Japanese Film Competition (Short Length)
Tulip-chan
- Onsite
- 7.15 (Mon) 13:20 Audio Visual Hall
- 7.18 (Thu) 10:30 Convention Hall
- Online
- 7.20 (Sat) 10:00 - 7.24 (Wed) 23:00
©sakichi
Director: Saki WATANABE
Cast: Heidi SATOU, Ai IZAKI, Rinka YAMAZAKI, Yuki FUJISAWA, Yasuka KURITA, Haruki KUBOTA, Thankyoutatsuo
2024 / Japan / 19min.
Elementary school girl Tulip-chan’s dream for the future is for her grandchildren to celebrate her sixtieth birthday. Her own beloved grandmother has passed away, and her family life is somewhat turbulent. Tulip-chan has always had trouble fitting in. One day, another girl comes up to her and announces that she is her child, come from the future. Will Tulip-chan’s dream come true? Saki Watanabe completed this film as her graduation project for a Film and Media degree at Tohoku University of Art and Design. She directed, wrote the screenplay, animated it, and composed the music for this film, which portrays Tulip-chan as she grows up and has poignant encounters in a world full of both distortion and loveliness. By the time we hear the ending song—with words and lyrics also by the director herself—the world of the film has won us over utterly. Tulip-chan will have its world premiere at the festival.
Director: Saki WATANABE
Born in 2001 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. A 2024 graduate of Tohoku University of Art and Design’s Film and Media department, she studied drawing and painting at Kenichiro Mizuno’s Maifai kaiga jikken-shitsu, and has exhibited her visual art work. She made her first animation, Inu no Kyōkun, as a class assignment during her third year at university. She enjoyed the experience so much that she enrolled in Takayuki Nakamura’s seminar group in her fourth year and went on to create Tulip-chan. In addition to animation, she also creates music and palindromes.
Message
Hello. I am truly grateful for the invitation to participate in this wonderful film festival. This is my graduation thesis film. I wrote the screenplay, did the animation and editing, and scored the film all myself—before the voice actors finally contributed their wonderful voices. Is it all a joke, or all serious? Sweet or grotesque? The work has inspired a range of responses, depending on who watched it and how many times. Please do feel free to watch it multiple times—I’d love to hear your thoughts.
