Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2023)

Original title

Saules aveugles, femme endormie

Directed by

Pierre Földes

Genre

animated film

Country

France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Canada

Runtime

1h 49m

Rated

15

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 32 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A bank employee in Tokyo after a major earthquake is recruited by a talking frog to help save the city from a giant worm. The story weaves together several characters dealing with strange and surreal events.

surrealdreamlikeuneasyslow-burncerebralwhimsicalcontemplativeoffbeat

What happens

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (French: Saules aveugles, femme endormie) is a 2022 animated anthology drama film written, produced, directed and composed by Pierre Földes. An international co-production of Canada, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, the film, set in Tokyo shortly after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, adapts six short stories from three collections by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, The Elephant Vanishes and After the Quake (including "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman", “Birthday Girl”, "The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday's Women", "UFO in Kushiro", and "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo"), focusing on a bank employee who is enlisted by a talking frog to assist him in saving the city from destruction by a giant subterranean worm. To create a version of 3D motion capture animation within a 2D film, Földes filmed his entire screenplay as a live-action "reference" performance, following which the animators replaced the actors' heads with 3D models and then traced and animated their facial expressions. The voice cast includes Marcello Arroyo, Michael Czyz, Zag Dorison, Földes, Jesse Noah Gruman, Katharine King So, John Vamvas, Nadia Verrucci and Shoshana Wilder. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman premiered in the feature film competition at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it was awarded a Jury Distinction, and was later screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the festival's Contemporary World Cinema section. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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