Shiki-Jitsu (å¼æ—¥, lit. "Ritual Day" or "Ceremonial Day") is a (2000) live-action art-house film directed by Hideaki Anno. This film is Hideaki Anno's second live action feature.
The screenplay is an adaption by Hideaki Anno and Ayako Fujitani of Fujitani's novella Touhimu, which was inspired by an emotionally difficult time spent in Los Angeles during her work in her father's 1998 film, The Patriot. Michael Ordona of the Los Angeles Times said the film had "dark themes of mental illness and suicidal ideation".
The film tells the story of a director, played by independent filmmaker Shunji Iwai, who meets an odd young woman, played by Ayako Fujitani, who wrote the novella Tohimu the film is based upon. The story takes place over a period of 33 days. The plot involves these two characters trying to work their way out of a collective emotional funk.
Shiki-Jitsu won an award for Best Artistic Contribution at the 13th International Film Festival in Tokyo.
Story
The film follows a young Director returning to his hometown, a suburb of a larger Japanese city, and an eccentric young girl he meets, whose quirks include saying "tomorrow is my birthday" every day and wearing very unusual clothing.
But as the days go by, it appears that the woman has little touch with reality and is constantly escaping into a fantasy world, while the Director himself is a former anime director who is seeking to do a "real film" and embrace reality. The two eventually fall in love.
In the end, the Director confronts the Woman and her mother, allowing the Woman to make the first steps into the real world. The films ends with the Girl circling December 7 as her real birthday and the words "beyond the 33rd day: unknown".
Analysis
Hideaki Anno's previous relationship to anime and live action films can be construed the film's strongly contrasted psychological characters, the use of animation and drawings to portray the Woman's inner thoughts, the decision to change the character of the Director's occupation from shopkeeper as in the original novella to director, and the outlook of the character of the Director:
"Images, especially animation, simply embody our personal and collective fantasies, manipulating selected information, and fictional constructs even live-action film, recording actuality, does not correspond to reality conversely, reality, co-opted by fiction, loses its value. 'The inversion of reality and fiction.' None of this matters to me anymore. My consciousness, my reality, my subject, all converge in her. Certainly, she longs to escape into fantasy. Certainly, I long to escape from fantasy." (29:54-30:36)
Release
The film was released by Studio Kajino, an offshoot of Studio Ghibli, run by its former president Toshio Suzuki who served on the film as executive producer. It was given a première at the Tokyo Photography Museum in Ebisu Garden Place on December 7, 2000.
References
External links
- Shiki Jitsu Official Site
- Tokyo Movie Report 26
- Shiki Jitsu page on "Hideaki Anno - Life after Evangelion
- Shiki-Jitsu at the Internet Movie Database
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