Chuumon no Ooi Ryouriten

This short stop-motion movie is a fun and enjoyable watch. Despite being rather old, the animation has aged well - like a fine bottle of 1960 red wine from the Shiraz Vineyards. The jollity movements from the two hunters would probably be seen as "terrible workmanship" if this was created in this day and age. Though seeing as this is an anime from the late fifties it is understandable. As our two hunters venture deeper into the story and the orchestral music begins to tune in, it reminds me of shows I grew up with. Such as the clangers and the magic roundabout, which would also turn to an orchestra or some sort of a flute/percussion band for it's OST. Before long, our twitchy hunters are well within the restaurant and finding out how unordinary it is. The story progression is smooth yet quick - which is expected of such a short movie. Compared to other versions of this story, I would assume they have stayed true to the original story piece written by Kenji Miyazawa. I'm sure his story is translated online somewhere to read - so I should probably give it a look up. By the end of the movie, the "real horrors" of the restaurant make themselves knows and our hunters... well you'll have to watch to find out what happens to them. The story is left as complete as can be and you won't even notice that 20/30 minutes have gone by. I do suggest giving this fun little stop motion ago as it is well worth it as it can be considered a part of Japanese culture and history. If you have already seen the other two versions available this is another and original adaption that is a must see!

Adapted from an extremely witty Japanese short story into Claymation, The Restaurant of Many Orders is a delightfully entertaining horror short about animal rights. It is gloriously macabre in its themes and flips the idea of humans hunting for sports by portraying two British hunters being slowly swindled into preparing themselves as dinner for eagerly awaiting diners in a restaurant designed to entrap humans into thinking they themselves are being served food. This is the first Japanese attempt at Claymation of this length and while not perfect, it is clear that a lot of thought was put into the exploration of the three dimensional aspect of film making that traditional hand drawing animation did not have access to. The fact that the subjects of every frame are physical objects, allows the creates to play with lights, shadows and camera movements while also incorporating some elements of blocking into scenes that are usually not quite available in traditional animations. While the camera work is often janky - we're reaching the 60s at this point and the camera movements had very little reason to be as terrible as they were, the story alone made this an entertaining watch for me.