Doors to Fantasy (2022) - The Creation of the Documentary Film

**Fig. 1 - *Doors to Fantasy* (Noel Williams & Anastasia Marika Williams, 2022).**

At the height of the Covid pandemic, my father, co-director Noel Williams and I, together with scholars and students of Japanology here in Tokyo, had ample opportunity to study and research a range of Japanese films, including a number of short Japanese animations. Our attention was particularly drawn to the films of the Academy Award nominated animator Yamamura Koji, who is also a professor at the Tokyo Arts University. Watching Yamamura’s films, we became interested in finding out more about him and his work, which in turn led to us to make our documentary, Doors to Fantasy (2022) (Fig. 1), about Yamamura last year.

Together with our interviewer Ortansia, a Japanese scholar of Oriental religion and philosophy, and also a composer (Fig. 2), we visited Yamamura twice at his studio near Jiyugaoka in Tokyo. Our resulting documentary on his animated works is somewhat straightforward, both in structure and narrative, and deliberately so. It is divided into various sections, each with its own heading, including: ‘Metropolis’, ‘Personal Story’, ‘Daily Routine’, ‘East and West’, ‘At the Cinema’, ‘Souvenir’, ‘A Particular Profession’, ‘Birth of a Character’, and ‘Rewards’. During the course of the film, Ortansia interviews the animator on his life, work, ideas and skills, and the viewer is introduced to both his early works and more recent output as part of this audiovisual journey through episodes of Yamamura’s life and films. A discussion of his most recent film, Dozens of Norths (2022), his first full-length animation film, is also included. This blog will reflect firstly on why did we title the documentary Doors to Fantasy? This name was chosen as it reflects what I believe to be an important feature of Yamamura’s output: doors as entrances or gateways to fantasy. Within the film itself, Ortansia opens the doors which lead to the different fantasies Yamamura created for the viewer. The depictions of these fantasies are made possible by the animator’s professional skill. Notable is his Franz Kafka’s ‘A Country Doctor’ (2007), where expression is articulated through the inspirational use of a brush used for Japanese calligraphy, and people’s twisted movements express their psychological state of mind.

**Fig. 2 Ortansia, a Japanese scholar of Oriental religion and philosophy, and also a composer.**

In our own film, Ortansia puts it to Yamamura that doors represent a core element in his work. Yamamura’s reply is informative: “Reality and what people think the non-existing world is,” he observed, “are linked in my world. I want to express that with my animation.” Doors represent this linkage, and are a means of crossing the boundary between reality and fantasy, linking a non-existing, fantastical world with the normal, everyday one.

In our documentary, we include numerous instances taken from Yamamura’s films where doors appear as gateways to fantasy. In Japanese-English Pictionary (1989), for example, Yamamura even has a clipboard announcing the appearance of a brown door, first shut, then opening, as if one is entering a different world. In Mt. Head (2002), the film for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, we have a mysterious figure disappearing behind a curtain. A particularly intriguing image of a door opening is found in his later work Satie’s ‘Parade’ (2016). In a fantastic sky, a small blue door suddenly appears in the right-hand corner of the frame. A fantastical figure appears, and enters through the door. The door shuts firmly, and both the figure and door disappear from view. In Franz Kafka’s ‘A Country Doctor’, a door is forcibly kicked open. As this scene is quite dramatic, we decided to include this at the very beginning of the documentary, just before the title itself, to add impact and grab the viewer’s attention.

Yamamura also talks in the documentary about the importance of having an appropriate title, and mentions he himself has been praised (by his senior when he was still a graduate student) for providing good titles to his films. For him, a good title is one that does not misrepresent the content of the film itself; it tends to be short (although it does not necessarily have to be); and it should add value to the film itself. Doors to Fantasy, I believe, is another title that passes on all three counts.

**Fig. 3 - The production of *Doors to Fantasy*.**

**Fig. 4 - A colour test for *Doors to Fantasy*.**

Doors to Fantasy identifies a core feature of Yamamura’s animated work: fantasy. He depicts fantastical events and images, taking the viewer fleetingly out of the realm of reality and into his world of fantasy. The story of Mt. Head, for example, taken from rakugo (where stories are told by specialized, traditional storytellers to their audiences), revolves around the fantastical account of a cherry blossom tree growing on an old man’s head. Reality is never far away in the animator’s films, though. While he takes us on fantastical journeys, he rarely allows us to forget the reality which underpins his fantasy world. In Mt. Head, although a cherry tree grows on the old man’s head, the viewer – particularly the Japanese viewer – is quickly brought back to a more familiar world: a world of the company employee and the ‘office lady’, poverty, isolation, despair and, ultimately, suicide.

I enjoyed the process of making the documentary (Figs 3-5). For me, the filming was the most exciting part, and I was a little worried about how the filming would go and whether the visuals and sound would be up to the quality required (awards from many international film festivals, internet screenings, and a public screening of the documentary at the International Short Film Festival, Canton, China, has laid my mind to rest on this matter). Ortansia, my co-director Noel, and I had discussed what to ask Yamamura prior to the interviews, and we left the interviews in Ortansia’s capable hands as she is a philosopher and academic. I was particularly keen to shoot Yamamura at his workplace and behind his desk, and also film him walking outside the studio and at a nearby Buddhist temple where the animator walks every day for inspiration for his films (Fig. 6).

After completing the two interviews with the filmmaker, I started work on editing the material. First, I chose the most suitable parts of Yamamura’s films for inclusion in Doors to Fantasy. I chose these carefully and with passion, knowing how privileged I was to be able to edit his films freely at my pleasure and leisure. Second, the soundtrack. Choosing the music for the soundtrack was also done with passion, precision, and care. The original music and sound of Yamamura’s films themselves have been left untouched. However, in the soundtrack to our documentary, Ortansia’s music is used in different scenes, such as when Yamamura is walking down the stairs to his studio, the interview scenes, and when he visits the Buddhist temple. We used the original music composed by Ortansia for most of the film, other than a piano piece by Tchaikovsky (used for the scene where Ortansia walks along a corridor and opens a door in St. Petersburg [Fig. 7]), played by the eminent Russian conductor and pianist Alim Shakh (Fig. 8). We chose the instrumental versions of some of her jazz and classical songs. When I first opened the door to Yamamura’s studio, a cd of jazz music was being played in the shop/museum Au Praxinoscope on the ground floor of his studio. This stuck in my head, and I have deliberately used jazz music for much of the film. For the long section, ‘Birth of a Character’, where Yamamura draws his original character from scratch, at Ortansia’s request, I chose the instrumental version of Ortansia’s song ‘Private Lesson’ to accompany him drawing. Elements of both Japan and the West in this piece of music captures the dual aspect of the animator’s background and personality. As he himself observed, he is Japanese, but his concept of animation “sways between the values of Japan and the West.”

**Fig. 6 - Yamamura walks outside the studio to a nearby Buddhist temple as inspiration.**

I am pleased that we have been able to bring out in the 56-minute documentary film certain aspects of the animator’s character not previously seen in works by other filmmakers. By talking with Ortansia, we were able to capture a relaxed and smiling Yamamura, and we could bring out the more intimate side of Yamamura’s personality. Doors to Fantasy not only brings out his work ethic (he works from morning until early evening) and professional attitude to his animation – which has indeed impressed me -, but it has also brought out little-known details of his life: about his parents and family, his childhood, his sports activities at school, and his love of objects and toys connected with the early history of animation. My favourite part of the film is where the animator shows me, and plays with, these objects and toys in Au Praxinoscope. I have tried to capture on film Yamamura’s child-like wonder and inquisitiveness when he is surrounded by animation-related objects. Additionally, we gain insight into his techniques as an animator: his draft sketches and drawings for Franz Kafka’s ‘A Country Doctor’; and his use of inks and colouring pencils for his drawings and animation (and the danger of running out of certain colours when small manufacturers go out of business). Most valuable, perhaps, is his generous acceptance of an invitation to create a new character for the camera. The film traces him thinking up, and drawing, a character from the first stroke of the pen to the completion of the character itself. Hopefully, the character (together with his red eyes!) will appear in a future animation film of his. If for no other reason, this would justify in my mind the creation of our own documentary that offers its own door into the filmmaker’s fantasy.

**Article published: March 31, 2023**

Doors to Fantasy will be screened on April 15th at the Honolulu Museum of Art (at the Doris Duke Theatre) as part of the Cultural Animation Film Festival Springfest 2023 Animation Showcase. Please visit https://honolulumuseum.org/theatre/ and https://honolulumuseum.org/events/15910/ for more information on the festival and how to book a ticket.

Biography

Educated in Oxford, Vienna and Tokyo, Anastasia Marika Williams obtained her undergraduate degree in French language and literature from Shirayuri University, Tokyo and her master’s degree in film studies (Nouvelle Vague studies) from Gakushuin University, Tokyo. Trained in filmmaking at the Tokyo Movie School, she directs documentary films, music videos and internet commercials. She currently resides in Tokyo. Her homepage is:[goog_1344947780] https://www.marijapan.studio. She can be contacted at: studiomarijapan@gmail.com.