Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai

Plot synopsis:
The manga story consists of episodes which are not necessarily connected to each other. They feature Ō-Ei and her life in Edo, as she works in the studio of her father. The younger sister appears in one of the episodes.
The anime story begins in Edo in 1814, during the Edo period. Ō-Ei is one of the four daughters of the painter Tetsuzo, who later became known as Hokusai. The film takes place at the moment when Ō-Ei reaches adulthood, while her father, aged about fifty, is already a recognized artist in his country. The studio in which they both work is completely cluttered, she goes to her mother's place to eat but spends the night in the studio. Tetsuzo is known for his famous painting skills, such as painting the Great Daruma or two sparrows on a grain of rice. Ō-Ei has the talent and obstinacy from her father. She paints often at her desk, without signing her work, in order to complete the orders. She does not get any recognition for her talent.
The film alternates episodes of the life of Ō-Ei and her father and the painters that visit, especially Zenjirō Ikeda (Keisai Eisen), who later became known for his bijin-ga, and Kuninao Utagawa. Several scenes feature Japanese mythology and Buddhism. After accidentally damaging a Japanese dragon painting that her father had to deliver the next day, Ō-Ei had to repaint the dragon herself. During the night, a heavy storm breaks out and the dragon descends from the clouds. This could be the story from the Tang period, according to which there is a technique for capturing a dragon in a painting. The topic of ikiryō is also depicted, such as when Tetsuzo's astral hands fly, or when they investigate rumours about a famous oiran in the Yoshiwara district, whose astral head tries to leave her body during the night. The Amitābha Pure Land Buddha is also a theme, such as when the wife of a patron is losing her mind because of a painting of jigoku (Buddhist hell) by Ō-Ei. Tetsuzo realizes that Ō-Ei did "not finish" the painting and he completes it by adding the image of the Amitābha, which finally gives the wife peace. The Buddha makes another appearance with two Bodhisattvas in a dream sequence.
The film also evokes the relationship between Ō-Ei, Tetsuzo and the half-sister of Ō-Ei, from her father's first marriage. She is a blind little girl by birth, but Tetsuzo, who is afraid of death and disease and hates the sick, does not visit her. It is Ō-Ei who takes care of her by taking her to Ryōgoku Bridge, describing the landscapes and making her touch, listen and feel the world. At the same time, Ō-Ei remains single and is not interested in romantic relationships. But her father entrusts her with orders for erotic shunga prints, and customers reproach Ō-Ei's drawings for being too coldly executed. She is intrigued by seduction, but ultimately is not interested.
When Ō-Ei's younger sister falls ill, she convinces her father to finally visit, and he even paints a picture of a protective deity. But the little girl does not recover and passes away. She enters the studio in the form a strong gust of wind, leaving behind on the floor a single tsubaki flower her older sister once gave her.
The film ends by indicating with a text displayed on the screen the fates of the main characters. Tetsuzo, who became Hokusai, died at the age of 90. Ō-Ei survived him for nine years and seems to have traveled all over, but no one knows where she died.

Tags: flashback

Review:
Beautiful Anime.
In 1814 Edo, Japan, a master artist Katsushika Hokusai, known as Tetsuzo, and his daughter O-Ei spend their time creating splendid paintings, some on commission and some just because.
Tetsuzo lives away from his wife and younger daughter, who is blind, and he tends to have little to do with them, perhaps because he is afraid of illness and disability.
Instead, he instructs O-Ei and others in his art, but in some ways his daughter outstrips even his talent.
This lands them in trouble on occasion, for example when one of her paintings is believed by its owner to be enchanted by devils, but Tetsuzo knows how to make things right again.
If only his daughter wasn't so hot-headed!This is a beautifully rendered anime based on a manga, Sarusuberi; having not read the manga, I don't know how faithful the film is to the source material.
In any event, it looks lovely and the story of the artists' lives is very well told.
It has more of an episodic feel to it than a straight plot-line, but since Tetsuzo was apparently a real person in 19th Century Edo (now Tokyo), that method of story-telling works very well.
If you like anime, you'll love this movie..
Miss Hokusai is a "slice of life" animation, it portrays the characters' at their daily lives in briskly light mood.
It may set in one of the most romanticized eras, yet it's mostly a few short stories about artists, especially the heroine Oei, woven together.
This is a tribute to Japanese classic painting ukiyo-e, the tumultuous time told in different light and appreciation of the artists themselves.Oei is the daughter of talented painter Hokusai, who has a knack for painting herself.
The animation is more of a method to appreciate the art as it changes constantly when the characters do narrative or monologue.It uses classic touches on the tales, which can seem supernatural yet bizarrely fitting for that particular era.
The setting is made with great care, details like the street corner or dimmed room with faint light of candles provide fine atmosphere for these characters to play in.
Occasionally, they would talk in vague words, it's not a drama where people yell at each other frequently, there's a restrained on their mannerisms.Miss Hokusai is a nice homage to early art works, celebrated by modern Japanese animation, it's quaint, unimposing and warmly colorful..
Great art, no plot or character development.
The art, as well as the way the making of art is portrayed in the film is great; however, there is no real story arc or character development to speak of.
Perhaps not much is known about the daughter of Hokusai, but even so, historical fiction is fiction for a reason.
Just when she may go beyond her immature, mean self, beyond her father's shadow, the film ends with a few narrated summary lines conveying what happens in the next 30 years without actually showing it.
The film seems to focus on the period in which the blind daughter of the famous painter (the narrator's sister) is young, falls sick, and dies.
It is not clear how and why Hokusai is separated from his wife, why his eldest daughter draws and paints with him (though she resents him plenty)...
None of the romantic interests develop during the film, yet the summary in the end tells us she married once!
It is hard to imagine her marrying, so this would be a great story, but it is not the subject of the film.
At one point, we learn that she has a passion for fire, but have no idea how, if at all, this affects her paintings, her art...All in all, the art is great, especially the parts where painting and drawing itself is discussed.
The animation is gorgeous, and the fact that "Miss Hokusai" does not follow traditional biopic conventions only strengthens it.
With all the interest around Hokusai and woodblock prints in the West, it's unfortunate that this film was not publicized more..
plot needs development.
He lives with his daughter O-Ei. She also paints but he often critiques her work harshly.
She often visits her blind half-sister O-Nao who lives with her mother and Tetsuzo rarely visits due to his aversion of the sick.This evokes a time and place.
It paints two great characters.
The plot is episodic in nature and I would like more in terms of plot development.
I love the woman haunted by O-Ei's painting.
There are great bits of a story.
I don't know if O-Ei's character development is enough.
The script needs a plot development rewrite.
It paints a beautiful picture but the picture doesn't really move.
Does she become a great artist?
The family was creating great paintings so the animators took special care to create scenes of rare beauty.
Not much adventures but lots of thoughts and details make the film very alive.
The film leaves our subjects a bit early and the epilogue is brushed over quickly it seems.
We meet O-Ei, grown daughter of the famous Japanese painter Hokusai.
She has a younger sister, O-Nao, who is blind.
(O-Ei's name was actually Katsushka Ōi, but it also appears as "O-Ei".) Hokusai is depicted as a gruff, single-minded man, living in his studio, apart from his wife and children.
The blind young sister is invented - as is most of the rest of the story.
But she plays a very important part.There are great moments here.
One incredibly beautiful moment occurs near the end of the film.
And of course, there's a delightful scene involving his most famous print, "The Great Wave off Kanagawa".The animation is beautifully done, in typical Japanese fashion.
Not as beautifully as Miyazaki, but still, good.The story covers a lot of ground, including the Japanese form of erotic art (shunga).
Part of that thread involves an important plot element.The musical score is very Western and modern, which could be a little off-putting.
As the credits went by, I saw one of the song titles given in Spanish!.It's a movie that keeps you involved, and doesn't let you nod off.PS: Keep your eyes on the little dog that shows up at the beginning..
If you want to impress your date, take him/her to see this film.
American films are a shallow, inane mess.
That's why people go see foreign films at art houses.
Miss Hokusai probably isn't playing in theaters anymore.
But if it was, it's a great place to take a date if you want to impress them with your amazing and elitist tastes.I'm not one for typical anime.
And of the other anime-ish films that were big in America - Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc.
Miss Hokusai is a film critic's dream.
Film critics' tastes are extremely predictable.
Why Miss Hokusai gets rave reviews from critics:-It's Japanese anime-ish, and critics and TED lecture fans alike all salivate for those.
- LBGT in there, and it's not even implied or subdued!!-I don't know what the f--- it's about, but it sure looks good!-Japanese Edo period, about famous artist/painter!
-Beautiful Japanese anime-ish characters!
Critics adore and appreciate cinematography, history, architecture, and the outdoors - a plus if it's a different culture!-And what is the film about again?
I don't care, it seems experimental and cool, so I'll upvote it!Anyway, I'm guilty of thinking like critics, so I was pretty impressed with the film, and I enjoyed it.
I'd hate to say this, but it really is way better than typical American films.
Despite being an animated film, "Miss Hosukai" is not a film for children nor was it ever intended to be.
Instead, it's a very melancholy portrait of the life of the famed Japanese artist Hosukai and his daughter, O-Ei and it's seen through his eyes.
But it's not a normal biography, as you only see bits an pieces of one period of Hosukai's life.
The story itself is VERY meandering and this lack of direction to the film made it difficult viewing for me.
Beautifully animated but otherwise the film left me very cold and left me wanting to know more..
I have to admit this is not my favorite style of anime.I am the type that grew up on Dragonball Z and Akira, but at the same time, I can appreciate things like The Wind Rises and From Up on Poppy Hill.I wish I felt the same about Miss Hokusai, but I don't.
It's one of those stories that does not need animation to be told.
to fully enjoy MISS HOKUSAI, you must discard cultural blinders.
MISS HOKUSAI (MH) is an ambitious and visually sumptuous anime interpretation of the Edo period historical manga _Sarusuberi_, written/illustrated by Hinako Sugiura.
The film is a brilliant exercise in the Japanese Buddhist concept of "everyday suchness." When you look at a centuries old Japanese painting of a young girl in a garden, staring into a bamboo aquarium containing goldfish and bare accouterments, you think you know what you see, but can you really see what the artist experienced to create that painting, let alone the ideas underlying the image?
The source manga is disconnectedly episodic in nature and it's a real stretch to claim that there's any main character therein, even though the historical figure Katsushika Hokusai pops up repeatedly early in the series.Hokusai's most famous historical work is a woodblock print series, yet, for all of MH, we never see him work on a woodblock.
We do see Hokusai paint.
No. Hokusai is not the point of this story.The Edo period is a time when chronic illness turns to death in the blink of an eye.
Although Hokusai pays little attention to healthy living, he's highly adverse to spending time with his terminally ill youngest daughter, for fear of catching something that might prevent him from living to be 100.
For reasons known only to him, Hokusai believes he'll achieve artistic mastery at that nice round age.It's another daring move to make Hokusai's daughter, Katsushika O-Ei, the seemingly central character of MH.
Yes, MH is a feminist tale.O-Ei is the chosen vehicle for telling the anime's story which is larger than just her.
The only obligation is to remember.As in real life, O-Ei's personality is very much like her father's, yet O-Ei is judged by many, on screen and in the audience, as being "harsh" and "unlikeable," while drunken and slovenly Hokusai is well admired by many more.O-Ei is a woman far ahead of her time, even as she willingly carries out "traditional" duties of assisting her father in his work.
She knows that she is honing her own skills through the experience, while being far from subservient.Valuable lessons, harsh though they may seem, from Hokusai to O-Ei, about composition and balance, are literally and tersely depicted in the context of the story's moment.O-Ei's highly opinionated and suffers no fools.
She's pursued by some for her beauty and by others for her art.
O-Ei's hardly maladjusted.MH shows us everyday Edo period life as an artist, who just happens to be O-Ei, experiences it.We learn that O-Nao is blind and that she "sees," with her mind's eye, that the goldfish pets given to her by O-Ei are having great fun inside their bamboo aquarium, which brings O-Nao equal joy and respite from her illness.MH includes many direct representations of how elements of everyday life become ukiyo-e prints and paintings, often emphasized in perfectly timed freeze frames that do not interrupt the flow of the film.Sisters in a riverboat, fingers trailing in the rippling water, speculating about the dangers of rough open seas.
She passes Hokusai ambling along in the opposite direction across the street.
A scene brimming with symbolism.(The more you know about Hokusai's work, the more Easter eggs you'll find in MH.) Mindfulness/awareness/context, within everyday life, are what MH is all about.
Not "character development." Not "plot." Don't let western cultural conventions/blinders keep you from absorbing and enjoying what MH shows us about everyday suchness.
Too much is made about how trivially O-Ei's "marriage" is narratively tossed off in an end title card.The real O-Ei was briefly married to a fellow art student BEFORE she became an assistant to her ailing father.
We see the gist of that "relationship" play out in O-Ei's later interactions with her male contemporaries in the film.
...Now, what do you see when you look at O-Ei's painting of O-Nao in a garden admiring her goldfish?
The little girl, in a peaceful garden, is surrounded by death.O-Ei's painting is a wistful remembrance/celebration of her dearly departed sister, for which words can do no justice.That's the context of that centuries old painting.
That's the point of MISS HOKUSAI..
Wistful window into life in Edo. While lacking in plot and character development--generally what most  people look for in a film--Miss Hokusai is a lovely and wistful look  into life in Edo, which was Tokyo before the Meiji Restoration of 1867.
The film centers on the painter Hokusai, whose Great Wave off Kanagawa  is probably the most well-known Japanese artwork, and his real-life  daughter O-Ei, of whom little factual data remains.
They live together  in a squalid flat and are completely devoted to producing art, while  Hokusai's wife and blind younger daughter live elsewhere.
The film unfolds as a series of vignettes featuring well-known works by  the artist, some of which the film posits may have been painted by his  daughter.
There is a visit to a brothel in Yoshiwara to see a geisha  who has out-of-body experiences at night, dealing with a haunting  caused by one of O-Ei's paintings, a ride on a boat where the great  wave is reenacted, and various other scenes.
Two subplots round out the  film, one involving O-Ei's unrequited love for her father's disciple,  and the other the younger daughter's worsening health and eventual  death.
The short film is capped with O-Ei telling how her life played  out after the events and a text crawl at the end relating her own  death.
With the exception of the younger daughter's death no single plot line  in the film is fully played out, which leaves something of a sour taste  in the mouth.
But the film is nonetheless enjoyable for its visual  beauty and the window it grants into life in Edo. The scene where O-Ei  follows the alarm to a fire was especially fascinating, the  firefighting companies holding their standards, getting doused with  water and tearing down the surrounding structure to prevent the fire  from spreading.
The character designs are somewhat simplistic, maybe  even a bit crude, but they're deftly animated and with the exquisite  backgrounds the team at Production I.G. have created another  masterpiece visually.
Worth watching, and if you're intrigued plan a visit to the Edo Tokyo  museum in Tokyo for a more in-depth look at life in this fascinating  time..
"Miss Hokusai" reflecting Anime that is ineffably Beautiful and even enlightening..
"Miss Hokusai" is a beautifully rendered and even 'mystic' anime originating from manga-artist Hinako Sugiura becoming a full-length animated 2015 Film by Keiichi Hara spotlighting legendary Edo period artist Hokusai, famous for the strikingly powerful and iconic painting "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" This particular story 'Miss Hokusai' reveals  the lesser known tale of Hokusai's amazingly gifted & equally artistic daughter 'O-Ei' who never received the recognition she richly deserved, positing that many of O-Ei's original artistic renderings became later attributed to her renowned father.From a purely visual-perspective the meticulous animation of 'Miss Hokusai' presents abundantly breathtaking artistic renderings and recreations of 'Hokusai' inspired Works, also evoking the rich imagery inherent to Classic Japanese Edo period-setting with all its sublime & ineffable-beauty.From the standpoint of storytelling 'Miss Hokusai' provides profound insights into the highly creative but also chaotic lifestyle of the obsessive artist, a Life filled with the endless search for unpredictable/ unexpected but authentic creative inspiration.There are also 'spiritual' (e.g. primarily Buddhist) elements introduced as the Story progresses which adds greatly to authenticity, providing additional insights about the culture (and belief-structure) inherent to the specific time & place in which O-Ei and her father Hokusai produced their timeless Works.'Miss Hokusai' embodies the rich combination of strikingly beautiful animation enhanced by an intriguing rumination reflecting on Edo-period Japanese culture replete with its deeply-spiritual qualities and ineffable contradictions, an anime film that is beautiful, unique and even enlightening..
I watched this movie, because I loved the trailer and I was waiting forward for a nice biography of two great painters!
Thank Buddha, at least it was well drawn.The movie has a great start and a cool ending but inbetween we see almost nothing.
Even the final plot twist is confusing.So, watch it only if you want to see a well drawn anime movie with almost nothing going on.A great disappointment..
This movie is good for someone who is learn about Japanese culture before the world advanced.
But the rock music didn't really help set the scene to be honest.Just be vairy that before you watch this film there is a lot of religious and god references to Heaven and Hell throughout the movie.Just to be clear this is not a movie for children nor it is intended to be (check out Paparika) especially because there is a few swear words used and in one scene we see two people get into bed together....not going to go into detail.However, the animation, art style and voice acting is good from the dub side of things.If you want to know how life in Japan was like especially if you were a painter I would recommend this movie..
For a movie that plays in the 18.
century the chosen rock music is the worst and absolutely destroying the complete mood of the whole movie right from the start.I couldn't find any ups in the whole story, only one down after another, nothing cheerful in an harsh world that wasn't shown like one.I can't recommend to watch this one, because you will search for an happy end that never comes up.