百日紅〜Miss HOKUSAI〜

SARUSUBERI: MISS HOKUSAI

MOVIE

MOVIE
Dubbed
SOURCE
MANGA
RELEASE
May 9, 2015
LENGTH
90 min

DESCRIPTION

The time: 1814. The place: Edo, now known as Tokyo.

One of the highest populated cities in the world, teeming with peasants, samurai, townsmen, merchants, nobles, artists, courtesans, and perhaps even supernatural things.

A much accomplished artist of his time and now in his mid-fifties, Tetsuzo can boast clients from all over Japan, and tirelessly works in the garbage-loaded chaos of his house-atelier. He spends his days creating astounding pieces of art, from a giant-size Bodhidharma portrayed on a 180 square meter-wide sheet of paper, to a pair of sparrows painted on a tiny rice grain. Short-tempered, utterly sarcastic, with no passion for sake or money, he would charge a fortune for any job he is not really interested in.

Third of Tetsuzo's four daughters and born out of his second marriage, outspoken 23-year-old O-Ei has inherited her father's talent and stubbornness, and very often she would paint instead of him, though uncredited. Her art is so powerful that sometimes leads to trouble. "We're father and daughter; with two brushes and four chopsticks, I guess we can always manage, in a way or another."

Decades later, Europe was going to discover the immense talent of Tetsuzo. He was to become best known by one of his many names: Katsushika Hokusai. He would mesmerize Renoir and van Gogh, Monet and Klimt.

However, very few today are even aware of the woman who assisted him all his life, and greatly contributed to his art while remaining uncredited. This is the untold story of O-Ei, Master Hokusai's daughter: a lively portrayal of a free-spirited woman overshadowed by her larger-than-life father, unfolding through the changing seasons.

CAST

Oei
Anne Watanabe
Koto
Jun Miho
Tsukai no Bushi
Keiji Fujiwara
Hatsugorou Iwakubo
Michitaka Tsutsui
Kuninao Utagawa
Kengo Koura
Yorozujidou
Danshun Tatekawa
Chaya no Kodomo
Aki Uechi
Katsushika Hokusai
Yutaka Matsuhige
Zenjirou Ikeda
Gaku Hamada
Kichiya
Miyu Irino
Sayogoromo
Kumiko Asou
Onao
Shion Shimizu

RELATED TO SARUSUBERI: MISS HOKUSAI

MANGA DramaSarusuberi

REVIEWS

seanny
80/100
A lovely period drama in the slice-of-life, vignette-driven style of Isao Takahata.
High-end anime films tend to draw from Hayao Miyazaki's template: fantastical family drama or adventure in an idyllic countryside setting. Keiichi Hara's Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai instead hues closer to Isao Takahata's episodic slice-of-life films, Only Yesterday and My Neighbor the Yamadas.

Sarusuberi follows the daughter and successor of a famous artist as she comes of age, searches for inspiration, refines her craft, grapples with sexuality, and mends a broken family. Without a strong dramatic arc, the film lives or dies on the strength of its setting, characters and individual vignettes.

The worlds of paint, folklore, dreams and history continually collide. An unfinished painting spawns demons. A storm dragon is transcribed in brush strokes. Hokusai himself even recites a ghost story that is as abstract as it is evocative. The film not only portrays Edo, but also its folkloric mindset, where painters are only a part of its economy of dreams.

The characters range from wooden to animated. "Miss Hokusai" herself is the former, holding powerful emotions deep within. We latch onto her every glance and turn of the head, desperate for access into her thoughts. Fortunately, the characterization delivers with great detail and finesse. Even the puppy dog that grows with the family is one of the most charismatic I've seen in an animated film.

It's hard to evaluate slice-of-life due to its nature, but I would say Keiichi Hara's Sarusuberi fares far better than Sunao Katabuchi's Mai Mai Shinko (2009). The late Isao Takahata, the father of slice-of-life anime, may be retired but his art lives on.

-- End of review. But AniList has a character minimum so here are some additional, scattered thoughts. This I.G film, like any top-tier anime production these days, ropes in the god of cinematic realism, animator Toshiyuki Inoue, for some very lovely scenes. The heydays of cinematic realism (late 80s to early 2000s) may be over, but fortunately the industry can put together something like Miss Hokusai once in a while.

The worst aspect of the movie is probably the hammy J-pop-rock that bookends the story. It's a nitpick, but it's such an out-of-place, out-of-time mood-destroyer, I still sharply remember it years later. When you watch the movie, you'll know.
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