January 21, 2008

Japan’s Changing Cityscapes, Animated

Over the weekend, we caught a screening of Still Life, Jia Zhang-ke’s beautifully brutal reflection on China’s march towards makeshift modernization. Touching upon a similar sentiment - but on a much less intimate level - are Nobuo Takahashi’s videos “Musashino Plateau” and “Japan“, two short 3D computer animations that take the viewer through Japan’s rapid growth during the postwar period. The videos illustrate the massive changes to the country’s landscape over the last few decades, with the tour through the bubble years (1980s/early 1990s) especially captivating, as the country’s frenetic growth transformed every plot of empty land into a cluster of houses, apartments, and skyscrapers. Watch Musashino Plateau below: