We do enjoy those surreal films especially ones inspired by Haruki Murakami stories. Early next year Modern Films will release the French animation Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman in UK cinemas. Tonight we get a glimpse at the film’s official Trailer.
The animation is the directorial feature debut for Pierre Földes. The film premiered this year at Annecy and Toronto film festivals and soon cinematically here in the UK.
A lost cat, a giant talkative frog and a tsunami help a bank employee without ambition, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives.
Murakami‘s stories usually existential, this one seems to be on identity. Very ambitious and unique animation style…
A cinematic interpretation of a collection of short stories by renowned, internationally best-selling Japanese author Haruki Murakami, BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN is set in Tokyo, a few days after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and follows the existential repercussions of the natural disaster on the lives of multiple characters, as they navigate a seismic event both real and internal.
Kyoko suddenly leaves her husband after spending five days in a row glued to unfolding earthquake footage on TV. Her helpless husband Komura takes a week’s leave from work and heads north to deliver a box and its unknown contents to two young women. His colleague Katagiri, a simple debt collector by profession and an awkward loner in life, returns home one evening to find a two-metre-tall frog asking for his help to save Tokyo from impending destruction by a giant subterranean worm.
The voice cast includes Marcello Arroyo, Michael Czyz, Zag Dorison, Pierre Földes, Jesse Noah Gruman, Katharine King So, John Vamvas, Nadia Verrucci, and Shoshana Wilder.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman will be released in the UK and Irish cinemas from 17th February 2023.
