We've not done much movie-watching since our return, but we couldn't miss out on the recent offerings from JFF + Independent Cinema, which were available to stream for free until the recent cut-off date.

1.
Shiver
2021, Toshiaki Toyoda

I've never seen anything quite like this...

It features the music of Koshiro Hino, as performed by the Kodo Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble. A taiko is a Japanese drum, and there are some wonderful sequences featuring it. But Shiver is not just drums... Every conceivable kind of percussion instrument is pressed into service (just one piece uses human voices). And if you layer that rhythm with beautiful footage from nature (sea, mountains, forest, caves, and waterfalls), recurrent motifs of ritual (temples, masks, robes, and images of Buddhism and Noh theatre), and innovative (though occasionally overly swirly) camera angles, you get a really powerful piece of cinema.

It is all filmed on Sado Island, Kodo's home base. And, of course, you instantly want to set out for Japan again...

Haecke explains that this island has explicit links with Buddhism and Noh. Its remote location meant it served in the past as a place to send political exiles. These included Emperor Juntoku; Nichiren, who founded an important sect of Buddhism; and Zeami Motokiyo, one of the founders of Noh.

According to Richard Gray, the Japanese title contains the characters for "dread" and "war". And many of pieces -- in which the power of nature and the enigmatic qualities of the ritual contrast yet also blend with the precision of the music -- definitely give you a bit of a frisson.



2.
A Little Girl's Dream
2014, Yoshiaki Tokita

This is a very different kettle of fish, but unique in its own way.

We're following the progress of Tomomi, whom we first meet as a nine-year-old back in the 1980s. She's living on her parents' farm in rural Niigata, and attending the tiny village school. Indeed, the school is so tiny that one year there are no new registrations. So the teachers decide to take on three calves -- who will be duly registered. The idea is that not only will the children be given the opportunity to enjoy the ceremony, but also they will learn to take care of animals. It's made clear from the beginning that these are not pets. As soon as they're sufficiently big, they'll be sold at auction.

All the children learn a lot from their charges (they are responsible for every aspect of the young cows' wellbeing), and are terribly sad when they "graduate". But for Tomomi, the experience has gone deeper. She is now determined to become a vet.

Yoshiaki Tokita met Tomomi while he was working as a local reporter, and decided that watching her ambition unfold would make for an interesting documentary. Which it definitely does. There's a lot of Japan packed in here: agricultural processes, climate, food, celebrations, Tomomi's dad's ambition to not have to leave the farm to supplement the family's income, which was reminiscent of discussions in Seicho Matsumoto's An Unknown Place...

Tomomi achieves her dream. She goes away to school, earns a place on the veterinary programme at university, graduates, and gets a job. It's not easy, but her family are supportive, and she is determined.

Thayne complains that we don't see enough of the rest of her life. But the point of the movie is her dream, and that's where the focus lies.

It is far from a sentimental picture. Tomomi's decisions on livestock care are based on economic realities: "A child's dream has now become a commodified career," as Thayne puts it. Whether things should be different, and how, if so, they could be, are topics that lie beyond Tokita's remit.

Another fascinating glimpse of Japan, then.