Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor

From the beginning of its great opening sequence, Inaka Isha catches its audience with a raw humanity right from "Go". This harrowing narrative acquaints us with an experience similar to Teshigahara Hiroshi's ' Suna no onna (Woman in the Dunes) or the opening scene of Alain Renais' Hiroshima, Mon Amour : we see beautiful animation in the way the snow envelopes the screen and in the sketchiness of the lines, making this seem more like a painting than an anime. Also, pay attention to the wonderful shadow work in the left most corner of the screen, reminiscent of early silhouette work of Lotte Reiniger (also seenin the chorus of Revolutionary Girl Utena ). As we are introduced to the character of the Doctor, by way of his two smaller, darker shelves who serve the film as narrators, he looks as if he were a force of nature - a tornado - or perhaps made of smoke rather than a human of flesh and blood. With wild eyes and a distperportion of size, we become engrossed in his woe of a faraway patient and stranded with no a horse or means to reach him. We are flooded with questions the longer this work progresses: How will he get there? What will happen to Rosa in the meanwhile? What's really going on here? Well, it's Kafka, so just look deeper and the answer *might* be there. However, it's the movement and shadows that are the real protagonists here and their job is done masterfully. From the shadow work I mentioned earlier to the wonderful transistions made from human to landscape, darkness to possibility and therefore, light. Movement is used in several skillful, clever ways in this anime, the first being to set and change the pace and perspective as needed. What's interesting here is that there wasn't one set pace that the director decided on, it changes from somewhat slow to incredibly fast rather quickly, as though you and the doctor can't quite keep up with what is happening in the events and surroundings. Which leads me to the second method of using movement in the anime, which is to convey the various feelings the characters are dealing with, from panic or sorrow to feeling stretched too thin -- literally. We are seeing these character's emotions (even those of the movement itself in certain scenes) from the perspective of their emotions rather than from the point of view of the characters themselves and the effect is nothing short of chilling. Speaking of chilling, the music brilliantly created by Hitomi Shimizu (found also in Yamamura Koji's other work Atama Yama) fits this animation perfectly, setting an eerie mood almost immediately. As an audience we have no doubt how stark and bleak the path that lies ahead for Ein Landarzt is, because this spectral music is leading the way through the darkness, horseless and blind, while the cold and snow obstruct our path. It actually reminds me of an old production of Faerie Tale Theatre's The Nightingale, however it carries a much heavier role in this short film than the uplifting song of the latter. For the part of the "Country Doctor," director Yamamura Kōji chose accredited Kyōgen star and national treasure, Sensaku Shigeyama, a true story teller if there ever was one. Something very powerful was happening on the screen as I watched this man with so much finesse; the music, Sensaku Shigeyama's performance and even the unadorned, severeness of the setting all gave the suggestion of early Noh performances which I stood watching, mouth agape. Although I found myself re-watching this 3 or 4 times, I would say this is not an anime for the typical viewer but one who loves the obscure -- anime as an art form. While the presentation is stunning, the anime itself is as stark as the music that leads us and the story in true Germanic-Slavic form is both fascinating and bleak. Kafka himself was Austrian-Hungarian born to German-speaking Jewish parents, so all that struggle really comes through here as is typical with Kafka's other works. And while I gave this animation a 10, the average seems to be a 7 by other audiences and I suspect most will feel this way, despite the talent that resides here. Inaka Isha is teeming with it if one only seeks it out.

Franz Kafka's stories are known for their weirdness, and so it was inevitable that at least one would be adapted to anime, where a little bit of weird is the norm. ("The Metamorphosis" is available in graphic novel format) But I'm surprised that it's this story, of which I've never heard, was the one. The story in "A Country Doctor" was hard to follow. Perhaps I'd understand it better if I read the story on which it's based. A lot of it is probably supposed to be metaphors for stuff. Like when one character suddenly bit another character; that's probably a metaphor for humans' cruel natureor some such thing. The art may seem really odd for an anime. Characters are depicted with body parts growing larger, and instead of walking, swinging across the screen weirdly. (It's hard to describe this in words... you'll understand it when you see it.) For this kind of "psychological" anime, it seems an appropriate style of art. It probably also represents the inconsistent ways in which reality is perceived. The sound is outstanding! Just, no other comment than that. Since it's only a twenty-minute film, the characters don't have much time to develop. Worth noting is that when the main character, the doctor, is thinking, two black, childlike figures appear behind him and speak the inner dialogue. It's a strange effect which probably represents the duality of something or other. I enjoyed this a fair bit, just to watch and see what the hell happened next, and seeing if I could find any hidden meanings in it. Overall, though, it has a pretty weak story. I recommend watching this if you're bored, if you're a Kafka fan, or if you're taking a class in philosophy, psychology, cinematography, or one of those classes where you have to find the hidden meaning in shit.

“I really want to scratch your eyeballs out.” — Terminal child Not satisfied with the limited selection of the in-town whores, the Doctor (who?) decided to turn toward pedophilia — and LSD — to quell his pent-up sexual frustration; unfortunately, Gandhi (the child) wasn’t having any of it. Not easily deterred, the Doctor (seriously, who?) rubbed his wrinkly shlong all over an unsuspecting horse, in what can only be described as a bizarre case of sexual assault. Franz Kafka, an Austrian-Hungarian writer, wrote A Country Doctor in 1917, during a period where he suffered from stress, migraines, depression, insomnia — SOCIALIST INFLUENCES — and anxiety.This explains why the main character, the Doctor, exhibited a psychosis of sorts, and seemed unable to rationalize in any coherent manner. The 2007 reinterpretation of A Country Doctor (by Koji Yamamura), accentuated the Doctor’s psychosis by distorting the viewer’s perception of what is truly happening on the screen; hence, the stretching of characters beyond reasonable limits, the unwholesome aesthetic, and the peculiar symbolism. In essence, Koji Yamamura attempted to engage the viewer by having him/her share in the Doctor’s twisted experience. This is all well and good, mind you, but it doesn’t change the fact that A Country Doctor is severely lacking from a narrative and character perspective. Yes, the Doctor’s delusions are beautifully portrayed through the “crude” artwork, but it’s not entirely understood why the Doctor suffers from these ailments (besides Kafka superimposing his own mental illness on Doctor). This lack of detail prevents the viewer from creating a meaningful connection with the Doctor — making his absurdities, seem exceptionally nonsensical.

Story with the same name as the compilation of short narratives published in 1920. ''A rural doctor'' is incredible for some clear reasons: first, the story carries the typical Kafkaesque impotence, in which nothing can be done '' Only a doctor, only a doctor''. Nevertheless, this permeates the author's entire work, so the need to justify it for another reason: its explicit synthesis of the Kafkaesque universe, making dialogue with other of the narratives present in the same collection, because there is, at the same time, the theme of the visit, of isolation, and especially of the journey that never comes to an end.The category of the grotesque implies the creation of fantastic universes, the bizarre, and other strange ways of representing reality. In this sense, the artistic choice of the work ''Inaka Isha'' follows a style that, similar to Kafka's work, evokes an atmosphere of nightmare and absurdity. Of course, even though this anime is not a bad representation, it fails to take away everything the work has to offer. For those who have never read Kafka's book, it will be very difficult to understand any kind of implied meaning. Don't get me wrong, it goes without saying that Kafka's works are not at all easy to interpret. However, when passed to anime, it became even more confusing.