Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Lee Eisenberg Koji Yamamura's "Atama-yama" ("Mount Head" in English) reminded me of a story that I read in elementary school. I don't know whether or not it's based on that story, but it does offer a good lesson in selflessness. The stingy old man's experiences come across as punishment for his miserly ways. When people think of Japanese animation, it's often anime that comes to mind, but these short cartoons are among the most interesting. If a person finds the movie hard to understand, it could be a cultural thing.Whatever the case, I recommend the short. I hope to be able to see more of Koji Yamamura's work.

sashank_kini-1 Atama Yama is a Japanese short that takes not more than ten minutes to confuse the f*** out of the viewer. It talks about a stingy person who believes in saving everything he gets, and gulps down cherry seeds out of fallen cherries. A tree grows on his head, and is taken over by epicurean small/large men and women during spring, because of which he pulls out the tree. This creates a hole, into which water collects and people come for swimming, and so he blows his top. After this, he decides to look into the hole and the cycle repeats about ten times, each time the man getting smaller and smaller perhaps and then he dies.I think this is based on some Japanese fork lore and if it is, I surely haven't read it. As a short, it is very confusing as I didn't get the fundamental idea of the film. I think the ending denotes that the greed consumes the old man, but what about the cherry tree in spring, all the people and the water. I am still racking my brains but there's no answer popping up.The animation is authentic and traditional and I liked the sing-song way of narrating the story. But this is too abstract and needs some clues. The same thing happened to me after watching La Dolce Vita, which though is beautiful once you come to know the symbolisms, but is hard to decipher otherwise unless you can read the artist's mind or are going through similar times. I can state the same for Atama Yama. I hope at least stingy men can make something out of this short and learn a lesson otherwise this film would serve no purpose to its audience.My rating: 5/10

Robert Reynolds This short, done with rough hand-drawn animation and with sung and spoken narration (a musical form of entertainment, the Japanese equivalent of the Western minstrel/bard), tells the story of an old man so parsimonious that he couldn't bear throwing away the pits from some old, discarded cherries, which he ate rather than discard. What follows is true, quite poetic, justice. As the old saying goes, true justice is something most of us would actually be happier without. An Academy Award nominee for Animated Short in a very good year. It bears repeated viewing and is an excellent piece of work. Hopefully, it will see print sometime soon, as it deserves a wider audience. It is part of Shorts Program 115 on the Sundance Channel as well as part of the program for the first year of The Animation Show, still showing in some locations. Give it a look-well worth seeing. Most highly recommended.

Spanner-2 This animated short from Japan is bizare. It is a fable I suppose about a guy who eats too many cherries so a cherry tree grows out of his head and then a bunch of people have picnics on his head. Yea, it makes no sense and features a anoyingly bombastic Japanese voice over that will enrage you more than it is entertaining. The animation is intentionaly crude but this one was somewhat hard to swallow. GRADE: B