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Summary

The anime of Osamu Tezuka will feature a selection of his work from 3 distinct areas (from the following titles under consideration):

a. feature films:

Alakazam The Great
Space Firebird 2772 (Hinotori 2772)
Black Jack (Burakku jakku)
Metropolis (Metoroporisu)
Jungle Emperor (Junguru taitei)
The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (Unico)
Cleopatra (Kureopatora)
Prime Rose (Purraimu Rosu)
Baggy (Bagi)
Marine Express (Marin ekusupuressu)
1001 Nights

b. shorts:

Jumping (Junpingu)
Broken Down Film (Onboro firumu)
Pictures At An Exhibition (Tenrankai no e)
Mermaid (Ningyo)
Drop (Shizizu)
Akuemon (Akuemon)
Legend Of The Green Forest (Mori no densetsu)
Adachi Ha Gara (Adachi ha gara)
Tales Of The Street Corner (Aru machikado no monogatari)
Push (Push)
Muramasa (Muramasa)
The Green Cat (Midori no neko)

c. TV series:

Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu)
Kimba The White Lion (Junguru taitei)
The Amazing Three (Wanda suri / W3)
Marvellous Melmo (Fushigi na merumo)
Princess Knight (Ribbon ho hishi)
The Vampires (Bampaiya!)

Programme

* indicates special subtitled version prepared for this programme

Extended Notes also available from Osamu Tezuka: Glimpses of a Fantastic Imagination

1001 NIGHTS (SENYA ICHIYA MONOGATARI)
Eiichi Yamamoto, 128 mins, Japan, 1969, colour, Betacam *

Beautifully dated and hedonistically constructed, 1001 Nights stays true to the sensory backdrop of Scheherazade's tale-spinning. Tezuka remolds the story into something resembling an escapist fantasy-trip wherein a 60s-era salary man is transported back to an era of entirely fictitious Arabian details. Seemingly at odds with itself, 1001 Nights consistently unfolds in a way that combines Playboy graphics, Arabian rug design and traditional Japanese scroll paintings. Groovy. AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE.

ALAKAZAM THE GREAT (SAIYU-KI)
Daisaku Shirakawa & Taiji Yabushita, 88 mins, Japan/US, 1961, colour, Betacam

Generally, American-dubbed versions of anime leave much to be desired through their draining of the anime's original Japanese aura. Yet this early 60s animated musical based on Tezuka's manga Saiyu-Ki (itself based on Tales from the East) surprisingly benefits from Les Baxter songs sung by Frankie Avalon. It's Beach Blanket Bingo meets Monkey - a cocktail perfectly matching Tezuka's own heady mix-and-match narratives.

BAGGY (BAGI)
Osamu Tezuka, 90 mins, Japan, 1984, colour, Betacam *

Part Italian western, part all Japanese sci-fi, Tezuka's Bagi is an oblique response to the Japanese governments approval of genetic experimentation in the early 80s. The eponymous hero is a genetically-altered pussycat befriended by Ryosuke, whose mother engineered the creature. A minor encyclopedia of adventures unfold in various continents. AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE.

BLACK JACK (BURAKKU JAKKU)
Osamu Dezaki, 90 mins, Japan, 1998, colour, 35mm

Brooding, near-psychotic, mysterious - Black Jack is a tormented soul blessed with superior surgeon skills. Debarred and now a renegade high-priced doctor, his encounters notch-up the drama normally applied to medical bi-pics. In this feature version, Black Jack battles to save the onslaught of a bizarre viral injection that creates 'super humans', only to have them wither and die as their immune systems collapse. Forebodingly topical and refreshingly inventive, Black Jack retains the core themes of Tezuka's long-running adult manga.

CLEOPATRA (KUREOPATORA)
Osamu Tezuka & Eiichi Yamamoto, 112 mins, Japan, 1970, colour, Betacam *

Fulfilling Tezuka's desire to openly eroticise his characterization of the famous Egyptian queen, Cleopatra is a riotous romp - in many senses of the word. Tezuka has tackled numerous classical and Europeans archetypes and narratives, but rather than putting them through the Joseph Campbell grinder, he re-invents legend and lore with refreshing irreverence. Adorned with beautiful detailing echoing the manga page and its hyper-graphic sensibility, Cleopatra is a heady historical brew of passion and pathos. AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE.

THE FANTASTIC ADVENTURE OF UNICO (UNICO)
Toshio Hirata, 90 mins, Japan, 1981, colour, Betacam *

Dripping with Euro-kitsch, Unico is an audio-visual summation of kawaii (cute). Stylistically leaning toward shojo manga (girls' comics), Unico's accent on dizzying visual sensations depicts Romantic and Gothic emotional tropes in this story of a baby unicorn befriended by a kitten, a young girl and her aging grandmother. A handsome satanic prince is a menacing yet seductive force that propels the melodramatic throb of this darkly cute story.

JUNGLE EMPEROR LEO (JUNGERU TAITEI LEO)
Yoshio Takeuchi, 99 mins, Japan, 1997, colour, Betacam

A remake of the earlier TV series based on Tezuka's manga, this version of Jungle Emperor is a muted response to the Disney Studios' The Lion King. Many key scenes from The Lion King were lifted without credit from Tezuka's original work. Spot the connections. This version of Kimba the White Lion's struggle to claim his rightful place in the animal kingdom uncannily echoes Tezuka Productions' aims to reinstate Tezuka's voice in creating this landmark family entertainment.

JUNGLE EMPEROR (JUNGERU TAITEI)
Eichii Yamamoto, 75 mins, Japan, 1966, colour, Betacam *

Compiled from episodes of the original TV series with all its late 60s charm and appeal. Originating from Tezuka's 1951 manga, Jungle Emperor is a remarkably forward-thinking eco-friendly work. More than an exercise in anthropomorphism typical of Disney, Leo (Kimba the white lion) is a contemplative being, sensitive to the hypocrisy of humankind and conscious of the harsh strategies he must apply in order to achieve harmony between the threatened animal kingdom and ignorant humans. AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE.

MARINE EXPRESS (KAITEI CHOUTOKKYUU MARIIN EKKUSUPURESSU)
Satoshi Dezaki, 91 mins, Japan, 1979, colour, Betacam *

Tezuka approached his manga like a stage director with a stock ensemble of characters, They appear in various guises throughout his work, and Marine Express has just about every famous character playing a role. A mix of Murder on the Orient Express and Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Marine Express plays with the 70s craze for incredible trains developed in Japan. The story involves one such invention which on its maiden voyages slips through a time warp. AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE.

METROPOLIS (METOROPORISU)
Rin Taro, 113 mins, Japan, 2001, colour, 35mm

Tezuka's original manga from 1947 was inspired by a film still from Fritz Lang's seminal sci-fi of the same name. But Tezuka free-forms narrative and thematic possibilities in all his manga. This resulting film retains the frenetic and eclectic patchwork of the manga's adventures, and focuses them in on the inimitable Mitchy - the unisexual robot who was to be the template for many of Tezuka's cyborg creations.

PRIME ROSE (TAIMU SURIPU 10,000 NEN PURAIMU ROZU)
Tetsu Dezaki, 90 mins, Japan, 1983, colour, Betacam *

A mélange of narrative possibilities unfurls as the cities of Kujukiri and Dallas are jettisoned into the future of 10,000 years where they engage in war. Prime Rose is a sexy yet vengeful combatant in this terrain, mystically empowered after training with the learned Jinba. Gladiatorial spectacle, retro-sci-fi and the sexy feisty Prime Rose herself - it's an all-Tezuka mash-up. AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE.

SPACE FIREBIRD 2772 (HI NO TORI 2772 - AI NO KOZUMO)
Taku Sugiyama, 122 mins, Japan, 1980, colour, Betacam

Loosely based on futuristic sections of Tezuka's sprawling Phoenix series of manga, Space Firebird 2772 is a similarly long saga infusing Buddhist, Shinto and Zen concepts with sci-fi pondering. A potent non-Western view on life and the cosmos, the story follows the test-tube birthed Godoh - a ruthlessly trained space fighter who eventually develops human feeling by instinct rather than programmed design. This 'loner' figure appears consistently in Tezuka's work, shaped less through heroic actions and more through personal maturation.

Shorts Programme 1
Osamu Tezuka, 77mins, Japan, 1962-87, colour, Betacam

Parallel to producing successful anime from his manga, Tezuka pursued a dedicated interest in animation as an art form. Over 20 years he produced a series of fascinating animated shorts for international festival presentation. They collectively merge Japanese tonality with a range of imported European techniques. His first stand-out work is Tales of the Street Corner which portrays the transformation of street posters before, during and after a war. Tezuka animates their graphics to superbly convey the psychological transition people undergo during war.

Shorts Programme 2
Osamu Tezuka, 128 mins, Japan, 1973-91, colour, Betacam *

This selection of Tezuka's shorts presents a range of his narrative tales expressed through heightened artistry and structural innovation. Extending many of his graphic techniques established in his manga, some of Tezuka's shorts were laboratory experiments in testing how abstract and poetic dramatic action could be rendered. His definitive statement here is Legend of The Forest which mirrors the development in its plot with changes in style according to the history of animation. Contains AUSTRALIAN PREMIERES.

TV series Programme 1
Osamu Tezuka, Ishiguro Noboru, Hayashi Shigeyuki & Sugiyama Suguru, 92 mins, Japan, 1963-67, colour, Betacam *

4 opening episodes of TV series starring Tezuka's definitive characters. Astro Boy has been made into three series. The first version from 1963 is the landmark series that broke Tezuka into the US market. Black and white and cute all over, the sadness of Astro as the robot pondering his existence rings clearly in this and the colour remake-series from 1980. Kimba The White Lion vies for Astro in terms of distinction and cuteness, while The Amazing Three is a fantabulous mix of aliens, espionage and more cute animals. AUSTRALIAN PREMIERES.

TV series Programme 2
Osamu Tezuka, Katsui Chikao, Akabori Kanji, Kinshito Renzo, Nagaki Tsunehito & Ueda Hidehito, 23mins each, Japan, 1967-90, colour, Betacam *

4 opening episodes from some of Tezuka's less know anime TV series. Princess Knight is the original girls' own manga of Tezuka's, and it puts femininity into overdrive with its gender-bending convolutions. Marvellous Melmo is a tragic tale of a young girl who can change her age with the aid of metamorphosis pills. Vampire is a crazy mix of live-action and animation, while The Three-Eyed One is a cute mix of mysticism and philosophical journey. Includes AUSTRALIAN PREMIERES.

Complete contents of this page © Philip Brophy (All images © Tezuka Productions)