I attended the wonderful New York / Japan Cinefest, at the Asia Society recently, which was one of the highest quality short film festivals I have seen, in terms of presentation and curation.
During the screening, I took notes on my phone capturing imagery and snippets of subtitles dialogue which, for whatever reason, in this particular series, of short films had a poetic resonance.
"They gave up their lives"
A young girl pulls their stingers from her mother's spine; as she gathers the dead bodies of the honey bees, she tells them "thank you" for sacrificing themselves to cure her mother's muscular sclerosis
The matron of a matcha-making family describes a cup of tea as a creative moment, as you wonder - will it be good? A full bodied, flavorful matcha is a form of happiness.
"When I make dolls of dead people I think about when they were alive. There used to be more people in this town, now there are more dolls; I'll probably live forever"
Kumamoto. I love you.
The young are beautiful, but the old are more beautiful than the young.
If you knew this secret, Tomo, you wouldn't be able to stay in kumamoto
Last night I dreamt I turned into a beetle. You were an oak tree dripping sap on me
She's a stranger But...? yeah. She doesn't know who I am. She'll probably spend the rest of the afternoon wondering.
Momentary incidents may remain in others hears for an eternity