MISS HOKUSAI (Keiichi Hara). 89 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (October 28). See Listings. Rating: NNNN
Not all anime involves cyborgs and beasts. There are plenty of fantastic images in Keiichi Hara’s animated period drama Miss Hokusai, but its spectacle is of a different kind.
Miss Hokusai is a gentle adaptation of Hinako Sugiura’s manga Sarusuberi, about O-Ei Katsushika, daughter of (and assistant to) the 19th-century Edo painter Hokusai. O-Ei is conscientious, and therefore frustrated by her father’s insistence on drinking and carousing with his friends rather than finishing his commissions. She would also really like it if Hokusai spent any time at all with her younger sister O-Nao, who was born blind and thus cannot appreciate their father’s art.
Those looking for a conventional biopic will be frustrated by the fanciful touches the anime format allows – animations of Hokusai’s work, anachronistic electric guitars on the soundtrack. Those looking for a conventional drama might also be frustrated, as Miss Hokusai simply drifts along with O-Ei (voiced in the Japanese version by Anne Watanabe) as she tends to her father (Yutaka Matsushige), entertains his friends and tries to create a life for herself.
But if you adjust to the movie’s unusual rhythms and submit to director Hara (whose credits include the similarly singular Colourful), you’ll find yourself having a lovely, quietly soulful experience.
