Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

A selection of short stories by Haruki Murakami informs composer Pierre Földes's animated feature, his debut as a director. The starting point is Tokyo after the 2012 earthquake, but the action soon seeps into dreamworlds, as a series of strange events engulfs two bank employees. Loan supervisor Katagiri (voiced by Marcelo Arroyo) is befriended by a large frog (Földes), who enlists his help to defeat a giant worm. Meanwhile, colleague Komura (Ryan Bommarito) is pitched into his own long day's journey when his cat goes missing and his wife (Shoshana Wilder) leaves him. Literary and cinematic allusions abound amid the hopes, nightmares and flights of fancy. Digressions lead to a restaurateur who grants wishes and a yarn-spinning redhead in a Hokkaido love hotel, as the animation style shifts from realism to surreal whimsy. Visually fascinating, intellectually intriguing and tonally teasing, this is a film that makes demands of its audience. However, it also leaves an indelible impression.