I love this movie so much

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

"Atama-yama" or "Mountain Head" is a 10-minute animated short film from over 10 years ago. For director Koji Yamamura, the film's Academy Award nomination was the biggest career achievement so far. He did not manage to build a career in full feature film on the success of his work here. Writer Shoji Yonemura is mostly known for his work on the long-running television series Pokemon. Maybe the reason is that it is not too common that you find Japanese animated short films that are really more comedy than drama. At least that is the impression I got from the film's general atmosphere and aura. The animation style is certainly not for everybody, but I kinda liked. And as always with Japanese movies, there is a lot more under the surface in terms of messages than you initially perceive. I thought this was a good watch overall, definitely more deserving of the Award than "The Chubbchubbs". Recommended.

Atama Yama is a Japanese short that takes not more than ten minutes to confuse the f*** out of the viewer. It talks about a stingy person who believes in saving everything he gets, and gulps down cherry seeds out of fallen cherries. A tree grows on his head, and is taken over by epicurean small/large men and women during spring, because of which he pulls out the tree. This creates a hole, into which water collects and people come for swimming, and so he blows his top. After this, he decides to look into the hole and the cycle repeats about ten times, each time the man getting smaller and smaller perhaps and then he dies.I think this is based on some Japanese fork lore and if it is, I surely haven't read it. As a short, it is very confusing as I didn't get the fundamental idea of the film. I think the ending denotes that the greed consumes the old man, but what about the cherry tree in spring, all the people and the water. I am still racking my brains but there's no answer popping up.The animation is authentic and traditional and I liked the sing-song way of narrating the story. But this is too abstract and needs some clues. The same thing happened to me after watching La Dolce Vita, which though is beautiful once you come to know the symbolisms, but is hard to decipher otherwise unless you can read the artist's mind or are going through similar times. I can state the same for Atama Yama. I hope at least stingy men can make something out of this short and learn a lesson otherwise this film would serve no purpose to its audience.My rating: 5/10

Atama-yama (2003) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Japanese film received an Oscar-nomination for Best Animated Short and in my opinion it should have won. We meet an elderly miser who is so cheap that he prefers to fill up his house with various garbage he can get for free in the streets. One day he picks up a bunch of cherries and decides to eat the pits since he doesn't want to get rid of something free. Soon a tree begins to grow from the top of his head. The idea of a tree growing from someone's head is silly but this film is so incredibly smart and well-drawn that you'll overlook that minor plot detail. I was really surprised at how effective this film was and the majority of the credit has to go to director Yamamura who really adds some great stuff. Having the start of the film being shown from the point-of-view of the man was a great touch as was one of the final scenes in the film where we see the same image just repeating itself to great effect. It should go without saying that this short is 100% Japanese with its look and style. It's doubtful American kids would know what to make of the images here but some of them are very dark and moody, which will sit a lot better with adults.

This animated short from Japan is bizare. It is a fable I suppose about a guy who eats too many cherries so a cherry tree grows out of his head and then a bunch of people have picnics on his head. Yea, it makes no sense and features a anoyingly bombastic Japanese voice over that will enrage you more than it is entertaining. The animation is intentionaly crude but this one was somewhat hard to swallow. GRADE: B