Synopsis
This is a film about seven artists. It's also a film about seven people who are mentally handicapped. In the course of this touching film, we discover how art may provide a route to the human interior.
SATO zeros in on the creative genius of people who we usually relegate to the social margins for their "non-productivity." Shot over an eight-month period, and that after extensive research, the film strings together one subtle, special moment . The director of photography is TASHIMA Seizo, a painter who has long collaborated with handicapped artists.
Any film on art needs such understated, yet brilliant, photography in order to defer to the talent of the subjects.
The camera peers at them at work, following the respective creative processes step by step, listening to their thoughts about their art---about art. The intensity with which they draw, paint, sculpt (and film!) is relieved by sequences that display the work in all its brilliance. The montages of line, color, and form are concrete expressions of these artists' fears, joys, obsessions, and every other familiar human emotion. Artists in Wonderland has all the marks of a SATO Makoto film: the quirky humor and passion for the human everyday.
Staff & Cast
STAFF
- Directed by Makoto SATO
- Music by Yosui INOUE
- Cinematography by Seizo TASHIMA and Koshiro OTSU
- Recording by Yukio KUBOTA
- Assistant Director: Satoshi IITSUKA
- Produced by Tetsujiro YAMAGAMI and Koshiro SHO
- Sponsored by Japan Arts Fund
Cast
- Takashi SHUJI as Shu-chan
- Shigeru NISHIO as Shige-chan
- Yoshihiko ITO as Yoshihiko-san
- Yukie TAKEMURA as Yukie-chan
- Yoshimitsu TOMIZUKA as Tomizuka-kun
- Noriko KAWAMURA as Nori-chan
- Takao MATSUMOTO as Matt-chan