An Experimental Tezuka Film from 1962

Before Astro Boy went on the air in 1963 (although it was a well known manga before that), Osamu Tezuka made the above experimental animated film Male in 1962.

The film was made in a hurry to meet the exhibition date and is a Tezuka take on the novel Wagahai wa Neko de Aru (“I am a Cat”) by the Japanese author Natsume Soseki. The novel was written in 1905-1906 (about a hundred years ago!) and is a satire on Japanese society in the time of the Meiji Emperor. In the novel a cat observes his master’s ordinary life, however Tezuka’s twist in the film is that his cat observes an extremely odd situation in which a man kills the woman he loves and then waits for the police to come.

Although Tezuka would go on to experience success with his more commercial work he did continue to make a few more very well done experimental shorts including my favorites Broken Down Film and Jumping.