Title	cannot buy money
Year of Production	2006
Director	Fuse Tetsuya(Japan)
Time	18min55sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
A woman has treasured a \500 coin she took from a boy she liked back in her high school days. When her current partner discovers her secret, she decides to return to her hometown and settle things from her past.

!　recommend　!
How to continue loving in the present when your heart is still prisoner of the past?

Title	Rodeo Drive
Year of Production	2006
Director	Sugizaki Tomohisa(Japan)
Time	4min
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
A man rides his favorite wooden horse in a public park. Suddenly a rival appears next to him and a skyward race begins.

!　recommend　!
The dream of flying turned into nonsense action comedy.

Title	traveling circus
Year of Production	2007
Director	Koyanagi Takae(Japan)
Time	14min13sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
Intrigued by a fantastic amusement park they saw on TV, a father and child set on a journey to find it. When they reach the site in the midst of a vast desert, they find the foreman dismantling the rides and getting ready to move on to a new place.

!　recommend　!
Inspired by the director's observation of a real travelling circus, the conclusion being that the work of a foreman is more important than the performances featured in the show.

Title	SWAN LAKE
Year of Production	2006
Director	Kenshow Onodera(Japan)
Time	16min45sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
When ruthless yakuza Kanzaki makes the decision to leave the gang to take care of his dying wife, his boss sends the hoods to assassinate him.

!　recommend　!
An effective yakuza thriller with a tragic touch and emotional ending.

Title	ribbon
Year of Production	2007
Director	Fujii Ai(Japan)
Time	1min48sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
Yellow ribbon and pink ribbon live on a drum. Just like humans, they dance, fight and help each other.

!　recommend　!
A cute and heartwarming animation from a Japanese art student.

Title	CHOCOLATE, SUNSHINE
Year of Production	2006
Director	Ohno Masaru(Japan)
Time	26min33sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
Kensuke Sakaki, manager of a venture business, has to borrow 50 million yen to keep his business afloat but doesn't tell wife Ayako. Money-lender Kubota can tell that Kensuke has no hope of repaying the debt and suggests Kensuke sells Ayako to a brothel to pay off the loan.

!　recommend　!
Drama inspired by a very real social problem in Japan nowadays: the tragedies caused by ballooning personal debts.

Title	BUCCI 1
Year of Production	2008
Director	Nijitarou(Japan)
Time	1min15sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
Bucci is naughty boy who lives in a forest with other creatures. He always fails in his mischief and gets comic retribution for his tricks. Despite his naughtiness, you cannot help liking Bucci. 1st episode.

!　recommend　!
Bucci is primarily designed for children but the visual style and storytelling are simple and easy to understand for anyone regardless of age and language.

Title	Bodhisattva tobot Deluxe-Kannon vs machine Messiah Great-Jesus
Year of Production	2007
Director	Nusso(Japan)
Time	4min52sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
Humans are attacked by a demon from hell. Only one can stop it: Great Jesus! The fight to save the Earth begins!

!　recommend　!
The director wanted to make a 2D animation with 3DCG techniques. Robot transformations are truly impressive and worthy of Japan's long tradition in the genre.

Title	The Dream in the dream
Year of Production	2007
Director	Sugidono Ikue(Japan)
Time	5min43sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
This is the story of a girl who makes up for what's missing in her life with the comfort of dreams. The lonely main character cannot see clearly the border between dreams and reality.

!　recommend　!
A beautiful wordless story that expresses the idea that there are things in life that can only be conquered in dreams.

Title	Swimming poo1／bitter sweet
Year of Production	2007
Director	Koseki Teppei(Japan)
Time	5min23secc
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A music video for the Japanese pop band Swimming Poo1. Boys sleepwalking escape the city and take refuge in the forest.

!　recommend　!
Cute and playful characters illustrate this engaging song by a band form Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.

Title	Abnormal Weather
Year of Production	2007
Director	hinotori(Japan)
Time	1min35sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
On a dry land, a drunk frog walks by a dying flower. He croaks to summon the rain and the flower becomes healthy. But when the frog gets too sick and throws up, it causes a downpour!

!　recommend　!
Promotional piece for the director's website Hinotori Lab. Mr Hinotori
is the director of the short comic film Biotrick, also on openArt.

Title	Goujonnettes and The Witch of The Windmill
Year of Production	2006
Director	Fukui Takuya(Japan)
Time	22min53sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
This film consists of 2 stories told simultaneously. "Goujonnette" features a young woman who keeps indoors after the death of her lover. A friend comes to cheer her up by cooking goujonnette, a French dish made of small fried fishes. "Witch of Windmill", told in narration over the first story, is the tale of a man who visits a witch in order to recover the ability to use one paralysed half of his body.

!　recommend　!
"Goujonnette" has screened on the international festival circuit, including the Rotterdam and Toronto International film festivals. It was in the official competition of Image Forum 2007, Japan's leading festival of independent films.

Title	Crying Hydrangea
Year of Production	2006
Director	Oda Hiroko,Oda Takayuki(Japan)
Time	11min19sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
Fuyuki returns to his hometown with his fiance Natsumi. When they observe a hydragea flower in the old yard changing color because of the rain, they feel premonition of a sad fate is approaching.

!　recommend　!
This beautiful and contemplative story recalls the films of Ozu and can be enjoyed by people who do not normally show interest in animation.

Title	Land mark
Year of Production	2007
Director	Shinkai Tarou(Japan)
Time	4min20sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
Is a boy with an electromagnetic helmet standing in front of landmark building the mastermind of a series of mutations happening around him?

!　recommend　!
The mysterious connection between the strange figures and landscapes of this movie is left for the viewer to make.

Title	Drowned woman
Year of Production	2007
Director	Piropito ＆ Suikei(Japan)
Time	2min44sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
Black ants, subversive literature and a woman drowning. Welcome again to the sick and decadent world of Japanese creator Piropito..

!　recommend　!
An astonishing visual and musical sense makes Piropito's flash animations an hypnotic viewing experience.

Title	The Dreaming Egg
Year of Production	2002
Director	Nishihara Ippei(USA)
Time	12min
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
In the kitchen, an adventurous egg is willing to face all kinds of dangers to make his dream come true.

!　recommend　!
An egg is fragile. So are dreams.

Title	KESHIGOMU KUN AND NERIKESHI KUN
Year of Production	2007
Director	Sakagami Megumi(Japan)
Time	3min50sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
An eraser is lonely in his pencil case and wants to make a friend. A little rubbing will do the trick...

!　recommend　!
A 1st film full of sensitivity.

Title	Detective in the peaceful town
Year of Production	2007
Director	Tsubomikoukou(Japan)
Time	15min48sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
The hero is a young detective whose only missions seem to involve looking for missing cats. However one day he receives a call from a very strange client: a video camera that needs some rewinding.

!　recommend　!
A Japanese gumshoe comes to the rescue of a man stuck inside a video camera.

Title	The room of love
Year of Production	2005
Director	Terada Megumi(Japan)
Time	10min35sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A faceless salaryman goes through a series of humiliating experiences. His only sin: his inability to love.

!　recommend　!
Irony and black humor to stigmatize the lack of love in the modern world.

Title	Who are you
Year of Production	2007
Director	Kou(Japan)
Time	10min 7sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
A man with a gun is waiting for a woman in a studio apartment...

!　recommend　!
A tense confrontation that ends in madness!

Title	Thank you very MAXXX
Year of Production	2007
Director	Hoshino Kensuke(Japan)
Time	4min 29sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
Typhoon Ministars, a 2-girl band from Japan, performs "Thank you very maxx" on keyboard and drums.

!　recommend　!
Fun music and cute girls in the streets of Kobe!

Title	ushi-nichi
Year of Production	2007
Director	hiroco.(Japan)
Time	9min 9sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A pet giraffe gets eaten piece by piece by her owner who turns into a pig; a hitchhiker alone in the desert keeps refusing rides; a job seeker wakes up every morning with a different morphology...

!　recommend　!
Enter the surreal, cruel and hilarious world of a new talent in animation! This film received the encouragement prize from the Japan ministry of culture's Media Arts Festival.

Title	Dai Ichi Gi
Year of Production	2006
Director	Sakurai Masayuki(Japan)
Time	25min
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
The day of a Japanese yakuza who has to care for a sick girlfriend with only a few months to live.

!　recommend　!
The meaning of life can also be pondered by a gangster, provided he is sensitive enough.

Title	Kagi
Year of Production	2005
Director	Sonoda Eriko(Japan)
Time	６min43sec
Genre	Experimental

■　Story　　■
A woman keeps active near a curtained window.

!　recommend　!
A smart and poetic combination of animation and live footage. No CG.

Title	Crazy Clay Wrestling
Year of Production	2007
Director	Teienu(Japan)
Time	6min21sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
Yellow vs Orange... Who will win?

!　recommend　!
With a simple setting, the director succeeds in conveying the fever of a pro-wrestling match.

Title	if time pass
Year of Production	2007
Director	Kuroyanagi Teppei (Japan)
Time	4min55sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
On a plain white canvas, the digitally-enhanced dance of a man and woman creates an abstract painting that soon vanishes before our eyes.

!　recommend　!
A short film where CG beautifies the performing arts.

Title	future
Year of Production	2007
Director	times(Japan)
Time	1min
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
Pencil drawing brings evolution and development. The eraser brings unconsciousness. On the importance to move on toward the future without being deceived by the appearance of things.

!　recommend　!
A simple one-shot movie, yet imbued with metaphysical implications.

Title	Tabako
Year of Production	2006
Director	HOPPE (Japan)
Time	6min20sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A tired woman lights a cigarette on a park bench. Smoke rises and turns to clouds. When the rain starts to fall, it brings with it sadness from the past.
!　recommend　!
A literal illustration of the expression 'flushing away bad memories'!

Title	TOAST
Year of Production	2007
Director	Mizokawa Junpei (Japan)
Time	30sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A woman making up in front of mirror, then a toast with her friends...

!　recommend　!
A new short animation by Jumpei Mizokawa, the highly original creator of the series "Shellet" (also on openArt).

Title	Samidare
Year of Production	2006
Director	Kaneko Masakazu (Japan)
Time	23min53sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
After 4 years, Satsuki comes back to his mountain village where his ex-girlfriend still lives, but now with another man...

!　recommend　!
A sincere exploration of jealousy by a young director.

Title	Space in between
Year of Production	2006
Director	Takemura Yuko (Japan)
Time	5min2sec
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
A darkness inside one's mind coexisting with space, time and air, occupying the mood of its state of mind. The darkness once becomes deeply profund but then turns to be invisible as an empyreal feeling is evoked abruptly by an illusory day dream.

!　recommend　!
A mysterious dream, another dimension...

Title	For Future Birds
Year of Production	2006
Director	Sugita Takashi(Japan)
Time	4min45sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A crow arrives to Bird City hoping for a peaceful home but finds that human pollution is encroaching on the area. To save the Bird world, he will resort to unexpected means... Grand Prize Kurosawa Film Festival 2006

!　recommend　!
An ecological fable with bird martyrdom!

Title	Sorawomiokuru
Year of Production	2007
Director	Mitsukawa Maboro(Japan)
Time	1min54sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
This subtle animation follows a sensitive child in her daily activities. The music was composed by the director himself. Flash animation.

!　recommend　!
A masterful expression of the subtle feelings of childhood.

Title	ikuemi no zanzou
Year of Production	2007
Director	Yokota Masashi(Japan)
Time	4min42sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A visual record of an ordinary life that seems to drop frames once in while...

!　recommend　!
Witness the creation of a paper cat!

Title	Scrapland
Year of Production	2006
Director	Dino Sato(Japan)
Time	5min
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
In a post-apocalyptic world, the only survivors are fantastic
creatures made of scrap metal. With body parts made of tubes, pipes and wires, they feed and play just the same as their animal ancestors did.

!　recommend　!
When the animal world mixes with the machine world: a very Japanese vision of the future.

Title	butterfly girl
Year of Production	2007
Director	Ikeda Eisuke(Japan)
Time	1min 33sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A girl loses her grip on her balloons. A butterfly descends to help her and causes a miraculous metamorphosis...

!　recommend　!
A delicate short with airy music and tender graphics to make your heart flutter like a butterfly.

Title	C++
Year of Production	2006
Director	Kuroyanagi Teppei(Japan)
Time	7min45sec
Genre	Animation

■　Story　　■
A critical view on today's new means of communication, where human organs are dehumanized into mere tools and social interaction such as talking and writing are reduced to electronic connections.

!　recommend　!
Enjoy this spectacular visual universe that also questions today's modes of (non?-)communication.

Title	Key Child
Year of Production	2007
Director	office No Why(Japan)
Time	14min
Genre	Fiction

■　Story　　■
On several consecutive rainy evenings, a series of individuals are engaged in mysterious manipulations near a roadside fence.

!　recommend　!
Be prepared to be engrossed in guessing the aim of this puzzling and persistent action. The 4th Mito Short Film & Video Festival (Japan/1996) Second Place