Surreal events occur when a hapless country doctor visits an ill boy one cold night. —IMDb
Kōji Yamamura (山村 浩二 Yamamura Kōji?, born June 4, 1964) is a Japanese independent animator who, since leaving a career as a background artist at an animation studio, currently directs, writes, edits, animates, creates the model sheets and background art for and sometimes produces his own short films and has worked on many commissions such as music videos, television advertisements, title sequences and station idents, both on his own and under or with other directors. He is also a regular illustrator of children’s literature and textbooks.
His animation spans a variety of media, his earliest independent works mixing clay painting and stop motion with cels, but has latterly come to concentrate on traditional animation. Two of his most famous and acclaimed films are the Academy Award for Animated Short Film-nominated and Cristal d’Annecy-winning Mt. Head and the Ottawa Grand Prize and Ōfuji Noburō Award-winning A Country Doctor.
Yamamura was born in Nagoya and studied painting… read more
The Japanese are true masters of Surrealism. This short animation is a brilliant transformation of Kafka's existentialism into haunting surrealism. The voice acting is eerily powerful, and the movement of the animated figures is grotesque and spooky. And that analogy of the wound with the forest trees is brilliant. This little award-winning piece is by far one of the best I've ever seen.
An excellent animated interpretation of Franz Kafka's short story, and my introduction to Yamamura's works.