Under Snow
Unter Schnee
A film by Ulrike Ottinger
Germany/Japan, 2011, 103 minutes
In the Echigo region of northwestern Japan, where heavy snow blankets entire landscapes and villages for more than half the year, a distinctive way of life has evolved. Time follows a different, slower rhythm, and everyday routines, along with religious rituals, wedding traditions, festivals, foods, songs, and games, are adapted to Echigo’s austere living conditions and natural beauty. Ulrike Ottinger’s latest film leads us into this mythical country, turning her lens on daily and communal life under the snowy mountains. Narrated in English by American literary and media theorist Lawrence A. Rickels, this stunning documentary sequences merge with the tale of students Takeo and Marko, played by Kabuki performers. Their journey through the past and repeated encounters with the present find them wondrously transformed with help from a beautiful vixen fox. Under Snow is clear evidence that Ottinger, whose career spans more than four decades, remains one of world cinema’s most original artists.
In Echigo in Japan the snow often lies several feet deep well into May covering landscape and villages. Over the centuries the inhabitants have organised their lives accordingly. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals and religious rituals Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country – accompanied by two Kabuki performers. Taking the parts of the students Takeo and Mako they follow in the footsteps of Bokushi Suzuki who in the mid-19th century wrote his remarkable book “Snow Country Tales”.
A beautiful vixen fox leads the two protagonists astray and they undergo a wondrous metamorphosis. As a man and woman of the Edo period they now travel through the past and again and again encounter the present: Temple children build the holy mountain Fuji-san out of snow; a woman weaver, producing flimsy crepe in the icy cold, is haunted by an evil mountain demon; at the festival of the gods of paths and roads the rice straw pyramid with New Years’ poems and wishes is burned and the popular ritual of bridegroom throwing takes place. The son of the transformed couple becomes a famous actor. Yet the jealous Emperor banishes him to the gold and silver island of Sado, to whose thousand-year history of exile we owe the saddest and at the same time most beautiful Japanese poems. From the island his longing gaze roams over the ocean. These three elements: Kabuki, poetry and the reality of the Snow Country combine with the music of Yumiko Tanaka to make a visually striking and moving film.
From the site of Ulrike Ottinger and WMM, Women Make Movies. (josé)
Cast & Crew
Written & Directed by Ulrike Ottinger
Camera Ulrike Ottinger
Kabuki Performers
Takamasa Fujima, Kiyotsugu Fujima
Supporting Cast
Yumiko Tanaka, Yoko Tawada, Hiroomi Fukuzawa, Akemi Takanami, Setsuko Arakawa, Toru Yoshihara, Nori Katsumata
Composer and Musical Interpreter
Yumiko Tanaka
Narrator
Eva Mattes
- English version Laurence Rickels
Project Consultant and
Set Support
Yoko Tawada
music
Yumiko Tanaka - Shamisen
From disc 7 of the 10 CD set: Improvised Music from Japan, IMJ-10CD, 2001
https://youtu.be/0FwU6-P6bXo
Unter Schnee
A film by Ulrike Ottinger
Germany/Japan, 2011, 103 minutes
In the Echigo region of northwestern Japan, where heavy snow blankets entire landscapes and villages for more than half the year, a distinctive way of life has evolved. Time follows a different, slower rhythm, and everyday routines, along with religious rituals, wedding traditions, festivals, foods, songs, and games, are adapted to Echigo’s austere living conditions and natural beauty. Ulrike Ottinger’s latest film leads us into this mythical country, turning her lens on daily and communal life under the snowy mountains. Narrated in English by American literary and media theorist Lawrence A. Rickels, this stunning documentary sequences merge with the tale of students Takeo and Marko, played by Kabuki performers. Their journey through the past and repeated encounters with the present find them wondrously transformed with help from a beautiful vixen fox. Under Snow is clear evidence that Ottinger, whose career spans more than four decades, remains one of world cinema’s most original artists.
In Echigo in Japan the snow often lies several feet deep well into May covering landscape and villages. Over the centuries the inhabitants have organised their lives accordingly. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals and religious rituals Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country – accompanied by two Kabuki performers. Taking the parts of the students Takeo and Mako they follow in the footsteps of Bokushi Suzuki who in the mid-19th century wrote his remarkable book “Snow Country Tales”.
A beautiful vixen fox leads the two protagonists astray and they undergo a wondrous metamorphosis. As a man and woman of the Edo period they now travel through the past and again and again encounter the present: Temple children build the holy mountain Fuji-san out of snow; a woman weaver, producing flimsy crepe in the icy cold, is haunted by an evil mountain demon; at the festival of the gods of paths and roads the rice straw pyramid with New Years’ poems and wishes is burned and the popular ritual of bridegroom throwing takes place. The son of the transformed couple becomes a famous actor. Yet the jealous Emperor banishes him to the gold and silver island of Sado, to whose thousand-year history of exile we owe the saddest and at the same time most beautiful Japanese poems. From the island his longing gaze roams over the ocean. These three elements: Kabuki, poetry and the reality of the Snow Country combine with the music of Yumiko Tanaka to make a visually striking and moving film.
From the site of Ulrike Ottinger and WMM, Women Make Movies. (josé)
Cast & Crew
Written & Directed by Ulrike Ottinger
Camera Ulrike Ottinger
Kabuki Performers
Takamasa Fujima, Kiyotsugu Fujima
Supporting Cast
Yumiko Tanaka, Yoko Tawada, Hiroomi Fukuzawa, Akemi Takanami, Setsuko Arakawa, Toru Yoshihara, Nori Katsumata
Composer and Musical Interpreter
Yumiko Tanaka
Narrator
Eva Mattes
- English version Laurence Rickels
Project Consultant and
Set Support
Yoko Tawada
music
Yumiko Tanaka - Shamisen
From disc 7 of the 10 CD set: Improvised Music from Japan, IMJ-10CD, 2001
https://youtu.be/0FwU6-P6bXo
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2016-03-14
7 fotos - Ver álbum
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