Yamamura Animation

Koji Yamamura's allegory the immutability of time, love and devotion, and the unbreakable nature of the parent-child bond, into interlacing story.

A miserly man eats the pits of some cherries he can't stand throwing out. A tree starts growing from the top of his head. He cuts it off; it grows back. After a while, he gives up and lets it grow, but the crowds that gather on top of his head to enjoy the tree (and leave huge mounds of trash) eventually drive him to uproot the tree. This leaves a crater on top of his head, which fills with water, which becomes a popular lake.

A polar bear who is very bored with various marine animals in the deep blue sea. It continues an ancient tradition of "Caricatures of Frolicking animals" in scroll painting-style; this time, "Frolicking Sea Animals," in animation form, with a play on Japanese and English language word-plays: "Hokyoku-Guma Suggoku Hima. / Polar bear bears boredom", "Kawauso Kawaisou./Other otter, poor otter," etc.

Suffering from a severe case of acute rheumatism, an ancient crocodile is no longer able to take care of himself, let alone hunt to stay alive. One day, in despair, really famished and at the end of his tether, the elderly member of the Nile's peaceful crocodile community resorts to a despicable act of pure cannibalism--a merciless deed that would banish him forever from his beloved place. And then, as the outcast swims in the wide open sea, he befriends a 12-legged octopus. But has the old glutton renounced his former self, or could this be the beginning of a real friendship?

A hapless country doctor describes with breathless urgency a night-time summons to attend a young patient. Events soon take on a surreal aspect as "unearthly horses" transport him instantaneously to the bedside. The doctor, preoccupied with personal distractions and grievances against those he is employed to care for, fails to find what is revealed to be a vile, fatal wound. He is humiliated by the villagers, who are "always expecting the impossible from the doctor," and doomed to an endless return trip, losing everything.

Here, everything is The North. This is an account of the people I met in The North. However, my fragmented memory doesn't capture the essence at all.

A segment for Image Forum Festival 2005's Tokyo Loop

One night Mr. K went for a walk with his pet...

A normal day turns into a day of adventure when an elevator that carries a boy does not stop where it should.

The first short in the series Karo and Piyobupt by Koji Yamamura

Created using "Etching on film" from the NFB's McLaren's Workshop Application.

A Parade for three managers and four performers. Sketchy drawings in a neatly arranged palette, involving quotes from the French composer Erik Satie, set to the music of Parade performed by the Dutch Willem Breuker Kollektief.

Short by Koji Yamamura

A seaside school. In the corridor stands the principal, beloved of the high-spirited youngsters. Gazing at a picture of a whale drawn as a child, the head teacher is swept away with sentiment into a flashback from the past.

An animated archive of imaginary monsters written by a fictitious mosterologist in Medieval Europe.

An animated short film by Yamamura Kouji.

Somewhere between calligraphy, embryology and words from beyond the grave, a convulsive poem wraps itself around the Japanese syllable ‘da’ – a breath that could just as well be the first as the last.

A child whose head is numerals, a child who winds his own face and has it under his arm. What was left is his identity, a child whose eyes are provided by fishes, a child who cannot say anything because of a zipper across his mouth. Ecology and philosophy of children with sadness and humor.

Using the constellation as a motif, the heavens and the earth, metamorphose all the creatures.

Short by Koji Yamamura