FANTASIA FEST 2022: Folklore in Vibrant Color with ‘Inu-Oh’

Period pieces are a window into history, whether they’re in live-action or animation bringing the past to the present is a beautiful strength of cinema. In Inu-Oh, history is a rock opera instead of a book, and folklore takes centerstage. With vibrant animation and a stunning score, Inu-Oh brings the fantastical and the historical into one space that showcases the power and beauty of folkloric storytelling.

Directed by Masaaki Yuasa with a screenplay by Akiko Nogi based on Hideo Furukawa‘s novel Inu-ô no kan, the film takes place 200 years after the legendary conflict between the Heike and Genji clans. In the wake of the great war, Japan is left with shogunates deadset on obtaining the Heike treasures from the bottom of the lake where the final battle took place to gain supremacy over the others. Tomona is a fisherman’s son who has worked with his father as a diver to find the remnants of the final battle. One day a treasure leads to tragedy, leaving his father dead and him blinded. At that exact moment, another boy with deformities is born into the Hie-za, the most respected troupe of Noh theater performers in Japan.

Tomona finds himself on the road to find the hidden Heike villages to tell, to put the dead Hieke samurai to rest. On his journey, he finds his place among the Miwa priests, blind men who travel performing the stories from the hidden villages, sharing histories so they’re not forgotten.

While Tomona changes his name to Tomoichi to join the Miwa troupe, the other boy is pushed to the margins of society. Abandoned by his family and brutally shunned by his father, the boy who no one sees as anything other than a monster (his body the pieces of the Hieke warriors pulled together) and has no name is moved to dance and perform, singing what comes over him.

When Tomona, now Tomoichi meets the other boy, his same age, they begin a friendship and a troupe of their own. Given the name Inu-oh, the King of Dogs, he performs hidden behind a mask, using effects to hide his limbs’ lengths, and together, Tomoichi and Inu-oh take Japan by storm. Their new brand of music and performance and unrelenting theatrics pull in the crowds from across the country to the anger of the shogunate and the Hie-za troupe.

Inu-oh is a stylized and bombastic masterclass in animation and sound. It’s the awe it inspires with its more fantastical elements that become all the more amazing when you realize that this is a fictionalized retelling of the real Inu-oh’s story. Known as “King Dog”, he was a 14th-century Japanese performer at the time of its transition from the folk art of sarugaku into the formalized traditions of Noh and kyôgen. There is beauty in capturing cultural history in such a vibrant way. A fever dream at times, Inu-Oh highlights the power and continued importance of storytelling and how it can inspire and heal or be wielded and warped as political weapons.

In Inu-Oh, storytelling and performance are a spiritual experience, connecting Inu-oh and Tomona to a Hieke history that must be told. The film encapsulates the importance of listening to the past and sharing its beauty and pain. Here, telling a story keeps it alive, offering rest to those who lived it and bringing the memories to life for a crowd to embrace and sing. As Inu-oh performs, he changes, blessed by spirits and correcting the ills of his clan along the way. Additionally, in the film’s finale, we see two paths, one that bends to pressure for recognition, and one that commits unwavering resolve to tell new stories despite powers pushing for silence.

Inu-Oh is a beautiful film crafted by multiple animation styles that bring different atmospheres, emotions, and perspectives to the film. With some character designs reminiscent of traditional paintings, others softer and more fantastical in appearance, and others still a unique blend of traditional Japanese aesthetics and glam rock. When it comes to the scenes themselves, at times we see musical numbers performed with a modern rock aesthetic while still keeping traditional Japanese instruments center.

In other scenes, we see the traditional put at the center. And others still we see the world through Tomona’s eyes, blurred and beautiful, highlighted by sound. And even this doesn’t cover every facet of animation that Science SARU has so beautifully put together. Every animation style has a purpose and weight, and the weirdness and beauty of it is something that could only come from Science SARU and Masaaki Yuasa’s mind. A meeting of the sacred and the profane in a beautiful way, Inu-Oh is a must-watch film.

For those unfamiliar with traditional Japanese music, performances, and art, Inu-Oh presents a gorgeous entry point. To see cultural traditions and stories brought to the spotlight in such a vibrant and whimsical way is breathtaking. There is a blending of the historical and the contemporary that gorgeously erupts into something beyond memorable.

While the way the story treats Inu-Oh and his appearance harshly pull ableism into focus, even as he changes through performance, there are moments of inspiration that shine through the story too. Particularly the highlights of disabled people in the crowd dancing, mimicking the break-dancing they see Inu-oh perform, sharing in his stories, and finding joy as they are.

Finally, Inu-Oh’s ending is one that can only be described as bittersweet. The somber notes and bleak reveals are also curtailed by the existence of the film itself as a way to resurrect these two figures lost to the world by telling their story once again.

From the music crafted by Otomo Yoshihide, to Nogi’s screenplay adaptation, and Yusasa’s masterful direction, Inu-Oh is perfection. It’s gorgeous, it’s moving, and it’s an expression of rock, of Miwa, and of the power of music as a whole that makes it not only a strong film but a necessary one. Throwing its characters and its audience into a fervor with vibrant colors, there is magic in every scene. Here, Science SARU swings for the fences and it pays off. You can call it psychedelic, a fever dream, or even fantastic, but in the end, it’s the focus on the power and nature of memory through folklore that makes this film succeed.

Inu-Oh screened at Fantasia International Film Festival 2022 and is available now on DVD from GKids FIlms.