on nearly every Studio Ghibli film, Megumi Kagawa (sometimes billed as Ai Kagawa), began her career in television in the early 1980s for such series as Magical Girl Lalabel (1980), Ikkyu-san (1980-82), Adventures of the Little Koala (1984). Her first film was in Toei Animation’s Swan Lake (1981) followed by The Last Unicorn (1983). In 1984 she joined the production for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind as animator and has been on the Studio Ghibli team ever since. She has worked as animator (Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Grave of the Fireflies, Miss Hokusai, My Neighbors the Yamadas, Spirited Away, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya), animation director (Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Arrietty) and key animator (Kiki’s Delivery Service, Whisper of the Heart, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea, From Up on Poppy Hill, The Wind Rises, When Marnie Was There). In addition she has done key animation for other acclaimed films such as Nasu: Summer in Andalusia (2003), The Boy and the Beast (2015), and Miss Hokusai (2015).
Japanese w. English subtitles | Rated PG-13 | 93 min | 2015 | Directed by Keiichi Hara
Presented in conjunction with the JICC's exhibition Meet Netsuke! Storytellers of Japan.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required for security purposes. Doors open at 6:00 PM and will close once seating is full or promptly at 7:00pm. Registered guests will be seated on a first come, first served basis. Please note that seating is limited and registration does not guarantee guests a seat.
To modify your registration, please email jicc@ws.mofa.go.jp. Your registration is not transferable.