Koji Yamamura

Koji Yamamura

出生 : 1964-06-04, Nagoya, Japan

略歴

Kōji Yamamura is a Japanese independent animator who, after leaving a career as a background artist at an animation studio, directs, writes, edits, animates, creates the model sheets and background art for and sometimes produces his own short films and has worked on many commissions such as music videos, television advertisements, title sequences and station idents, both on his own and under or with other directors. He is also a regular illustrator of children's literature and textbooks.

プロフィール写真

Koji Yamamura
Koji Yamamura

参加作品

ミニミニポッケの大きな庭で
Producer
When it shrinks, it expands. It floats and it sinks. It separates but connects. When I think I’m watching them, they're actually watching me. A charming animation rhyme that weaves together the many days of observing, recording, and experimenting.
九一九
Producer
A man is walking along the beach. Then a demon, the man’s pain, appears and chases him. The pain is unbearable, coursing through his entire body. He somehow manages to get away, but eventually, he returns to the ocean even though he knows that the demon will appear again if he goes there.
フンおちた山とんだ
Producer
Bird poo fell in love with the hill but the hill is taken away high above the clouds. Poo is devastated. But then, a triangular telescope falls from the sky and it's showing what the hill is seeing.
冬のスターフルーツ
Producer
It's winter but my heart and the classroom are hot. Unexpectedly I got my hands on a star fruit, but I never told anyone about the taste.
薄明
Producer
One cold and damp morning, two weasels were wandering the quiet streets. They get separated at one point but are reunited. Just then, bells and alarms began to ring through the city, and dawn came.
残り香
Producer
The film expresses the sense of being left behind. It stems from the realities of my childhood and how they did not match up with what I was feeling back then.
幾多の北
Original Music Composer
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.
幾多の北
Editor
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.
幾多の北
Screenplay
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.
幾多の北
Producer
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.
幾多の北
Visual Effects
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.
幾多の北
Animation
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.
幾多の北
Creator
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.
幾多の北
Director
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.
骨噛み
Producer
A little girl reflects on her last summer with her father at his funeral.
おうふくにくふうお
Producer
Kaibun are palidromes in which words sound the same when read backwards and forwards. Sometimes the meaning changes, and sometimes not. I brought this playful and poetic world to life.
Siete voi qui, Ser Brunetto?
Production Supervisor
Inspired by the Fifteenth canto of the Divine Comedy, in which Dante meets his teacher, Brunetto Latini.
Wareware no 2
Producer
Commemorating the 700th anniversary of Dante's death, the film is a reinterpretation of Dante and Beatrice's reunion story, from "Vita Nova" to the three parts of the "Divine Comedy" (Hell, Purgatory and Heaven). Where are we, young people, now? Where should we go? Since 2020, it has become clear that young people are free to choose anything. We can even choose to live or die. The new world is coming. Let's jump into it with love for ourselves and for others.
ホッキョクグマすっごくひま
Writer
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.
ホッキョクグマすっごくひま
Digital Producer
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.
ホッキョクグマすっごくひま
Painter
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.
ホッキョクグマすっごくひま
Animation
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.
ホッキョクグマすっごくひま
Producer
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.
ホッキョクグマすっごくひま
Director
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.
わたしのトーチカ
Producer
I'm the only one who can't live without an oxygen tank in the underwater world. No matter how suffocated I feel, I preserve peace and harmony by pretending the selfish girl and my friends with complicated family backgrounds don’t bother me.
親愛なるウイルスたちへ
Producer
This work is a missive to the life form we call viruses in the hope that we can coexist. The relationship between humans and viruses is poetically expressed from a different perspective.
あまねにっき
Producer
This work is based on 15 years of entries in the diary that I’ve kept since age eight. Through creating this work I was searching for freedom from my preconceptions about animation and myself.
Brother
Producer
When I was a kid, my big brother became obsessed with the 90s Japanese subculture of teenage guys who were known as "Gyaru-o." His odd appearance totally mystified me so I started to sneak into his room to look for his secrets.
エンタメストラック
Producer
TV shows, manga, music, movies, plays, pop stars and cartoon characters. I watch videos on my phone with the TV blaring and music in the background. I’m swimming in media... Is this the other side of the screen?! Awesome!
MUNCH MUNCH
Producer
How to make this mysterious cake? The ingredients include blue eggs, cookie flowers, pillow stuffing and much more.
赤
Producer
I conveyed my love and gratitude to a certain deceased physician amidst the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, while a personal shopper expressed the same emotions from yet a different place.
正義紛争
Producer
Everyone has a sense of justice. The protagonist thinks her ideas are right and voices her opinions through protests for social justice. One day the demonstration turns violent. Maybe we could live in peace if self-righteousness were to disappear.
blink
Producer
That moment of refreshing sensation when drinking a soda in the hot summer.
息抜きのすすめ
Producer
No doubt negative enery is going to accumulate in my body today, tomorrow and the day after. When that happens, I'll have my own way of release.
ミミズを拾ってみた
Producer
Far away from her hometown, the little fox studies in a foreign country. The monotonous days and bare relationships make her increasingly homesick. But one day, she finds the curiosity that she had once lost and takes a new step.
たらこを触ったら
Producer
When I touched the sack of cod roe for the first time, it felt exactly like my thighs. It was light pink and so soft. Maybe my whole world is made of squishy fish eggs.
ネズミとプリズム
Producer
The mouse finds a prism and it reveals to him a magnificent rainbow like he's never seen before. He tries to show his friends but for some reason it won't reappear. It seems beauty has a mind of its own.
いちご飴
Producer
She keeps a secret that can't be told, and gradually forgets it. The girl is no longer sure whether what she remembers happened in reality or in a dream.
おうさま・ひめ・ぶた・こじき
Producer
日本の現代社会で起こるパラレルな人生譚。運命は、ある手遊び歌ではその人が持つ名前で決まるが、現実はどうなるかわからない。彼らは誰かの掌で転がされているのか、無常を生きているのか。
母の手、娘の髪
Producer
The little girl has a complex because she doesn’t look like her mom, and the mom wants her daughter to look more ladylike. Their faces don’t look alike, but their hands do. The girl treasures this resemblance, which also enables the mom to treat her daughter with tenderness.
わたしたちの家
Producer
Alice goes alone. She opens the doors like she let her legs do the leading and she finds various houses by various people. This work expresses the landscape or the figure of love that we're keen from the bottoms of our hearts, with(using) various images and motifs.
家の前に大きな木がある
Producer
It should have been an ordinary day, but it was very different from usual. There was a large crowd in front of my grandma’s house. Where did people come from and where are they going? I was peeping at them behind the window, but the big tree obstructed my view.
私はモチーフ
Producer
There are three "Motifs". The complete differences between them make themselves self-doubt. The melody begins, and the music motif could not resist the impulse to dance, but the others also catching up ... Am "I" also a "Motif"? This film uses a Fugue from Bach, tries to unify similar concepts that exist in different forms, including music, visual arts, and narrative.
Strangers in the Alley
Producer
Deep down the alley the black cat has entered is a town where nonhuman beings live in peace. The cat returns to his home to rest when suddenly he hears a strange sound coming from next door.
化猫ヤス
Producer
Yasu is a cat over 20 years old. He's still alive and kicking in the house he was left behind.
鉄工所
Producer
A small family-owned iron factory was closed down. What will remain of it?
WOKE
Producer
Right there in that little gap between fantasy and reality, me and you, movies and videos, concrete and abstract, is that nice cozy space.
光の表象
Producer
My deceased great-grandmother had been a part of my life as a portrait on the wall. I searched for ways to substantiate her life inside me and decided to photograph and develop pictures of her at two different ages.
イヌ
Producer
Once upon a time, a man killed the king's pet dog. He was executed and reincarnated as a canis but with the memory of his past life as a man.
WildAid 'Hankograph'
Director
Ivory consumption in Japan is a bit of a problem. It needs to be stamped out.
ゆめみのえ
Director
The painter Kuwagata Keisai lived over 200 years ago. He created 'Ways to Sketch', a series of picture books illustrating humans and animals, all richly expressed. One day he was sketching out a carp, just at that moment he slept and he became a carp in dream. A carp was enjoy to swimming, but a fisherman caught that carp...
何度でも忘れよう
Producer
Why do you want acceptance? If it's not going to happen, then forget about what it was you wanted acknowledged and just have some soup, like always.
Where is my home?
Producer
Here, everyone is an outlander. But something's not right. Everyone else has a place to sit at the table, a home to return to at will. Not him. Lonely as it may be, he will look ahead and find his place here.
ウミウシ
Producer
Two brothers are drawing pictures in art class, but they see completely different things. The younger one is confused by the behavior of his brother, who is lost in his own world. But then, his big brother shares his beautiful world of gentle sea creatures.
Ψυχή
Producer
One day, while the main character is dozing off, he is abandoned by the owner of the shadow that he lives in. This creature who has lost his home wanders through the night city in search of his shadow.
外に出ない日
Producer
On days I don't want to leave the house, I enjoy watching TV and videos on my smartphone. I'm supposed to be at home but the screen keeps taking me elsewhere and I lose my grip on my whereabouts and reality.
鬼とやなり
Producer
This house rattling spirit has lived in this old house for generations. But the old woman who lives there as the final resident can no longer hear the noises it makes, which leaves the house rattler filled with a sense of longing.
Behind Us
Producer
One day a girl notices a distortion in her surrounding environment, which prompts her to start searching for her own connection with the world. But, the distortions become even more extreme. She wonders if the deviation is happening within her, or in the outside world.
雲梯
Producer
It's summer vacation and all the kids in the neighborhood have left to visit relatives. But there in the relentless glare of the sun, is a boy looking up at the sky.
ワンダフル千鳥足 in ワンダーランド
Producer
Heartbroken, I bought a bottle of wine and drank it walking home. A tipsy journey reconstructed using the Japanese traditional storytelling method "rakugo."
水母
Producer
The girl wished to transcend her own body and become a jellyfish. She was drawn to the figure of the jellyfish floating freely in the sea.
あの夏に二人でいた
Producer
Summer is coming to an end. A little girl on the beach remembers the days spent giggling and dancing with her friend. The goodbyes and memories intertwine in a mesh of sorrow and joy.
雪解けをきいて
Producer
A girl made of unmelted snow has fallen in love with the dragon who brings spring. A story of changing seasons and thawing hearts.
A Pawn
Producer
In a land where there are no enemies or allies is a lone soldier. He spends his days sculpting wood with his bayonet. And then one day, out of the blue, an enemy stands before him.
降霊ダイヤルの恐怖
Producer
"You're right. There was a bug–I killed it." Late at night, only one voice wafts around the room. What lies on the other end of the telephone line is anyone's guess...
湿らない 腐らないおいしく まろやか
Producer
Now a grown woman, I sit on the train recollecting my childhood. That morning field baking in the sun. Making one bamboo-leaf boat after the other. The smoke from the fireworks spreading like a thick fog. And to those memories I say, "Welcome back."
うめぼしパトロール
Producer
A girl goes for a ramble in the neighborhood. The friendly dog is barking as usual. Oh, there goes a cat. Wait, no, it's just a shopping bag. The old guys are laughing about something. I know a lot about this town, and yet there's a lot that I don’t know.
舞空
Producer
Clouds flow by. Pictures evaporate. When the act of drawing is in tune with nature’s ways, an ancient poetry echoes through the sky and in due time brings rain.
死の商人
Producer
One day a boy encounters a street vendor who sells chicks.Even the boy knows these birds will die very soon. To his eyes, the man is selling none other than death itself.
くじらの湯
Executive Producer
Mizuki Kiyama's short animation utilizes a paint on glass technique to render a young girl's visit to a neighborhood sento (bath house) with her mother with dazzling sensuous wonder. Evoking childish fascination at daily rituals, this quotidian act amidst feminine intimacy becomes a space of otherworldly fantasy.
Pupa
Producer
How long has it been since she lost control of her body? She is completely tapped out and finds herself wishing that she could just shed her body.
あたまのからだ
Producer
We have limited control over our bodies, and we can't change ourselves at will. While I yearn for complete freedom, I also want to make peace with my frustration.
あの地
Producer
This story is about a place long ago, before birth and before death, that everyone knows and no one knows.
ナマハゲのお盆帰り
Producer
A visitor shows up in the middle of the night at the countryside house that Miyako shares with her father. Miyako goes to wake up her father, but the creature enters the house. Miyako stands frozen.
ライオンナニーの旅
Producer
Lion Nanny rides the train and embarks on a life journey while interacting with those around her.
かえりみち
Producer
The borderland between sleeping and waking is the moment when the daughter melds into her father.
わたしとあさみちゃんとベロベロおじさん
Producer
A dog we like to pet on the way home from school, an eccentric guy, and ringing doorbells as a prank. That's our life in this town.
Take Me Home
Producer
Brothers eating dinner, a girl watering the plants, a boy awakening in the night… The daily scenery from the house where they all lived at one point or another.
女友だち
Producer
Reminiscing the days I spent with an old friend, facing up to the narrow but deep gap that lies between us.
たいふう14号
Producer
Okinawa is ominous right before the arrival of a typhoon. At first, Anri is excited by the unusual turn of events, but gradually she becomes fearful of the threatening typhoon. Then, her big sister tells her that typhoons have an eye...
性格変更スクール
Producer
Mimi is fed up with her pathetic self. One day she walks along looking at the ground like usual when she notices a suspicious flyer.
マイリトルゴート
Producer
A mother goat rescues her kids from the belly of a wolf, but where is her eldest son Toruku?
真珠草
Producer
A woman traces her memories through a pearl ring, and comes upon her mother gazing at the same ring. But her memories soon lose their outline and become enclosed within the pearl.
あしたから
Producer
We go to sleep in hopes for a better tomorrow. The moment of truth nears as our eyes slowly open to the new day…
わたしルール
Producer
A girl heading home from school is met with a bigger version of herself who poses arbitrary challenges with unspeakable consequences. The little girl tries to keep up but suddenly the stakes are raised.
毎日は踊りたいことだらけ
Producer
For her, dance is life. And life is dance. Every tingle in her heart gets her swinging to the beat.
七転び八起き七種目
Producer
Bloopers in sports are different from the blunders we make in everyday life but they tend to share similar physical movements. The title comes from an old Japanese saying about recovering from bad happenings.
いつもいっしょ
Producer
Two sisters stay at home alone. They spend their time in their own worlds, at times in synch with each other and other times disconnected.
A4 Microcosm
Producer
Microorganisms propagate, gather, and transform into an A4 sheet of paper. You can feel signs of life within the page.
箱の中の天使
Producer
This video installation is an experiment that imagines the canvas as a box and animates images within that space.
潮騒にかえる
Producer
A white lump appears at a landfill site with an ocean view and slowly heads for the sea. It is anxious to find a place to return.
モフモフィクション
Producer
Fluffy turtles, fluffy monkeys, fluffy lizards. Discover the world populated by these mysteriously charming imaginary creatures. They have adorably fluffy bodies and are becoming an ever more common sight in daily life.
花とラルバ
Producer
There's a pet caterpillar named Larva in my class. I don't like bugs but Larva is sweet and we become friends. But one day, I am faced with a horrible choice.
忘れ たまり
Producer
Shiroinu writes down the day’s events before he goes to sleep. One day, he opens a drawer buried in the snow and finds old diary entries. He realizes that he’s forgotten the sensations and emotions from that time to the extent that he feels like he’s reading about someone else’s life.
light of temptation
Producer
The angel of wind exhales, sending fluffy dandelion seeds into a slow dance. Wind and light guide the downy seeds into the magical world of botany.
怪獣神話
Producer
In the moments before death, one of the Battling Gods recalls his defeat in a magnificent fight. That battle transcended meta worlds, time and parallel universes as the Battling God faced off with another of his kind. All living creatures celebrated their fight with cries of joy.
Time Autobahn
Producer
A speeding car leaps onto the highway of Time and hurtles forward -- its velocity is limitless.
あかばしは落ちた
Producer
Everyone crosses the Red Bridge and yet no one likes him. One day, he falls into the deep valley.
四季
Supervising Producer
A Japanese-produced animated film using Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons as its soundtrack. The four seasons all have separate animation directors. Its production was partly crowdfunded. The film premiered in Kitakyushu in 2017 along with a live performance of the Four Seasons and this performance was recorded and distributed to supporters of the project.
怪物学抄
Director
An animated archive of imaginary monsters written by a fictitious mosterologist in Medieval Europe.
yelp
Producer
Once we used to be happy and grateful for the pure act of eating.
The Story of a Motorbike
Producer
A motorbike yearns to return to its good old days. One day it takes a courageous leap to its own future.
AEON
Producer
Self-replicating entities that have evolved on different planets merge and proliferate exponentially. In search of more energy sources, they consume other stars.
Candy.zip
Producer
Aoko is confident about the documents she creates at work, but doesn't get any positive feedback. Then, she witnesses her colleague secretly changing the documents she created. Aoko is turned into a piece of candy to keep her quiet…
大丈夫だよ
Producer
This film is an allegory towards clumsy people. Having met egocentric people, I go down the stairs of melancholia. I get swallowed up by the waves that I myself create. I know life is not only bad... But who am "I"? What am "I"?
華
Producer
This film shows various images of flowers growing, blossoming and losing their petals.
RINGING CITY
Producer
Big cities are glutted with information. Unconscious curiosity, hidden under apparent indifference, invites us into a noisy loop.
死ぬほどつまらない映画
Producer
One day the protagonist watches a movie with friends. She finds the film to be boring and reveals her discontent, but somehow nobody agrees with her.
逃避のイカ
Producer
One rainy day, a squid falls on a crosswalk. A businessman and a homeless man see the squid and get lost in their own fantasies.
There was a man
Producer
An one-armed mountaineer encounters a lost arm on a mountain of salt. Who did it belong to? Why was it left there?
South Forest
Producer
The story about a Palestinian girl who feeds animals at the zoo.
Cosmopolite
Producer
A subtle and softened x-ray tinted journey through an opaque, undescribed stratosphere.
少女ノスフェラトゥ
Producer
The story of Nosferatu vampires glimpsed by a boy who gets lost in a forest.
Water Dream
Director
This film depicts evolution from birth of life to whale in the sea with music and images by dedication to the American contemporary composer George Klum's "Vox Balaenae (1971)" .There are 4 part, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
Writer
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.
Producer
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.
Animation
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.
Director
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.
夏の女神の口の中
Producer
The beach is packed in a Chinese resort. People are enjoying the summer holidays. An abrupt thundershower makes them run around in a flurry.
まゆみ
Producer
Mayumi is a spoiled girl whose parents buy her everything she wants. She names her name "Mayumi" to everything she receives, and her room is gradually filled with many Mayumis. Mayumi herself gets swallowed by the characters of her name.
Red Forest
Producer
Amii runs and runs on a bloodstained earth, through dark forests and warm fields. She keeps running in fear.
見跡
Producer
Memories from the ancient times have been engraved on his body. "Where do we come from?"he asks,"Where are we going?" Would the light guide us there? This is a journey of blind pursuit for wisdom.
ふりだし
Producer
You always stumble before reach. The glass in your hand gets chipped every time. Then everything should start again from the start. There are, however, things you can discover only through repetition. The answer resides in yourself.
CHARON 冥王星の孤独
Producer
This is the story of Pluto, a planet that has been removed from the solar system and is wandering alone in the vastness of space, and its satellite, Charon, which hovers around Pluto.
腕の多い男
Producer
Many arms cling to a man. He doesn’t like it but he believes the situation will never change.
Umbrella
Producer
In the world of constant black rain, people live under umbrellas’ protection. One day a man threw his umbrella away, which resulted to brought him a green plant, only existing green in that world. People desire his plant and start to scramble for it.
静寂
Producer
Short animation by Simon Feat at Tokyo University of the Arts
牛乳の麓
Producer
A woman pours milk from the top of the mountain. At the foot of the mountain a man milks and pours it into a tank. One evening his pigeon doesn’t come back as usual, and finally it brings back small miracle from a woman. 1st year work 2016, Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Department of Animation
RADIO WAVE
Producer
Numbers stations were prominently used during the Cold War. A boy was tuning the radio in the snow mountain and happened to tune the shortwave of codes.
てのひらのにわ
Producer
The Rakugo story of PARROT is told by a Rakugo-ka, or a lone storyteller formed of Japanese characters.
Film Adventurer Karel Zeman
Self
A look at the life, work and importance of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman (1910-89), a genius of world cinema, a wizard of special effects, revealing his sources of inspiration and his revolutionary filming techniques.
シミアソビ
Producer
A game to find image in a chance. In this Aleatoricism there are much more potentials than what I have moved.
The Yellow Ball
Producer
A mysterious yellow ball falls down into the present city across time and space. It involves many people and unfolds various dramas.
Crossing Sight
Producer
Various visions of life and death, as seen from an operation table. Did the operation succeed ? Is the patient still alive ?
四角い車輪の再発明
Producer
On various forms expanded in all directions and a dance by a man in tights.
白いうなばら
Producer
Mother secretly threw a letter of her daughter in the snow ocean. The daughter in suspicion, followed her mother and sneak into a boat. She waits for a thaw with unreached feelings
Tepid Bath
Producer
The borderline of water, a body, or a bathtub gets more and more unclear. All are mixed together in the lukewarm water.
きつね憑き
Producer
In the evening of a village festival, a young boy named Bunroku goes to the festival with his friend and visits a clog shop on the way. There he learns an old superstition about the fox.
月夜&オパール
Producer
Half asleep with my eyes closed, my conscience flies beyond time and space and I transform myself to all the life forms existing. I become the universe and the universe becomes me, until I fall asleep.... It is a song to pray for the existence of heart and soul at an awakening.
ズドラーストヴィチェ!
Producer
On a summer day an strange man who teaches Russian at the beach took me to a town. The familiar town looked totally fresh from a different point of view. The man should be there at the beach tomorrow.
00:08
Producer
This piece takes 8 seconds, and creates intervals between the frames, and then makes them bigger. It's about expansion and enlargement, not the passage of time. 8 seconds becomes that much more luxuriant.
日々の罪悪
Producer
Guiltee is an art university student who is slacking off on her school work and feels horrible about it. Plus, she's confused about her family and Christianity, and she can't even get her ex-boyfriend to accept a small present she bought for him.
おでかけ
Producer
He lives his life everyday like it's nothing special. Today he eats, gets dressed, and heads out once again.
澱みの騒ぎ
Producer
The two of them, all alone at home. All alone with her father's corpse. Memories, ideals, and reality all sink beneath the muck. Everyone is alone. Everyone is in solitude.
Through the Windows
Producer
The gaze of a woman from a window at other windows leads to a recollection of various scenes. The metamorphosed windows transfer, expand, reflect, conserve, and sometimes shine like a lighthouse.
黄色い気球とばんの先生
Producer
One day out of the blue Prof. Banno of came to school with his hair shaven. Students made fun of his bald head. Prof. Banno flew in a hot air balloon the next day. Nobody knows anything about what happened to him after that
My Dear
Producer
At the waterside surrounded by factories and waste lives a white frog. It loves a goldfish who also lives in the neighbourhood. Recently the goldfish appears to be in poor health, which worries the frog.
Spoon
Producer
A boy’s spoon falls on the floor when he is having breakfast. The moment he is trying to pick it up, the boy is thrown into a different world. There he begins the adventure to take his spoon back
ああ/良い
Producer
When the mind says aah, the body says hee. I dance around the confusion and the consensus, and my whole life is getting composed of these dances.
Flower Bud
Producer
The uncertainty, struggles, and joy of the moment upon becoming an adult. Between lullabies and songs I hum to myself. Between a man and myself. That subtle flickering in a single instant, forgotten once it is over. Never forget that moment...
Mrs. KABAGOdZILLA
Producer
‘Mrs. KABAGodZILLA had a daughter whose feet and arms looked just like her own.’ Mother and child were always together, but the mother's hospitalization makes the daughter remember the past, and think a little about what lies ahead.
Koppu no naka no Koushi
Producer
The father tells his daughter Nunu a lie that there is a cow in her milk cup. She believes it and drinks up milk, but there isn't any cow. Her father tells her a variety of lies, which Nunu finds increasingly difficult to believe.
夜ごはんの時刻
Producer
Playtime ends at the five o'clock chime. And there comes the indefinable time between vanishing playtime and dinner time at home.
Maze King
Producer
We cannot stay here any longer. We must leave tomorrow morning. A clown convinces and hurries the residents of an amusement park, a girl, a gay, a soldier, a dog, to be in time for the merry-go-round.
底なしウィンナー
Producer
How to spend a ten-minute break at club activities. Let us take off [our] shoes and socks, and enjoy the fresh breeze between our toes. We are all flesh after all.
石から
Producer
Four years ago while out for a walk in Ome, I picked up an intriguing stone of 30cm across. Then I wanted to pursue its image until its ultimate end.
USALULLABY
Producer
Increasing in number, small rabbits take care of a great dolphin. Can the dolphin get to sleep by rabbits’ gentle caress? May many people have a good sleep and sweet dreams tonight even in the world with whining sounds and wriggle of yin and yang.
連
Producer
The theme is ‘one continues to live, leaving his trace.’ It is an abstract animation in which movement is done by repetition of pencil drawings and erasure on a piece of paper.
Ishikeri
Producer
All of a sudden, a boy starts to play hopscotch. Kicking stone[s] is. . . simply play, but it doesn’t work as simply as it seems. He struggles by the rule he made himself.
春成つむぎ
Producer
This animation shows how the liquid in a glass erupts, spreads, mixes, and overflows.
かみさまのはらわた
Producer
A spring night, I walked past a ‘god’. I wonder if it was a cat or a man. Or was it a wind I felt in a slumber? They were certainly there, celebrating the cycle of lives in small ways.
なんでもない
Producer
I get up in the morning, prepare myself, wait for a bus, then the train, go to school, and return home. Days go by even while I wonder about, cry, or sleep.
私の額縁
Producer
Suffering from her delusion, K tries to depict her disorder in her paintings. In her dream, she finds a frame, which makes her believe that drawing is her destiny.
Five Fire Fish
Director
Created using "Etching on film" from the NFB's McLaren's Workshop Application.
古事記 日向篇
Director
A festival cut/compilation of the animated segments made by Yamamura Kouji for a TV documentary by NHK, Kojiki Girl Travelogue (古事記ガール 日向路を旅する). The 4 episodes that compose The Hyuga Episode of Kojiki are: #1 The Cleansing (禊/ Misogi, 3’17”) #2 Sun Goddess Amaterasu (天照大御神/ Amaterasu Ookami, 2’11”) #3 Flowering Tree (木花之佐久夜毘売/ Konohananosakuya-bime, 2’31”) #4 Umisachi and Yamasachi (海佐知山佐知/ Umisachi Yamasachi, 3’30”)
就活狂想曲
Producer
The heroin has been living life as an undergraduate. There is nothing remarkable about her. However, she has noticed there is something strange about her friends recently. She learned that they were getting mad about ‘job-hunting’. Without realizing what it is, the heroine also gets drawn into the Nipponese job-hunting swirl.
空の卵
Producer
The film is about a family, that runs a chicken farm. The boy hankers after birds and his little sister keeps an eye on him. The father loves eggs. The mother loves somebody else. In the family fixture, each member stays there with bias or secrets.
ほこり犬のはなし
Producer
The film is of the memory love and gratitude of the dusty dog, and many other dogs, tracing their senses and memories, dedicating to you who gave love to them.
The Man Who Ate an Apple
Producer
An apple comes out of a man’s mouth. The man’s life goes backward, as video player is reversed. Many kinds of food accelerated to come out of his mouth and the man becomes younger and younger. Time goes back without end.
Awaiting
Producer
A man is waiting for someone in a small boat. In loneliness he keeps waiting for someone. For whom, or why he is waiting is not very important. He wishes to see the sight of formless ‘happiness,’ which can vanish in a blink of an eye as long as possible.
食べる人たち
Producer
People can show some other personality when eating. Some become like herbivores, chewing so many times. Some becomes like carp, crowing around bait. Some become like hamsters, with their mouths full, etc. Everyone is unique and worth observation.
花と嫁
Producer
A bride runs at full speed, with her veil flapping, and with steam. When you happen to encounter a bride in her wedding dress, you would love to bless her with a wave of your hand. Brides symbolize beauty and happiness. They are also athletes who won their happiness.
夜から来た人たち
Producer
At night, the child sees the sandy figure coming into his room. It lures his stuffed animal away from the shelf and they are gone beyond the hill. Following them to get his stuffed animal back, the child goes into the deep darkness of the night. . .
夕化粧
Producer
The film is set in China in the 1960s. An old woman cools herself in the garden. The sunset makes the sky orange. Sunset flower starts to bloom. The flower guides her to daydream. The woman dreams of her childhood memories and when she was young and beautiful.
マイブリッジの糸
Director
Koji Yamamura's allegory the immutability of time, love and devotion, and the unbreakable nature of the parent-child bond, into interlacing story.
雪山のライチョウ
Producer
A man blown by a blizzard on Snow Mountain wants to return to his warm home.
Spots Spots
Producer
A young man is drawing sketches of birds in the woods. The spotted pattern of the bird’s wings begins to scatter. He gradually becomes mesmerized by the pattern.
イルカから
Producer
The image of dolphins ties together this story.
Scripta volant
Producer
I try to set this work – a film using texts, or a film-book – between watching and reading. This film is dedicated to J.L. Borges, a great artist, who had translated The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde at his early childhood, became one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and continued to publish the works by dictation even after losing his eyesight.
鶴下絵和歌巻
Director
"Anthology with Cranes" is a 17th Century scroll painting by Sotatsu Tawaraya, measuring over 13 meters long. Koji Yamamura attempts to decipher this painting by interpreting it as animation.
Woman Who Stole Fingers
Producer
One day, a boy who separated from his mother’s hand is deprived of his fingers. His fingers become a larva and part from his hand. The house. . . conceal[s] a relationship between the two from anyone. How does the boy who is deprived of his fingers grow up?
くちゃお
Producer
Nobody in a class loves ‘Kuchao’ who cannot live without. . . gum. When all [his] classmates fly their balloons, he wouldn’t let his go. After school, on his way home, he gets to his own imaginary world with a bubble gum. His balloon turns to be a face and to many things as he chews [his] gum. His imagination doesn’t stop flying. Then comes a bird. . .
Googuri Googuri
Producer
Story of a girl’s imagination. ‘Googuri Googuri’ is a made up word, a secret word shared by a girl and her grandfather. For the granddaughter, her grandfather is at times like a mountain, at times like a tree, at other times like an ocean, and her thoughts take wing into her imagination endlessly.
服を着るまで
Producer
This woman has detached herself from the outside world. For her, it is daily work to feed her bird and to look at the town from her window. Because she doesn’t go out, she does not even put on clothes. However, this daily life has ended. She has run out of the cornflakes that she eats every day. As we get up in the morning and put on clothes, we are alive in a social system. Nobody understands whether it is the correct world. However, even if you escape from the system, the day you have to return will come.
つままれるコマ
Producer
Almost everyone in a contemporary society is picked up and moved by someone or something like a ‘Sugoroku’. The first one which picks up is ‘Parents’. A hero grows up along a ‘Sugoroku’. This work describes. . . the process of his growth as he depends on his parents. . . One day he decides to cut off his relationship with his family.
わからないブタ
Producer
A huge pig lies by a house. The family of the house go about their everyday life, pretending to ignore the pig’s existence.
カフカ 田舎医者
Background Designer
しんしんと雪降り積る、寒い夜のこと。田舎医者は、困り果てていた。急病患者の知らせが入り、すぐに十マイルも離れた患者のところへ行かねばならなかった。女中ローザが近所中を探してくれているが、こんな吹雪の夜に大事な馬を貸してくれるやつなんていないだろう。医者は私が身の不運を嘆いた。腹立ちまぎれに古い豚小屋を一蹴りした。中から現れたのは見知らぬ馬子。驚いたことに立派な馬を二頭も貸してくれるという。見つからないと困り果てていた医者は上機嫌で馬車に飛び乗った。ローザは悲鳴を上げながら家中の電気を消し、馬車は諦めようとする医者を乗せて疾走し、馬子はローザに襲い掛かろうと家の扉を激しく壊した。そして、一瞬にして遠く離れた患者宅に着いてしまった田舎医者・・・・・・。
カフカ 田舎医者
Animation
しんしんと雪降り積る、寒い夜のこと。田舎医者は、困り果てていた。急病患者の知らせが入り、すぐに十マイルも離れた患者のところへ行かねばならなかった。女中ローザが近所中を探してくれているが、こんな吹雪の夜に大事な馬を貸してくれるやつなんていないだろう。医者は私が身の不運を嘆いた。腹立ちまぎれに古い豚小屋を一蹴りした。中から現れたのは見知らぬ馬子。驚いたことに立派な馬を二頭も貸してくれるという。見つからないと困り果てていた医者は上機嫌で馬車に飛び乗った。ローザは悲鳴を上げながら家中の電気を消し、馬車は諦めようとする医者を乗せて疾走し、馬子はローザに襲い掛かろうと家の扉を激しく壊した。そして、一瞬にして遠く離れた患者宅に着いてしまった田舎医者・・・・・・。
カフカ 田舎医者
Director
しんしんと雪降り積る、寒い夜のこと。田舎医者は、困り果てていた。急病患者の知らせが入り、すぐに十マイルも離れた患者のところへ行かねばならなかった。女中ローザが近所中を探してくれているが、こんな吹雪の夜に大事な馬を貸してくれるやつなんていないだろう。医者は私が身の不運を嘆いた。腹立ちまぎれに古い豚小屋を一蹴りした。中から現れたのは見知らぬ馬子。驚いたことに立派な馬を二頭も貸してくれるという。見つからないと困り果てていた医者は上機嫌で馬車に飛び乗った。ローザは悲鳴を上げながら家中の電気を消し、馬車は諦めようとする医者を乗せて疾走し、馬子はローザに襲い掛かろうと家の扉を激しく壊した。そして、一瞬にして遠く離れた患者宅に着いてしまった田舎医者・・・・・・。
こどもの形而上学
Director
校長先生とクジラ
Director
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.
Tokyo Loop
Director
A series of 16 "short stories" created by the creator's group Images Forum.
Fig
Director
A segment for Image Forum Festival 2005's Tokyo Loop
年をとった鰐
Director
An short movie that is illustrated in black and white using rather simple animation. The story is told by a narrator with a lovely British voice that reminded me of Malcolm McDowell and he does all the voices of all the characters as well. The story is about an ageless old crocodile that is quite nasty--even for a croc! Because he's older and lazy, he mostly just sits around doing very little.
Frank & Wendy
Japanese Tourist (voice)
Two American secret agents - Frank and Wendy - are sent to the world's hotbed of danger, known as Estonia. Estonia is a silly place, perhaps even sillier than the agents themselves. Frank and Wendy, for whom saving the world is their daily work, achieve both mental and manual feats with the greatest of ease. It appears that nothing can prevent their ultimate victory, but go figure. The axis of evil does not wither and attacks the super-agents from where they can least expect it...
冬の日
Director
Winter Days is a 2003 animated film, directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names of animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn's, though, is nearly two minutes long).
おまけ
Writer
Short by Koji Yamamura
おまけ
Director
Short by Koji Yamamura
頭山
Animation
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.
頭山
Production Design
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.
頭山
Editor
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.
頭山
Director
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.
どっちにする?
Director
Short by Koji Yamamura
Babel no hon
Director
Short by Koji Yamamura
キッズキャッスル
Director
Short by Koji Yamamura
キップリングJr.
Yohann Kipling
Short by Koji Yamamura
キップリングJr.
Director
Short by Koji Yamamura
Karo and Piyobupt: Ame no hi
Director
The third and last installment in the Karo and Piyobupt series by Koji Yamamura
カロとピヨブプト サンドイッチ
Director
The second short in the series Karo and Piyobupt by Koji Yamamura
カロとピヨブプト-おうち
Director
The first short in the series Karo and Piyobupt by Koji Yamamura
ふしぎなエレベーター
Director
A normal day turns into a day of adventure when an elevator that carries a boy does not stop where it should.
遠近法の箱-博士のさがしもの
Director
Short by Koji Yamamura
Japanese-English Pictionary
Director
Second short by Koji Yamamura
SONODA Video - Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter
Director
The soundless stop-motion paint-on-glass film by Koji Yamamura showcases the different seasons. He created the short in his early career in 1988. It is unclear whether the public could have seen it before its upload on YouTube in 2019.
天体譜
Director
黒澤潤の8ミリ映画。
天体譜
Producer
黒澤潤の8ミリ映画。
水棲
Director
An apple flows down the stream of a mill where innumerable illusions of fish appear and disappear in the sky reflected in the water.
淡水
Director
Early short animation by Koji Yamamura.
小夜曲
Screenplay
小夜曲
Director
博物誌
Director
An animated short film by Yamamura Kouji.
Yoru no hibotan
A romantic melodrama about the shifting relationship between Ryosuke and Miki as their precarious employment and social circumstances shift around them.
窓から飛び出せ
Thief
映画『窓から飛び出せ』は、二組の家族の交流を描いた心温まる作品です。徳山周介(大日方傳)は農業と畜産業を営み、父の理太郎(汐見洋)、弟の勇二(小林桂樹)、妻の藤子(轟夕起子)、4人の子供(うち3人が大日方の息子と娘2人)の8人という大家族で暮らしていました。隣家の藤枝家は、船長だった夫を海での遭難事故で亡くした千栄子(岡村文子)と娘の茉利子(香川京子)、足に障がいがありリハビリを続ける息子の道夫(大日方の息子)の3人家族でした。その徳山家と藤枝家の交流を通して、家族の大切さ、人の優しさが画面いっぱいに映し出されます。
Hand-Drawn: Documentary
Self
An indie documentary exploring the art form of hand-drawn animation through a contemporary lens in the digital era. Featuring insights and anecdotes by hand-drawn animation artists from around the world.