Used to be that the problem was getting to see all the material showing in the theatres. Right now it's finding something that's worth the effort to go out in the cold. The new Japanese animated Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi /Josee, the Tiger and the Fish meets that need nicely.
Of course the films and (comic books) aren't all given over to little boy samurai battling wizards and dragons. Tezuka adapted "Crime & Punishment" and Rintaro filmed his Metropolis script in 2001, not to mention items like Isao Takahata's 1988 A Bomb memorial Hotaru no haka / Grave for Fireflies, and there's a broad spectrum of girl toons.
More recently these have mutated into adaptations of stories that might have been done as live action like 2016's Kimi no na wa. / Your Name or Nakao Yamada's Koe no katachi /A Silent voice. In fact Josee, the Tiger and the Fish had been filmed by Isshin Inudou in 2003, a slight, agreeable movie.
The current film is a ‘Scope girlie manga without Princesses, fairies, J-Pop girls or talking animals (they do run to a winningly hostile domestic cat). This one blows away most other entries we’ve seen in this cycle.
Tsuneo, the student lead is learning Spanish and saving for the scholarship to study marine life in Mexico. He works with friends in a Dive Shop and sure enough his professor gets to tell him that his Thesis has attracted a scholarship.
However embittered crippled girl Josee literally crashes into his life when her wheel chair gets away from the grannie who is pushing her and rolls down the hill into him. The outcome of this is that he gets hired on to look after her while gran is off at the arcade games parlor. He’s intrigued when he glimpses the marine world painting in her inner room and he starts to create things like a seated skate board for her to move about on when her chair gets bogged in sand at the beach.
Her superficial hostility begins to melt and she attends to her appearance and, to her surprise, begins to makes outside friends. The girl librarian proves to share her admiration for François Sagan after one of whose characters Josee was named. Josee’s predictable try at reading the tinies there “The Little Mermaid” bores all but one of them. They wander away from her circle but her drawing on the white board intrigues them. The dive shop staff join in searching when she goes missing - despite the fact that the bikini girl also has the hots for our hero. One of the many nice moments is when the two young women achieve a common end and double high five one another.
Of course we are spared nothing and it looks like all the dreams will come to a halt in the hospital but that’s not going to happen in this picture.
It has the usual Japme fascination with railways. Think Spirited Away. A couple of El trains pass in the Osaka set up scenics before we get to the journey footage with the wheel chair ramps being laid out. Striking, unfamiliar animation effects include the car headlight beams behind the action at night, the leaded glass windows of the old woman’s house or the sun through tree patterns falling on walking characters. The leafy setting is one of the film’s pleasures and is played with a change to winter snow. Their zoo tiger is a striking drawn concept and its hint of menace gives the often damp eyed piece an edge. The characters’ shared fascination with sea creatures generates a whole range of striking visuals - the aqualung scenes, the visit to the aquarium, the Clarion Angel Fish lamp, Josee’s paintings and her final mermaid story.
Barrie Pattison 2021
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