is a Japanese

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

maker.

Life and career

As a child, Takashi Ito enjoyed drawing

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

. Two years after graduating from high school, Ito enrolled at

Kyushu University , abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. It was the 4th Imperial University in Japan, ranked as 4th in 2020 Times Higher Education Japan University Rankings, one of the top 10 Design ...

. Ito was taught by acclaimed Japanese filmmaker and visual artist

Toshio Matsumoto (25 March 1932 – 12 April 2017) was a Japanese film director and video artist. Biography Matsumoto was born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan and graduated from Tokyo University in 1955. His first short was '' Ginrin'', which he made in 1 ...

. One of Ito's earliest film works is ''Noh'' (1977), which features photographs of

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...

masks against different landscapes; ''Noh'' was particularly inspired by Matsumoto's 1975 film '' Ātman''. ''Noh'' was followed by a trilogy of short films—''Movement'' (1978), ''Movement 2'' (1979), and ''Movement 3'' (1980)—the third of which Ito described as a prototype for his 1981 film ''

Spacy spaCy ( ) is an open-source software library for advanced natural language processing, written in the programming languages Python and Cython. The library is published under the MIT license and its main developers are Matthew Honnibal and Ines ...

''. ''Spacy'' is set in a gymnasium and consists of 700 continuous still photographs set on easels, which were then re-photographed frame-by-frame. The photographs are run together in a stop motion technique where the camera appears to zoom in on photographs set on an easel and then enter them. This technique is looped in linear, circular, and parabolic motions. Ito would continue to hone his own distinct style in his following work, such as ''

Thunder Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning pr ...

'', ''Screw'' (both 1982), ''Drill'' (1983), ''

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

'' (1984), and ''Grim'' (1985). These films incorporate use of

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

pixilation Pixilation is a stop motion technique in which live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor beco ...

time-lapse Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus ...

, and long exposure photography. In an October 1984 interview, Ito said that, "Film is capable of presenting unrealistic world as a vivid reality and creating a strange space peculiar to the media. My major intention is to change the ordinary every day life scenes and draw the audience (myself) into a vortex of supernatural illusion by exercising the magic of films." Ito's style is often compared to his mentor Matsumoto as well as Isao Kota. He was a professor at

Kyoto University of Art and Design is a private university in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1934. It was chartered as a junior college in 1977 and became a four-year college in 1991, known as the Kyoto University of Art and Design (� ...

Filmography

* ''Noh'' (1977) * ''Movement'' (1978) * ''Movement 2'' (1979) * ''Movement 3'' (1980) * ''

'' (1981) * ''Box'' (1982) * ''

'' (1982) * ''Screw'' (1982) * ''Drill'' (1983) * ''

'' (1984) * ''Grim'' (1985) * ''Photodiary'' (1986) * ''Wall'' (1987) * ''Photodiary '87'' (1987) * ''Devil's Circuit'' (1988) * ''The Mummy's Dream'' (1989) * ''Venus'' (1990) * ''December Hide-and-Go-Seek'' (1993) * ''The Moon'' (1994) * ''Zone'' (1995) * ''Apparatus M'' (1996) * ''Monochrome Head'' (1997) * ''A Silent Day'' (1999) * ''Dizziness'' (2001) * ''Double'' (2001) * ''Unbalance'' (2006) * ''Tokyo Loop'' (2006)

References

{{Takashi Ito 1956 births Living people Japanese experimental filmmakers People from Fukuoka Kyushu University alumni Kyoto University of the Arts faculty