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"Before you know it as the years go by, you're just like other people you have seen, with all those peculiar human ailments. Just another vehicle for temper and vanity and rashness and all the rest. Who wants it? Who needs it? These things occupy the place where a man's soul should be." -- Henderson the Rain King

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Ski Jumping Pairs

Ah SIFF, how I've missed thee.

Today we saw Ski Jumping Pairs: Road to Torino 2006, a Japanese mockumentary about a new sport in which two contestants team up to jump together on one pair of skis (as if ski jumping wasn't already crazy enough). The core of the film centers around some amazing computer animation clips created by director Riichiro Mashima (who was on hand for a fun Q&A after the film). The clips of ski-jumpers trying out various new 'styles' have been sold on a popular series of 3 DVDs in Japan (it's even spawned a PlayStation video game). Here the clips are interlaced with a spot-on documentary style narrative that details the history of the sport starting with it's controversial beginnings as a mad professor's Rendevous theory.

The film is really silly but in a good way if you're a fan of absurdist humor. The animated ski jump scenes are hilarious and there are enough funny parts in the live footage to tie things together. My only complaint would be that the film probably could've been 10 minutes or so shorter, but overall I thought it was well done and really enjoyable to watch. Now if I can just figure out if those DVDs will play on a US DVD player...

posted by Jamie at 1:16 AM

1 Comments:

Blogger Jake Ludington said...

Film festivals often take themselves too seriously. It was refreshing to see such a laugh-out-loud funny, lighthearted film compared with many of the deeper artistic and political documentaries on the bill. The transition between live action and CGI was a little distracting the first couple of times, but I eventually got used to it and went away entertained. I actually got an interview with director Riichiro Mashima which will be live on the Hollywood Reviews SIFF coverage later today.

10:05 AM

 

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