TAAF2019] Opening Film "Ethel and Ernest: Their Story" Screening & Talk Event Report. The film depicts the lives of Raymond Briggs' parents in "The Snowman."

On Friday, March 8, 2019, the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival 2019 (TAAF2019) opened in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.For four days from March 8 to 11, various domestic and international anime works will be screened at various venues, mainly movie theaters in the city of Ikebukuro, as well as awards, a symposium on anime In addition, there will be a variety of events such as award ceremonies and symposiums on animation.

TAAF2019 is an international animation film festival organized by the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival Executive Committee and the Motion Picture Association of Japan, Inc. and co-sponsored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. This is the sixth edition of the festival, which has been held since 2014.

The opening film screened on the same evening was "Ethel and Ernest: A Tale of Two People," a feature-length animated film produced in the UK in 2016. This animated feature film is based on the graphic novel "Ethel and Ernest," which depicts the lives of the parents of Raymond Briggs, a children's book author known for his masterpieces "The Snowman" and "When the Wind Blows. It is a major work that took nine years to produce. Voices are provided by two of Britain's best-known actors, Brenda Bresson ("Secrets and Lies") and Jim Broadbent ("Iris"). The film is directed by Roger Mainwood, who worked on "When the Wind Blows" as an animator, directed "Snowman and Snowdog" and was a close friend of Raymond Briggs. After the decision was made to release the film in Japan in the fall of 20119, Mainwood sadly passed away on September 20, 2018, at the age of 65. This film will be his last work.

The story begins in London in 1928. Ernest, a milkman, and Ethel, a maid, fall in love and get married. Soon after, their beloved son Raymond is born, but World War II begins, and Raymond is evacuated at the age of five. The city of London was damaged by heavy bombing. Ethel and Ernest survive these hardships with a heartwarming sense of humor. Eventually, the war is over and a time of peace arrives, but many problems continue to arise between the two and their family, and they eventually reach old age. ...... This is a work that closely depicts the daily lives of ordinary Londoners.

One of the great things about this film is its detailed artwork. It is easy to imagine that the artist must have had to draw a considerable number of cells in order to create such detailed artwork for this 94-minute feature. Although the film focuses on the difficult period of World War II, the atmosphere of the film is heartwarming. Like the picture design, the series of small episodes of daily life filled with humor in the style of Japanese four-frame manga is similar to "In a Corner of the World," a masterpiece of Japanese animation that captures the same period of time. In a sense, it is not too much to say that this film has the atmosphere of a British version of "A Corner of the World.

After the screening of the film, a talk show was held with Camilla Deakin, producer of the film, Sunao Katabuchi, animation director of "Katasumi no Sekai no Katasumi ni" and other works, and Koji Takeuchi, TAAF 2019 Festival Director. Many of the guests in attendance were fans of Raymond Briggs and seemed impressed with the quality of this film. Also related to "In This Corner of the World," high school students from the newspaper club from Hiroshima were also in attendance, and it was impressive to see them asking questions about the historical relevance of the film to Hiroshima.

During the talk, opinions were exchanged about the relevance and similarities between this film and "In This Corner of the World. Ethel, the main character of this film, is 35 years old when she appears in the film, but it is rare to see a film with a woman of that age as the main character in Japan. In that sense, Director Katabuchi said, the film depicts a kind of new everyday life. Also, "In a Corner of the World" is known as a film that had a very difficult time raising funds at the beginning of production and was funded through crowdfunding. When Mr. Takeuchi asked, "Did you have a hard time raising funds for this film?" Camilla answered that it certainly did, and it took seven years to raise the funds. Usually, animated films for adults face difficulties in funding. In the case of this film, especially since it is based on factual and realistic episodes, some people were concerned about its commercial success, but she said that she believed this to be one of the film's strengths.

In addition, Camilla told the audience that although some CG was used for vehicles, and some CG was used for camera work inside houses, the movements of people and animals were mostly hand-drawn in this film. In addition, Director Katabuchi explained that the atmosphere of London at the time of the film's setting was depicted in great detail, and that he had to do very detailed research to create the world as a whole. The discussion also included the London location scouting for "Detective Holmes" (1984), a film in which Director Katabuchi and Mr. Takeuchi once worked together. Camilla also told an episode in which Mainwood, the director of this film, was a person who was very particular about details, and even the positions of switches and other parts of a car in England at that time were reproduced with great attention to detail and accuracy.

Director Katabuchi also talked about how, during the production of "In This Corner of the World," he was curious about what was happening in other corners of the world while he was depicting his own corner of the world in Japan. He said that what he knew in his knowledge there, he felt very real after seeing this film.

Lastly, when asked what kind of people she would like to see this film with, Camilla said, "Of course, I would like people who are old enough to remember this period to see this film, but I would rather like children who do not know about this period to see it as well. She also said that she hopes that children will be inspired to research various aspects of this period, as was the case with the program held at the elementary school in England.

The film "Ethel and Ernest: A Tale of Two Sisters" is scheduled to open in theaters in autumn 2019 at Iwanami Hall and other locations nationwide.

Ethel and Ernest: A Tale of Two Films (TAAF2019 official website)
# (C) Ethel & Ernest

(C) Ethel & Ernest Productions Limited, Melusine Productions S.A.
The British Film Institute and Ffilm Cymru Wales CBC 2016