Movies - Shiki-Jitsu

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	Movies - Shiki-Jitsu

Shiki-Jitsu (式日) is Hideaki Anno's second live-action film. Literally translated it means "Ritual Day" or sometimes "Ceremonial Day". The film tells the story of a director who meets an odd young woman in his home town. The story takes place over a period of 33 days. The film was both written and directed by Anno.

The actor playing the director is portrayed by famous indie Japanese filmaker Shunji Iwai. In the original story, the character wasn't a director but a shopkeeper; Anno decided to change the plot.

The woman is played by Ayako Fujitani, who also wrote the original novel Tohimu on which Anno based his screenplay. Fujitani, the daughter of actor Steven Seagal, was inspired to write the book after an emotionally difficult time spent in Los Angeles, during which she played a small role in her father's 1998 feature, The Patriot
.

Shiki Jitsu is characterized by beautiful photography, strongly contrasted psychological characters, and known psychological disorders. During the film there are many instances where animation and drawings are used to show the inner thoughts of "the Woman". Some people believe this is a result of Anno having an animator's background.

The film was released by an offshoot of Studio Ghibli, run by Ghibli's president Toshio Suzuki, Studio Kajino. It was given a première at the Tokyo Photography Museum in Ebisu Garden Place for 6 months, starting on December 7th, 2000.

The film tells the story of a young Director returning to his home town (a suburb of a big Japanese city) and a strange young girl. At first the girl seems very eccentric. For example her saying "tomorrow is my birthday" every day, and wearing very unusual clothing.

But as the days go by, it appears that the woman has little touch with reality, and is constantly escaping into a fantasy world. The Director is a former anime director who is seeking to do a "real film" and embrace reality. The two eventually fall in love. Many parallels can be drawn between the Director and Hideaki Anno, particularly in regard to his relationship between anime and live action films. (See Hideaki Anno for more information.) This quote from the film by "the Director" reflects this mood:

"Images, especially animation, simply embody our personal and collective fantasies, manipulating selected information, and fictional constructs even live-action film, recording actuality, does not correspond to reality conversely, reality, co-opted by fiction, loses its value. 'The inversion of reality and fiction.' None of this matters to me anymore. My consciousness, my reality, my subject, all converge in her. Certainly, she longs to escape into fantasy. Certainly, I long to escape from fantasy." (29:54-30:36)

Eventually, the Director confronts the Woman and her mother, allowing the Woman to make the first steps into the real world. The films ends with the Girl circling the 7th of December as her real birthday, and the words: "beyond the 33rd day: unknown".

Trivia

The end title is Raining, by Cocco. The lyrics convey a sense of mental confusion close to what is pictured in the film :

(...)
With no hair left, this time I tried cutting my arms
I cut and cut and felt a warmth
I danced with my arms covered in blood

You weren't there anymore
There was nothing there, the sun was bright

It was a very bright, sunny day
I couldn't even cry
The earth was too endless, everything was beautiful
In white clothes I came from far away
Not walking in a line, I sung a little
(...)

:: (complete lyrics, with Japanese Romaji transcription and English translation, available )

The DVD box shows the words (in English, without punctuation nor capitalisation) :

he told me i'm useless she told me
my face makes her mad but i'm still here doing
nothing and i feel empty waiting for someone
to hold me i know nobody is coming
he told me to die she told me to see nothing

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