Verdächtige Gasse, nächtliche Fenster – Filme von Yamada Isao

Q&A with Director Isao YAMADA

Isao Yamada was born in Hokkaido in 1952. He often uses the artist name Yamavica in his disciplines of film, visual art, and manga. Yamada began his artistic career as a member of Terayama Shuji’s theater troupe and, starting in 1974, was involved in various aspects of the visual design of Terayama’s feature films. Within the framework of a film club he co-founded, Yamada made his directorial debut in 1977 with AN INCIDENT OF NIGHT. In 1981, he had his first solo exhibition of films at the Image Forum in Tokyo, and in 1983 he was invited for the first time to the annual experimental film showcase of the Image Forum, where his works have since been regularly presented. As a manga author and visual artist, Yamada published his first manga in 1975. His collages and box-art objects were first shown to the public in 1987, followed by oil paintings and pastel drawings. In 2001, his film correspondence with Yamazaki Mikio was presented in Tokyo for the first time. Known as ŌFUKU (Film Letter) I–V (1986–2006), these works are considered a major artistic milestone for this form of correspondence.

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I’ve Heard The Ammonite Murmur
アンモナイトのささやきを聞いた
Japan 1992
70 min.
Isao Yamada
Screenplay: based on the memories of Kenji Miyazawa
Cast: Hiroko Ishimaru, Reina Oshibe, Kenzô Saeki, Takeo Kimura, Tetsuja Fujita, Arinori Ichihara, Kazuichi Hanawa

Yamada used the opportunity to bring together his themes of poetry, gesture, small uncertainties, and irritations: we follow a young geologist traveling by train to visit his sick sister in the countryside, reading her letter, recalling their childhood together, and reflecting on his fixation with stones, love, uncertainty, and unease… Ammonites are a type of mollusk and among the most commonly found fossils today. The film was screened in 1992 at Cannes in the “La Semaine de la Critique.”

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The Fan Of Spiral Shell
巻貝の扇
Japan 1983
12 min.
Isao Yamada, Yumekichi Minatoya
Cinematography: Tomoshiro Aso, Mikio Yamazaki
Cast: Ayako Mizunoya, Issei Takashima, Hiroko Ishimaru, Hijiri Kobayashi

A shell fan: when gazing upon it, one enters another world. In this world, ropes reign in the truest sense. They bind men. They bind women. Horses are tightly bound and stand in flames. An endless-seeming game of idleness, and yet so full of force. The rope haunts the two and comes to life itself. The Fibonacci sequence recurs as an aesthetic motif in Yamada’s work. Numbers form spirals, the world in perfect beauty, comprehensible even to clear thought. The beauty remains constant—dynamic, yet embedded in quiet poetry, with a disquieting morality.

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The Descendent Of Androgynous
アンドロギュヌスの裔
Japan 1995
25 min.
Isao Yamada
Music: Masayuki Imai
Cast: Mizuho Kudō

The yearning for something unknown, as if nothing could ever satisfy. Nothing even close to making the body feel less sluggish. As if this were the only way to escape uncertain boredom and stop merely dreaming. As if whispering something to someone while ensuring the faint murmur never reaches an ear. Staring at the ceiling, daydreaming with eyes wide open. Eyelids heavy like butterfly wings—or perhaps like thick wool socks?

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A Star And A Propeller
星とプロペラ
Japan 2000
13 min.
Isao Yamada

Loneliness as an artistic virtue. The feeling pours into the inanimate micro-worlds of the expected and the so-called normal. People will assign value to stars. Meaning to flowers. Depth to our journeys. This is the ability that sets us apart from our primate ancestors. Our irrational appreciation, if anything, is nurtured by our loneliness. Leaving the cinema, one takes a deep breath…

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Winter Has A Dream
白昼夢
Japan 2008
20 min.
Isao Yamada
Cast: Motoko Hattori

A young woman in a house, gazing out at the landscape, the sky, the cold. The contrast between inside and outside manifests not only in the space itself. If it is possible to transfer the sensory aspect of the dream world into the tangible world, it inevitably involves confronting a deep alienation. Yamada here combines interior shots of the house with simultaneous use of its surrounding environment. Nature always implies freedom. At least, this is an intriguing thought—one worth engaging with, leaving one enriched.

— Claudia Siefen-Leitich