Korean and Japanese Animation at the NYICFF

The New York International Children's Film Festival, a traditional celebration of children's educational and entertainment materials throughout the world, has announced that they will be showing a very unique animated feature film from Korean animator, Sung Baek-yeop, and a film from Japanese animator Hiroyuki Morita (after showing films from Russian animator Ilya Maximov, and Japanese animator Katsuhiro Otomo) amongst other great works of professional filmmaking and artistry. The New York International Children's Film Festival celebrates the wonderfully unique character of children, as the subject of film work and as the audience for film work, in this month-long presentation.

At present, there is a scheduled showing of Sung Baek-yeop's Oseam --- This film about a young boy who achieves Nirvana, adapted from a fairytale by the famed writer-poet Jeong Chae-bong, took top prize at the Annecy Animation Festival. Oseam is the lyrical story of a five year-old boy, Gilson, traveling in search of his mother. Believing that she will be found in the place where the wind starts, Gilson sets out on a journey with his blind older sister—a journey that progresses from physical search to spiritual quest as the movie unfolds. Brother and sister meet up with a pair of Buddhist priests and are taken to live in the local temple, where Gilson's innocence and mischievousness stir up the quiet life of the monastery. One day at the approach of winter Gilson is left alone at a remote mountain retreat, just as the snow begins to fall. Longing to meet his mother just for a day, for a few hours, or even for five minutes, Gilson prays eagerly, and at the moment that Gilson's wish at last comes true there is a miraculous rain of sad flowers at the small mountain temple. Oseam is awash in subtle beauty, with details of

daily life illustrated against a watercolor background of forests, streams and the changing seasons. Simple drama and lighthearted humor set up the film's deeper themes of vision and blindness, ignorance and truth, longing and loss, finally building to the beautiful and tragic climax. While the ambiguous ending may at first seem unsettling to Western audiences, Gilson's transformation in fact signifies that he has attained the highest point of human enlightenment; released from earthly desire, fear and loneliness he finds only serenity and love.

At present, there is also a scheduled showing of Hiroyuki Morita's The Cat Returns --- NYICFF presents the New York theatrical premiere of Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns, the top-grossing film of 2002 at the Japanese box office, in Disney’s newly completed English language version featuring the voice talents of Anne Hathaway, Tim Curry, and Elliot Gould. In this unofficial sequel to the 1992 Whisper of the Heart, a quiet suburban schoolgirl, Haru, is pitched into a fantastical but dangerous world and must find her inner strength to make her way back home. Walking with her friend after a dreary day at school, Haru eyes a cat with a small gift box in its mouth attempting to cross a busy street. The cat fumbles the package in the middle of the road as a truck is rapidly bearing down. Haru grabs her friend's lacrosse stick and manages to scoop the cat away to safety. To her amazement, the cat then gets up on its hind legs, brushes itself off, and thanks her very politely. Strange behavior indeed, but this is nothing compared to what happens later that evening when the King of Cats shows up in a feline motorcade replete with vassals,

maidens, and even Secret Service cats. In a show of gratitude for saving his son’s life the cat king showers Haru with gifts—including a large supply of individually wrapped live mice—and decrees that she shall marry the cat prince and come live as a princess in the secret Kingdom of Cats. Made by the famed animation studio that created Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, The Cat Returnstargets a markedly younger audience, yet still retains the dazzlingly drawn action sequences and touching humanism that we've come to expect from Studio Ghibli.

About the Film Festival: The New York International Children's Film Festival Awards Statuette was created by world-renowned sculptor Tom Otterness whose installations can be seen in Manhattan on the Broadway Mall on the Upper West Side and in Hudson Park in Battery Park City. For more information on the Children's Film Festival, such as the times the beforementioned feature films will be showing and on what days they will be showing, go to their website: Available Here.