This double bill of experimental films showcases Cold Fish director Sion Sono’s early work and the wonderfully oddball Tokyo Cabbageman K from Ogata Akira.
Screening in this programme:
I am Sion Sono!!
Dir Sion Sono/1984/37 min
The movie begins with the director filming himself muttering into the camera in a darkened room for three weeks until his birthday when suddenly, he rushes off with the camera. It records 22-year-old Sono screaming in a weird voice and shaving his head. He uses the medium of film to radically pursue the proof of his existence while sharply closing in on the existence of the film itself at the same time. Sono has consistently destroyed the pre-existing rules of cinema and his creative energy is condensed in this work.
Tokyo Cabbageman K
Dir Ogata Akira/1980/59 min
A young man, “K,” wakes up one morning to find he has turned into a cabbage. When he goes out into town he becomes dragged into various incidents and is chased around. The story is modeled after Kafka’s famous novella but with no interest in portraying emotion or in literary quality. The director captures K as he single-mindedly races throughout the city and creates a new style of action movie. Ogata went on to work as Ishii Sogo’s assistant director and made his feature film directorial debut with Boy’s Choir in 2000.