Tatsumi
“The Horror! The Horror!” This is how one might react to the human heart of darkness and the misery of modern existence painted by Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s "gekiga"–comics for adults. In the animated feature Tatsumi, director Eric Khoo adapts five of his short stories for the screen and interweaves them with the artist’s life, distilled from his 800 page graphic biography A Drifting Life. [I]t evinces a mood that is unutterably sad, yet indescribably beautiful (...).
Khoo attributes Tatsumi as a primary source of creative inspiration when he started out as a manga artist in Singapore. In a rare gesture of respect, Khoo keeps his auteur’s voice from ringing above the material. His choices of original music, color tones and a lyrical editing style are nuanced and thoughtful, underscoring the cinematic effect of Tatsumi’s hand-drawn images with an authentic Japanese feel.
Maggie Lee, The Hollywood Reporter
Duration: 96 min
Dialogue: Japanese
Subtitles: English
Age limit: K15
