A story based on the life and short stories of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, a mangaka known for his gekiga style of alternate Japanese manga.
Khoo combines fearless narrative with scenes from Tatsumi’s graphic autobiography, anchoring the howls of alienation of post-war Japanese life and adding a sweetening lyricism that swoons towards a very moving conclusion.
A eye-popping visual treat and a journey into the creative spirit.
A beautifully drawn walk on the wilder side of comic books.
This film about pioneering Manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi deserves some credit for originality.
A heartfelt, beautifully-made homage to anime director Yoshihiro Tatsumi, that fights a little shy of investigating exactly what inspired his bizarre style.
It is loose in shape, but alluring in style and storytelling.
The first of the five stories, "Hell", is the most striking, a photographer's memoir of Hiroshima with a sinister twist in the tale.
The film artfully combines, though sometimes rather confusingly, scenes from Tatsumi's life story as told in his graphic autobiography, with five tales in the adult gekiga manner. All of them have tragic or ironic endings, and the most remarkable is "Hell".
Despite its modernity, the graphics are a far cry from the clean animation of films like Arrietty, instead choosing a rougher, often black and white style appropriate to the frequently bleak content of the film.
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday January 13, 2012, until Thursday January 19, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com