Happy Machine
Reality is not all it seems in this journey into an alternative existence filled with bizarre creatures.
16'
Japan
IFFR 2023
Reality is not all it seems in this surreal short from experimental visionary Yuasa Masaaki, where a baby’s world of safety and security is turned on its head. Part of Studio 4°C’s 2007 Genius Party collection, the journey into an alternative existence filled with bizarre creatures forms part of a series of seven short animations by filmmakers, each with their own distinct style.
– Justine Maybank
IFFR 2023
Programme IFFR 2023
When, at IFFR 2018, Yuasa Masaaki's Night Is Short, Walk On Girl screened, audiences and critics alike went wild with delight and wonder. Now, apropos his latest work, INU-OH, IFFR is proud to present the internationally first extensive retrospective of a modern master who, since his first efforts in the 90s as a storyboard artist and episode director, developed into one of world cinema's most inventive and constantly surprising animation auteurs.
Recurring topics of transformation, self-expression, and love are exemplary of Yuasa's oeuvre – complemented with an animation style that characteristically favours movement and emotions that feel both authentic and real. In series like The Tatami Galaxy (2010) or Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (2020), as well as films like Lu Over the Wall (2017) or Ride Your Wave (2019), Yuasa's filmmaking combines the surreal with the cute, the socially conscious with flights of fancy, the visually staggeringly experimental with the narratively classical. IFFR is proud to celebrate a creative mind that, like few others, knows how to fuse the popular with the avant-garde.
Read more about this programmeReality is not all it seems in this journey into an alternative existence filled with bizarre creatures.
16'
Japan
IFFR 2023
Set in medieval Japan, dissident musicians take on tradition in a counterculture manifesto with a contemporary feel.
98'
Japan
IFFR 2023
A teenage athlete grapples with guilt and loss in this intimate, tonally complex disaster epic.
151'
Japan
IFFR 2023