Happy Machine
Reality is not all it seems in this journey into an alternative existence filled with bizarre creatures.
16'
Japan
IFFR 2023
An anxious young man, simply known as Senpai (“Senior”), enters Kyoto University with rose-tinted glasses, aspiring to experience the perfect college life. When his expectations are dashed, he is magically given a chance to reset his wasted years and begin anew. Over eleven episodes, we witness Senpai navigate his way through crucial decisions, desperately hoping that he will escape mediocrity and find his elusive “raven-haired maiden”.
Anime master Yuasa Masaaki’s darkly comic TV series The Tatami Galaxy crafts a delirious, richly ornamented universe of twisted college romance and absurd campus mythology. In his search for success, the terminally repressed Senpai encounters a multitude of offbeat characters, including the impish double-dealer Ozu and the stern, sharp-tongued Akashi, all of whom present him with newer identities to explore and novel paths to take.
The breathlessly rapid voiceover and dialogue cast us adrift like the protagonist. Yet, the repeating narrative structure across episodes ensures that we are in step with the constantly mutating world of the story. The Tatami Galaxy may be an endearing account of a lonely young man trying to find acceptance, but also a wickedly funny tale about the delusions we cherish about the power of individual choices in shaping lives.
– Srikanth Srinivasan
Film stills: ©The Tatami Galaxy Committee
IFFR 2023
- 253'
- Japan
- 2010
- Director
- Yuasa Masaaki
- Country of production
- Japan
- Year
- 2010
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2023
- Length
- 253'
- Medium
- DCP
- Original title
- 四畳半神話大系
- Language
- Japanese
- Producers
- Fumie Takeuchi, Ozaki Noriko
- Production Company
- MADHOUSE
- Sales
- Fuji Creative Corporation
- Screenplay
- Ueda Makoto, Yuasa Masaaki
- Cinematography
- Ishizuka Keiko
- Editor
- Kimura Kashiko
- Production Design
- Ito Nobutake, Uehara Shinichi
- Sound Design
- Kimura Eriko
- Music
- Oshima Michiru
- Cast
- Asanuma Shintarō, Sakamoto Maaya, Yoshino Hiroyuki, Fujiwara Keiji, Kaida Yūko, Suwabe Junichi, Mayama Ako
- Director
- Yuasa Masaaki
- Country of production
- Japan
- Year
- 2010
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2023
- Length
- 253'
- Medium
- DCP
- Original title
- 四畳半神話大系
- Language
- Japanese
- Producers
- Fumie Takeuchi, Ozaki Noriko
- Production Company
- MADHOUSE
- Sales
- Fuji Creative Corporation
- Screenplay
- Ueda Makoto, Yuasa Masaaki
- Cinematography
- Ishizuka Keiko
- Editor
- Kimura Kashiko
- Production Design
- Ito Nobutake, Uehara Shinichi
- Sound Design
- Kimura Eriko
- Music
- Oshima Michiru
- Cast
- Asanuma Shintarō, Sakamoto Maaya, Yoshino Hiroyuki, Fujiwara Keiji, Kaida Yūko, Suwabe Junichi, Mayama Ako
Programme IFFR 2023
Focus: Yuasa Masaaki
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 programmeINU-OH
Set in medieval Japan, dissident musicians take on tradition in a counterculture manifesto with a contemporary feel.
98'
Japan
IFFR 2023
Japan Sinks: 2020 Theatrical Edition
A teenage athlete grapples with guilt and loss in this intimate, tonally complex disaster epic.
151'
Japan
IFFR 2023