(NSFW) “Ketsujiru Juke” by Sawako Kabuki

Sawako Kabuki’s short film Ketsujiru Juke (Anal Juke—Anal Juice) has been garnering attention on the festival circuit after screenings at Annecy and Ottawa this year. Kabuki produced the film at Tokyo’s Tama Art University using music by Seinosuke Saeki (hi-quality soundtrack here). Student filmmakers (and even professionals) often try to be self-consciously weird by slapping together a bunch of random ideas and hoping for some kind of outrageous effect, but with Japanese filmmakers, I just don’t know. This film is less weird than it should be and somehow makes perfect sense.

Kabuki explains:

After breaking up with my ex-boyfriend, I was heartbroken but I had to think about the theme for my next animation film. Just then I had a dream of this ex-boyfriend. This animation film is based on that dream. In Japan, on 11th March 2011, we had great earthquakes and aftershocks followed over and over. And not only earthquakes but also how to face the nuclear power is one of the hottest issues in our country. I think that dream is the mixture of this charged atmosphere of Japan and my heartbreaking depression. So I “re-mixed” what I had in my head. By the way, he used to like enema. So in this song, the word of “ass” and its related words are fluttering. All of these are linked to the memories of him so I decided to use this song. In that dream the face of my ex-boyfriend was not clear, so in this animation, his face is drawn just like “ass”.

If there is one lesson to learn from this short, it’s don’t be the ex-boyfriend of Sawako Kabuki.