Atama Yama

Adapted from a Rakugo play from what would appear like ancient times, Koji Yamamura's 2002 tour de force of allegorical dungeoneering into the murkiest depths of the ailing human psyche is nothing short of poetic. The way he weaves sometimes trustworthy, sometimes unreliable visual correlation with the written form enthuses, all while viewers are left by their lonesome to decode what's really to be taken as fact within the mental strain of the character's descent into maddening despair.

One major takeaway would be the integration of motifs as the crux of all chaos that is seen to its causal endpoint on the artifice of destiny. ... Every swath of misfortune that befalls the man with the cherry tree growing from his bald head is caused by his indignation to resign and uproot it before tertiary problems begin to take root (giggles) and drive him into a corner. The little people frolicking by the "tree" on his head? They seem unfazed by what self-inflicted mockery he has to put up with on a daily basis, and as if it couldn't get any worse for him, they act out every destructive impulse known to humankind on his shrivelling epidermal "zenshin taitsu", if only out of a complete disregard for the host on which they thrive. They're parasites, and this man refuses to do a thing about it. Why wouldn't he cut down the cherry tree? Why did he think it wise to chew on a cherry blossom seed which fruit came from an unknown place, where nutrients in the soil beneath were likely scarce? And above all, why was the man so god-damned stingy?

All of these we don't get a concrete answer to. But what we do get in return however, coalesces into something beyond even our wildest imaginations. Something beyond even my own imagination.

What a bloody masterpiece by Yamamura-sensei this turned out to be. Thoroughly recommended. Through and through.

A very funny and good short, sort of like a Kabuki(themed) play (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki).

Pros: A great funny story with great sounds.

Cons: Nothing.

~SPOILERS~

The story starts off like a kabuki style, with music and stlyized verbage. It has the narrator and a main protagonist, a cheap man who picks up food and other debris off the ground. One day he picks up cherries from the ground and decides to eat them all of them including the seeds. This somehow lets him grow a sakura tree out of his head. People magically appear on his head like it's the Sakura blossoms in Tokyo or even in Philadelphia and ... they gather and leave garbage and interfere with his "Meal Time". He eventually gets fed up with all the noise and pollution, and rips the tree out of his head which leaves a hole which fills with water and now people go to it like a it's a pond. He finally has enough and runs through the city scared and confused and looks into a pool of water which is in his hat which is on his head and it goes in his head through the water and into his head again and repeat the cycle until he kills himself. Definately worth one watch

Rate a 6
English Subtitled
Psychological film

Plot
Indecisive is a grand word to express this work. Introduction was fairly simple hinting at what was to come and shortly after providing the pretext behind it. As the story progressed you seemed to know what was going on but it doesn't really pan out that way. In fact it bends into something else entirely. Somewhere in the bending out phase i was lost as a viewer with the plot. At first i thought i was seeing something similar to the making of a gardener only to have it morph into a visit from a therapist? I suppose i get it ... but clearer wording for description is needed like for example psychological. For it is not just the plot that tells a story but the art as well. Conclusion, makes sense to what the show was leading up to but i feel a nicer end would have been more appreciative. Not that this ending chosen was terrible but more of a preference choice.

At least the moral in my eyes was kind and thought provoking. People no matter how you are always feel the need to expand. Much like a tree and its branches. Not like a rock that stands the same in not just its size and position. It is like we have an inner black hole that needs substance to maintain it. And the more we fret only seems to expand it further. In short it explains why letting things go is a good thing as opposed to bottling them up.

Art
Was a major player to my confusion. If it wasn't mainly for the shoe deception i would find this anime easy to understand. For those that can't what i mean i will explain to a vague degree for not to ruin anything. If i give you a coin it is like a pebble. For you to come back to me and tell me its a boulder but at the same time still a coin you are crazy. Granted i could see what some of you are thinking about and no i am not talking about the invested growth viewpoint. Had i been it would ruin my example. The point being is things generally have limitations but to be hypocritical about that is confusing for it makes it harder if not impossible to fully understand anything that comes afterword.