Ginrin

Ginrin
Directed byGenichiro Higuchi
Toshio Matsumoto
Masao Yabe
Written byShozo Kitashiro
Toshio Matsumoto
Katsuhiro Yamaguchi
CinematographyHidesaburo Araki
Music byHiroyoshi Suzuki
Tōru Takemitsu
Production
companies
  • Japan Bicycle Industry Association
  • Shin Riken-eiga
Release date
  • 1955 (1955)
Running time
12 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Ginrin (銀輪; "Silver Ring"), also known as Bicycle in Dream and Silver Wheels,[1] is a 1955 Japanese short promotional colour film directed by Genichiro Higuchi, Toshio Matsumoto and Masao Yabe in collaboration with the Jikken Kōbō avant-garde art collective.[2] It was written by Shozo Kitashiro, Matsumoto and Katsuhiro Yamaguchi for the Japan Bicycle Industry Association and was Matsumoto's first film.

The film promotes Japanese bicycles, using experimental cinema techniques.[1][3][4] The musique-concrète score was by Hiroyoshi Suzuki and Tōru Takemitsu.

Scenario

A boy looks through a picture book about bicycles and sees surrealistic images.

Reception

Miryam Sas of the University of California, Berkeley wrote: "From the sponsors' viewpoint, Ginrin showcases the simple pleasures of color cinema and the cycling apparatus, both as ways of experiencing/mediating selected elements of the (in this case) natural environment, the 'beauty of nature.' Yet at another level, the effects of scale here parallel the effects of speed: with the parallax view, with mechanical objects whirling in space, the film reflects on the experience of the technologically mediated environment. ... Ginrin represents a historically significant moment of innovation, framing collaborations between artists across media with an interest in how the apparatus and mechanism affect the physical experience of the environment."[5]

Preservation status

The film was believed lost for many years; however, a copy was found and digitally restored by the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Raine, Michael (Summer 2012). "Three Translations: Introduction to Matsumoto Toshio: A Theory of Avant-Garde Documentary". Cinema Journal. 51 (4): 144–148 – via ProQuest.
  2. ^ Birnbaum, Daniel (January 2011). "8th Gwangju Biennale". Artforum International. 49 (5): 214 – via ProQuest.
  3. ^ Paul, Christiane (2016). A Companion to Digital Art. John Wiley & Sons. p. 203. ISBN 9781118475249.
  4. ^ Berger, Sally (Spring 2018). "Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival: Blending Tradition with Modernity". Film Quarterly. 71 (3): 87–93 – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ Sas, Miryam (2022). "The Feeling of Being in the Contemporary Age: The Rise of Intermedia". Feeling Media: Potentiality and the Afterlife of Art. Duke University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1478018490.
  6. ^ Tochigi, Akira (2011). "松本俊夫監督、 『 銀輪 』(1956年)のデジタル復元を語る (Director Toshio Matsumoto Discusses the Digital Restoration of "Silver Wheel" (1956))" (PDF). 東京国立近代美術館研究紀要 (15): 74–82. Retrieved 13 April 2018.