‘Wrinkles’ / ‘Arrugas’ will be released in Japan in June by Studios Ghibli

To fellow future artists around the world, we bring you the exciting news that one of our collective and a good friend of the founders of Future Artists Manuel Cristobal has some amazing news, and here we share the press release with you!

Arrugas will be released in Japan in June by Studios Ghibli (EL PAIS)

 

The film Wrinkles (Arrugas), by Ignacio Ferreras, and based on Paco Rocas` comic, keeps on bringing good news. The last one is that the film will be released in one of the most complicated markets for the animation cinema, and where only fortunate few have been successful at releasing their foreign animated films: Japan.Wrinkles will see the light in Japan in June and will be distributed by the great Animation Film Studio Ghibli, the place where Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata –two of the most important film directors? create their masterpieces.

 

Negotiations have lasted for several months, but 6 Sales and Manuel Cristóbal, the film producer of Wrinkles, has finally declared victory: Studio Ghibli, the best studio of Japan and a benchmark worldwide, has bought Wrinkles, which will be therefore exhibited in June. Studio Ghibli was established in 1985 and has made films like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away (which won the Golden Bear award and an Oscar for Best Animated Film), Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Porco Rosso, Howl`s Moving Castle or My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki; Tales from Earhsea and From Up on Poppy Hill by Goro (Miyazaki´s son);Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko or My Neighbors the Yamadas, by Isao Takahata, and other films from different directors. Any film buff who has been to Tokyo must know the Ghibli Museum. As a curiosity two films made by the Studio founders will be released this year (this is the first film of Takahata after 14 years). In summer, The Wind is rising, by Miyazaki: the story about Jiro Horikoshi`s youth; he is Zero-sen`s father and the captain of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force during the Second World War. And in autumn, The tale of Princess Kaguya, by Takahata.

 

With respect to Wrinkles, the film won two Goyas – it was the first animated film that won the award for the best adapted screenplay- and a special edition of Paco Roca´s original comic is about to come out; thanks to this film, Ignacio Ferreras was chosen as one of the Ten directors to watch by Variety and European Film Promotion, one of the Ten Best Contemporary European Directors. In the photography Ignacio Ferreras poses with Takahata (in the middle we can see a film poster of the next film, The tale of Princess Kaguya), who is the cofounder of the Studio and the inventor of television serials like Heidi, 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, and Anne of Green Gables. He is also Miyazaki´s mentor, as Takahata is 6 years older than him. Takahata has dedicated a letter to the film Wrinkles:

 

Wrinkles has broken new grounds in animation cinema. Both the original comic and the film tackle courageously a subject that nobody can ignore, but that everybody prefers not to confront: old age.”

 

Abraham Lincoln said: “Every man over forty is responsible for his face.”, but when we are old, this is not always the case. It is true that some old people have a splendid faces; faces with wrinkles which look like beautiful marks the passage of time has left. However, most old people´s faces lack expression and strength in their eyes. Unfortunately, they are neither attractive nor photogenic. Who wants to see trembling faces, dribbles, sleeps, and mouths which mumble all the time? Cinema ? a means of expression which only shows outward appearances? can use old people as an object in order to explain old age from a social point of view or to illustrate domestic problems.

 

But it is quite difficult to film old people in an intimate way and to show feelings that are not emerging from their faces, such as suffering, anxiety or anger, preserving their dignity. What their appearance shows us is not enough. Using cartoons is a great challenge, as they have form expression and are unsuited to express feelings, but in my opinion, Wrinkles has overcome it. The film has not neglected the severity of what old people are suffering – both in a physical and in a mental way- and it is able to make humorous and loving descriptions. We understand, empathize with the protagonists, and accept all their absurdities and tenderness. We also realize that not only are old people from ‘Wrinkles’ particularly easy to understand, but also all the old people who surround us, and that we will also be so in the future. This is an idea that horrifies us but, at the same time, it touches us.

 

Since I am an old man and a human being who works with cartoons, I cannot but pay my respect to the film Wrinkles.

 

http://blogs.elpais.com/version-muy-original/2013/04/arrugasjapon.html