Sunrise + Early Japanese Animations(RTRFH 2022)

Movie Name: A Day after a Hundred Years
Language: Silent with score (Japanese intertitles, Chinese & English subtitles)
Category: --
Duration: 11 minutes
Director: Shigeji Ogino
Story: The spirit of a soldier died during the WWII is brought back to a hundred years later to travel through time and even set out for Mars. Mixing paper cutting and real footage, this short film is original for its time in both plot and craft.

*The 35mm print is a blow-up of a 9.5mm original positive that was donated to the National Film Archive of Japan by the family of Shigeji Ogino. The digitisation was done in 2011.

Shigeji Ogino (1899-1991)
An early independent filmmaker in Japan using mainly 8mm, 9.5mm and 16mm film as creative media, Ogino has been a driving force of small-gauge and amateur filmmaking.

Movie Name: Swim and Swim
Language: Silent with score (Japanese intertitles, Chinese & English subtitles)
Category: --
Duration: 12 minutes
Director: Ikuo Oishi
Story: This adaptation of Bunzaburo Banno's original work is one of the few surviving animated films by Ikuo Oishi. A monkey who cannot swim puts himself forward as a swimming contestant. Failing to learn to swim at the last minute, he in desperation seeks help from a kappa living at the bottom of the pool in the hope to win the race, and later comes to an awakening both surprising and heart-warming.

*The aspect ratio is 1.55:1 for the 17.5mm positive which was donated to the National Film Archive of Japan in 2004. The digitisation was done in 2011.

Ikuo Oishi (1902-1944)
Known as the 'Walt Disney of Japan', director-animator Oishi presented his first animation The Two Suns in 1929 (as Iku Oishi). He founded the Oishi Senga Seisakusho in 1930 which was later absorbed into Photo Chemical Laboratory, the predecessor of Toho, where he offered guidance to many fellow animators.

Tim Chan
As a local composer, percussionist and media artist, Chan’s compositional work can be heard from different commissions, institution and performing groups. He is interested in theatre music creation, automation engineering, field recording, and musical instrument-making. He is also the production manager of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. The music scores of A Day after a Hundred Years and Swim and Swim are composed by local musician Tim Chan for this screening.

Movie Name: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Language: Silent with score (English intertitles & Chinese subtitles)
Category: --
Duration: 94 minutes
Director: F.W. Murnau
Story: For Fox Film Corporation's first Movietone sound feature, Murnau kept on his silent film style with a musical score and partial sound effects. Beguiled by a girl from the city, a farmer plots against his wife. Realising his lapse of judgement later, he makes up with his wife, only to face their real challenge in the form of a storm. The square-like aspect ratio and the German Expressionist lighting, photography and framing create stark contrasts between the gloomy countryside and the affluent city, and the evil and the good. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is the 1st Academy Awards winner of Unique and Artistic Picture and Best Cinematography, and Janet Gaynor won her Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance.

*A 2004 restoration with 35mm print re-released by the British Film Institute.

F.W. Murnau (1888-1931)
German film director Murnau was renowned for acclaimed works like Nosferatu (1922) and Faust (1926). Now considered a milestone in filmmaking history and technological innovation, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is his American film debut.

^Pre-screening Introduction