I'm too tired to explain much at the moment, but thought it important to let everybody know as soon as possible.

Kawamoto is probably my second favourite filmmaker at the moment, between Michel Ocelot and Miyazaki Hayao. I like him mostly for the element of choreography and dance which permeates all his work, though also for how he depicts insanity. For those in the UK, his complete short films and latest feature are getting a theatrical release. See http://www.watershed.co.uk/kawamoto/venues.html to find out where it will be playing.

For those in North America, the same films are to be released on domestic DVD on the 22 April 2008, as The Exquisite Short Films of Kihachiro Kawamoto and The Book of the Dead.


His films are certainly, at various times, "violent, erotic and disturbing," but they are also exquisitely beautiful – not to mention being infamous in my uni's anime society for their power to freak people out. I'd strongly recommend them to anyone interested in Japanese folklore, stop-motion or fairy tales in general.