HAKUJADEN (1958, Taiji Yabushita, Movie)

JPN: Hakujaden, "The White Snake" / AKA: Legend of the White Serpent; The White Snake Enchantress; Panda and the Magic Serpent / DIR: Taiji Yabushita / SCR: Sochi Yashiro, Taiji Yabushita / DES: Akira Okuwara; Yasuji Mori / ART: Kazuo Kusano; Koiji Maeba / ANI: Yasuo Otsuka; Gisaburo Sugii; Kazuko Nakamura; Reiko Okuyama / MUS: Masayoshi Ikeda / PRD: Toei Dôga. 1h 15m

This was the first color Animation Feature of Japan and the first japanese animation to be released in USA. It bringed Toei Dôga some fame on the West, and probed that producing animation for theater release was commercially viable. It is loosely based on a Chinese legend: The legend of the White Snake; but really there are multiple versions of this core myth in all asian cultures. Here, a young boy, Xu-Xian pets a White Snake, but his parents force them to separate. The Snake is really a Yôkai, the haunted spirit of a woman named Bai Suzhen. She has fallen in love for the boy and will continue to search for him. The years past and finally, the handsome Xu-Xian and the beautiful Bai Suzhen - yes...in human form - meet again. But a priest (a bonzo monk) named Fa Hai in charged of expelting all the bad spirits from the Earth will try to kill the snake Yôkai... ///

As a teenager, Hayao Miyazaki watched this movie; and once said that the innocence and simplicity of it, produced such a profound impression on him, that made him want to become an animator. And the animation is very simple indeed, but beautiful: flawless artisanic handicraft. The background art is a little bit exotic (because we are in China) and the character design looks like it has been inspired from ancient Chinese painting stamps. The influence of the american cartoon it is also felt, specially with the design of the little cute animals. In the climatic duel, Bai Suzhen and the priest, both literally float in the sky, throwing each other supernatural lightning atacks: a scene that seems like one of the fights in many contemporary anime Shônen pieces. Eventually the priest will erase Bai Suzhen, sending her to the spirits world. She will fly through space and time over the milky way geting in front of Kamisama, trading him her inmortality for a human body and a mortal life near Xu-Xian. So, this fantasy piece, esentially is a romantic story; Love can overcome anything, even death. (by pelida77)

Basado en una leyenda China. Un jovencito, Xu-Xian, compra una serpiente blanca como mascota, pero sus padres le obligan a devolverla. La serpiente es una mujer (una Yōkai en realidad), la bella Bai-Nyang; se ha enamorado de su amo y no cesará de buscarle. Años después se produce el ansiado reencuentro. Pero un fanático monje encargado de expulsar los malos espíritus que pueblan la Tierra, quiere matar a la serpiente.  ///  Este fue el primer film de animación japonesa a color. Hayao Miyazaki conoció esta película de joven; y alguna vez aseguró que su inocencia y simpleza, produjeron tan fuerte impresión en él, que lo decidieron finalmente a convertirse en animador. El duelo entre el sacerdote y la Yōkai es bien japonés y hasta parece tomado de un animé moderno. La calidad de la animación es de primera (trabajo artesanal impecable); el diseño de los escenarios tiene algún toque exótico por ubicarse la historia en China (el diseño de los personajes, parece tomado de estampas chinas). Aunque la influencia del cartoon también es clara (especialmente en los animalitos). Le atrajo a Toei Dōga algo de fama en Occidente. Además de ser una muy bella película, comprobó que la animación local para ser estrenada en teatros era comercialmente viable. (by pelida77)

4/4 RAR Parts

MKV / 696 MB / 1h 15m / Audio: Jap / Sub: Eng - Ita
Video: MPEG-4 / 640x480 (4:3) / 1198 Kbps / 23.976 fps / 0.156 Qf
Audio: MP3 / 48.0 KHz / 64.0 Kbps

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SHONEN SARUTOBI SASUKE (1959, Taiji Yabushita, Movie)

JPN: Shônen Sarutobi Sasuke, "The Sarutobi Boy, Sasuke" / AKA: Magic Boy, Adventures of little Samurai, Sasuke Ninja Boy / DIR: Taiji Yabushita; Akira Daikuwara / SCR: Toppei Matsumura / DES: Akira Daikuwara; Hideo Furusawa / ART: Saburo Yokoi; Mataji Urata; Kazue Itô / ANI: Taku Sugiyama; Gisaburo Sugii; Norio Hikone / MUS: Satoshi Funemura; Toru Funamura / PRD: Toei Dôga. 1h 23m.

To defeat an evil Yokai (a demon known as Princess Yasha), little Sasuke wants to learn the ancient art of Nin Jutsu (here, a sort of Magical Kung Fu). He leaves the comfort of the family home, and his only sister Oyu; learns Magic from an ermit, and return years later to kill the Yokai.
This was the second theatrical feature length film released by Toei. Some of the animators that worked in this one will later join Tezuka in Mushi Productions (but certainly they didn't use there almost anything of what they've learned).
It is also known as The Adventures of Little Samurai; but Sasuke is a Sarutobi, which is a sort of ninja, or a martial art outlaw... (in any case opossed to the samurai). The beautifull art that Toei came to forge made the studio be known throughout the world. And this one was also the first japanese animated feature to be released in America (by MGM).
The orphan brothers was Toei's formula to the childrens heart, and they will use it again in Anju To Zushio Maru (1961). They fed childrens anxieties and fears: the loss of a pet; parental abandonment; a possible divorce; the upcoming birth of a new baby, etc.

The first half of the movie shows a considerable influence from Disney's Bambi (1942); specially in the backgrounds (but we also have a killed deer: the mother of one of Sasuke's pets). The animation shows big flaws; but this clumsiness makes the movie more appealing to the nostalgic eye. And the music exceed all praise, with memorable tunes and some fantastic vocals.
The highlight of this movie, at least for me, is the extraordinary Geisha dance performed by the Yokai. But the magical duel is definetely Japanese Anime in its purest form: the characters fly and throw each other fireballs atacks... and all of this way before Dragon Ball Z. So this is also a really cool Kung Fu kind of movie. (by pelida77)

5/5 RAR parts
AVI / 770 MB / 1h 23m / Audio: Jap - Eng - Spa / Subtitles: No
Video: MPEG-4 / 640x288 / 891 Kbps / 29.970 fps / 0.161 Qf
Audio: MP3 / 44.1 KHz / 128 Kbps

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ANJU TO ZUSHIO MARU (1961, Movie)

JPN: Anju To Zushio Maru "The nobles Anju and Zushio"/ DIR: Taiji Yabushita; Yugo Serikawa / SCR: Sumie Tanaka (Or: Ogai Mori) /DES: Isamu Takahashi / ART: Seiichi Toriizuka / ANI: Sanae Yamamoto / MUS: Tadashi Kinoshita; Hajime Kaburagui / PRD: Tôei Dôga. 1h 23m.

When the Governor of Mutsû is falsely acussed of a crime, his lands would be confiscated and his family left to fend for themselves. His children's, the teenager Anju and her little brother Zushio, must grow up at once in order to deal with the vicissitudes of their fate. ///

This is Tôei Dôga's fourth animated feature film; and one of my all time favorites: Anju To Zushio Maru, presented in the West as "The littlest Warrior" or "The orphan brother" (the Italians have the worst translated movie titles; here: Robin e i due moschettieri e mezzo, Robin and the two and a half musketeers). It's based on the novel Sanshô Dayû (Sansho the Steward, 1915) written by Ogai Mori (1862-1922).

Usually Fantasy is aimed at a young audience but Japanese are weird people, and so they sometime explore very dark themes in their animations. In the first half of the movie we are forced to watch the completion of a family tragedy. Here, the mother will be sold into prostitution, and the childrens as slaves. "You should not be worried.-their mother says -Your father is innocent", but she cannot see that there is no justice in this fairy tale world, therefore she will be blinded (punishment for trying to escape).
This animation is so deep and unique that we are even able to witness a simbolic suicide when the beautiful Anju -runing away from torture-, throw herself to a Lake, and is transformed into a white swann that will fly away from all her troubles.

This family drama develops multiple elements of Fantasy. A good example of this will be the duel between Zushio and the Bakemono (a type of Yôkai: a spirit that have the abilitie to transform). Also the children's maid is killed by drowning and then transformed into a mermaid (a Ningyo).

I've put it first on the list because this movie perfectly ilustrates how Japanese people use Fantasy to tell all type of stories. Anju To Zushio Maru would be severely criticized by future generations of animators. Tôei Dôga had many problems with strikes during the 60's, the working conditions were miserable and the management - as usual - complet assholes. This movie sort of exalt the acceptance of stoic suffering: "bear your suffering you'll get rewarded". I don't know if that is the final message, certainly this movie is not as "rebelious" as Takahata's Hols prince of the sun (1968), but neither is as optimistic. Also, it is frequently compared with the live action movie based on the same novel and made by master filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi: Sanshô Dayû (1954), one of the greatest movies of all time (in any language): so I think is quite unfair to compare that with this very nice piece of animation. I love it, Hope you do too.

(by pelida77)

5/5 RAR parts
AVI / 796 MB / 1h 28m / Audio: Jap - Ita / Subtitles: English (SRT) & Esp
Video: MPEG-4 / 640x272 / 926 Kbps / 29.970 fps / 0.178 Qf
Audio: MP3 / 44.1 KHz / 128 Kbps.

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Maybe you only need subtitles; I made my very own SRT, they are rather messy, but here they are:

English Subtitles SRT
Subtitulos Espanol

Cuando un honesto gobernador es acusado de un crimen que no cometió, sus tierras le serán confiscadas y se le separará de su familia. Sus hijos, los hermanos Zushio y Anju deberán crecer de golpe para hacer frente a las vicisitudes de su destino.  ///  Compárese esta tragedia familiar con el resto de las animaciones del mundo en la época y se podrá atisbar algo de la inmensa audacia de Toei Dōga. Sus películas son fábulas dirigidas a un público adulto (aquí tenemos esclavitud, prostitución y hasta un velado suicidio). Está basado en una novela de Ogai Mori (1862-1922): Sanshō Dayū (de la cual se hizo también una película en vivo, el clásico de Kenji Mizoguchi). La música es notable en esta, especialmente hermosas las canciones de Anju. Parece un drama costumbrista en un escenario bucólico, pero en la segunda mitad se vuelca por entero al Fantasy. El mejor ejemplo de esto es el duelo entre Zushio y el Bakemono (una especie de Yōkai), un espíritu que posee la capacidad de transformarse en otra cosa. Un detalle interesante es como las canciones y los sueños son premonitorios en este animé. En Estados Unidos fue estrenada en glorioso Cinemascope.  (por pelida77)