Reflection of Winter Days by Yori Norstein

When I first watch this animation, I would not believe this was created by a Russian if I hadn’t known it. I am so surprised that he is a Russian but he is so familiar with the Japanese poetry. He is a great model that we should do a lot research about what we do and we should know what we do. I thought he is a monk before I read the interview, especially it has the bell sound of the temple, so I was thinking what relation between monk and Basho is. However, after I read the interview I think his deign is great. Basho threw himself into a different life, so he was a poet and at the same time a monk. He talked about a new living complex in a documentary. He thought that is a dead place for poets. You can’t create things if you live a life of ease. I really like his character design, they are kind like paper cut puppets, and the color is very elegant.

I agree that we can never think the work we have done is finished. We always feel it don’t show our concept (intonation) perfectly.

In his interview, I think he believes that the poets are not just the people who wrote poetry, also the people who feel things and create things. I like he said, “Never allow oneself to remain the same - like a river, always renewing itself”. We can’t live in the world without changing. The world is changing every day, if we don't change to fit it, we will be rejected by the world. Basho would grasp the world with his poetry, and the world would become substantial in order to convey something invisible to the eye. So do the animators. I remembered Nick Park. He is very low key person. He doesn’t like to talk and be social. He is not good at express himself in words, so he uses his animation to talk.

After I read the interview, I just know that the two characters (Basho and Chikusai) in his animation lived in different periods, so they could never show in the same moment. I feel more interesting before I didn’t read it. Before, I like his style and the atmosphere he created in the animation.

I think he really knew what he should do. He is very smart. He knew that he is not Japanese. He could never create a Japanese style just like it should be. He could never totally express a Japanese literature accurately, so he tried to make things more subtle.