Director – Julien Faraut – 2021 – France, Japan – Cert. U – 100m
*****
A look through a prism of anime and archive footage at the Japanese women’s volleyball team that won the 1964 Olympics – out in cinemas and online in the UK and Ireland on Friday, July 16th
You don’t really expect a documentary about a women’s volleyball team to open with a scene from the anime short Danemon’s Monster Hunt At Shojiji (Yoshitaro Kataoka, 1935) in which the hero, trying to save the damsel in distress from the web of the evil spider witch, learns too late that the damsel is the evil spider witch and has lured him to his fate. Even if the team in question has become known as ‘the Witches of the Orient’. “To refer to people as witches is not very kind,” says Katsumi Matsumura, a surviving member of the team. “But then, witches have supernatural powers. So that suited us fine.”
The nickname originated in the Russian newspaper Pravda when the Japanese women’s team faced the Russians in the 1962 volleyball championships… [Read the rest]
Full review at All The Anime.
The Witches Of The Orient is out in cinemas and virtual cinemas in the UK and Ireland from Friday, July 16th 2021.
Trailer:
Festivals
2021
Sheffield Docfest
Further reading:
The Fascinating Link of Japanese Women’s Volleyball and the Textile Industry: From Silk to Gold (Roy Tomizawa)
The Oriental Witches: women, volleyball and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (Helen Macnaughtan)