member of her nation, the rest having died in a generations-long war that she continues to fight along with a cadre of robot sol- diers. Her link to the past is through a series of journal entries recorded on video by the Scien- tist. His videos (which also serve the purposes of exposition) are frequently interrupted by taunt- ing, threatening transmissions from the Enemy Leader. The Enemy Leader also has the abil- ity to send transmissions scram- bling the Girl’s robots’ programs, turning them against her. Even- tually, the Girl responds to these attacks by mounting an offen- sive, sending her robot soldiers on the contaminated surface where no human can survive, thus setting the stage for a huge battle of robots. All of this should be fun, but it isn’t, for reasons we have mentioned. Filmed in “Robo- Monstervision” (B&W Super 8),
the image is purposely degraded and hence often hard-to-see, like watching a poor print of a B&W movie on a badly tuned television set. The soundtrack, in English only, is thin but serviceable. Supplements include “Death to the Automatons” (60m 30s), a behind-the-scenes featurette, camera and effects tests (11m), “A Few Minutes With Angus Scrimm” (8m 55s), and the 1m 58s theatrical trailer.
THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
Shisha no sho
2005, KimStim/Kino on Video, DD-2.0/ST, $29.98, 69m 15s, DVD-0
By Tim Lucas
As its companion release THE EXQUISITE SHORT FILMS OF KIHACHIRO KAWAMOTO so splendidly demonstrates, the Japanese master animator has
worked in many different media over the course of his career, but whether his backgrounds are rendered in ink, watercolors, paint or fabrics, stop motion (or puppet) animation has always been its foreground. In this, his second feature-length film, scripted by Shinobu Origuchi, Kawamoto sought to tell a story that might heal those innocent people wounded in war, and here his recurring themes and techniques attain the peak to- ward which they have long been striving. Narrated in English by Alice Hackett, with dialogue provided in Japanese with En- glish subtitles, this is the 8th century story of three charac- ters who never properly meet: Lady Iratsume, a reclusive young noblewoman expert in calligraphy and weaving; Yaka- muchi, a 50ish gentleman with hopes of winning her hand in marriage; and Prince Otsu, a
Lady Iratsume embarks on a mystic adventure after completing her 1,000th scroll in Kihachiro Kawamoto’s lovely stop motion fable,THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
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