Jours d'hiver

'Winter Days (2003)' first came to my attention through the involvement of Russian masters Yuriy Norshteyn and Aleksandr Petrov. Otherwise, I've never really explored Asian animation, and this seemed as good a place as any: 36 animators, most from Japan, but others from all over the world, each capturing a moment from the haiku poetry of Matsuo Bashō (1644 – 1694). Each animator was assigned a stanza, and asked to contribute a work of between 30 and 60 seconds; Norshteyn, being perhaps the greatest animator of all time, is allowed two minutes. The array of short films represents a wealth of startlingly different animation styles, each produced independently of the other. Most don't tell a story – that is, apart from the wider arc of the Bashō poem itself – but instead capture a mood, a moment.

Norshteyn's contribution, which opens the feature, stands head-and- shoulders above the rest. His trademark cut-out animation is breathtaking, conjuring up a blistering windstorm that you can almost feel battering against your face. Petrov draws on his richly-textured paint-on-glass animation to create a distinctive atmosphere, as a giant raven ominously stalks outside the window of an old house. The film also introduced me to some unfamiliar talents: I enjoyed the stark black-and- white angles of Belgian animator Raoul Servais, the eerie surrealism of Tatsuo Shimamura, the surprisingly-expressive puppetry of Břetislav Pojar, and the dreary, rich textures of Keita Kurosaka. Several I didn't like – the bizarre and undignified crassness of Yoji Kuri and Mark Baker, for example – but you can't win them all, and the successes nevertheless make 'Winter Days' very much worthwhile.

There's something cool about watching an animated anthology movie and recognizing different art styles certain creatives have. Though I initially might feel a little smart, I think it's more a testament to how distinctive each artist is, and I think we sometimes overlook that. Maybe it's easier to do when big-budget animated movies have so many different people working on them, but with short films or segments in an anthology film, both are ideal ways to get a sense of how a director working in animation - for lack of a better word - animates.

Conceptually, Winter Days is about various lines of a poem I guess kind of relating to winter, and each line has a very short scene play out post-quote. Some interpret things literally, while other segments get a little weird. It runs for a little over 30 minutes and there are 36 different segments, so most of the animated chunks are really short.

It is an interesting enough concept, and a couple of the shorts stuck out, but maybe not enough to make this something truly special. As it stands, it's certainly interesting, and is kind of good to watch passively. Perhaps that's better than trying to understand exactly what each segment is going for, because it seems like some aren't going for - and don't need to go for - very much at all.

I watched this film in the Japanese FESTIVAL 2006 in Viet Nam, it's very clear that they show this short film collection to present Japanese culture and it did this job really well though there're so many kids came to watch and went out soon cause it's not the anime they want.

There're 36 awesome animators with various nationalities join into a project that was held by the maestro KIHACHIRO KAWAMOTO, whose works in puppet animation are Japaness national treasures (I was in love with his princess puppets for a long time). Though I only knew KAWAMOTO, ISAO TAKAHATA (the 2nd leader of Ghibli Studio) and YURI NORSTEIN (the old Russian master who create the masterpiece HEDGEHOG IN THE FOG), the other animators really impress me with their works in this project ,most of them are Japanese , some from Russia,Czech ,England, Belgium,China and some from the National Film Board of Canada, where they make great animated films every year.

Then what's this project for ? WINTERDAYS is a tribute to BASHO MATSUO (1664 - 1694),the legendary haiku poet , WINTERDAYS is the name of a denku (or denka/denga) which was made by BASHO and his friends in Nagoya.Haiku maybe is famous but what's a denku ? This's a kind of Japanese poetry, in which some poets participate in writing a poem, when someone write a 2-lines poem, the next one will continue writing a new poem that take the last line in the previous one to be the first line (they will explain every detail in the second half of the film). This kind of work with all inspirations had inspired KAWAMOTO, he decided to create an animated film in the same way. Then each animator was invited to take 2 lines and represent this poem by animation in various styles , you'll see many kinds of animated film in this project. And the ways these animators show their thoughts and feelings about the poems by images are really interesting , some of them are sad, some are scary,dark and surreal , some make you laughing out loud, some that you'll understand nothing at all and challenge your imaginations. They're all great experimental short films that were seriously and respectfully made to tribute "the old wandering master" BASHO MATSUO and of course, were made with masterly animation's technic.

WINTERDAYS is made for all animation's lovers (but not for who just only love anime) and for those who interesting in Japanese ancient culture, who'll found 105 minutes of relaxing in haiku's calm atmosphere,who'll can open their feeling for what they don't understand immediately.I must write this comment with more details but I've just watch the film only one time, I wish I could get a DVD to watch WINTERDAYS again, again and again.