"Dedicated to all beloved cities"

December 17, 2010 7:04 PM

I Love You is an animated short by Rinat Timerkaev that is reminiscent in style of the works of anime director Makoto Shinkai. Russian audio, no subtitles.

Timerkaev just announced that for his next project he joined the team working on an animated adaptation of Bulgakov's classic The Master and Margarita. The teaser was met with a mostly negative response, although the animator acknowledged the rushed nature of the video and assured that the movie will feature much improved visuals and animation when it's finished.

Meanwhile, Makoto Shinkai himself is getting ready to release his latest movie, Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below. The premiere is scheduled for May 2011 and the trailer hints at a departure from the gentle pace of the director's previous works. Longtime collaborator Tenmon will return to provide the score.

posted by dmit (14 comments total)

Is Russia allowed to look that beautiful? Seriously? I thought it was a requirement that it look all gray and ugly and wintery.

Seriously though, this is beautiful. And the lack of subtitles takes me back to the old days when we anime fans would be watching unsubbed anime while trying to figure out what was going on. That was how I saw my first really beautiful anime. This film brought back that feeling. Thank you.
posted by happyroach at 7:22 PM on December 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is Russia allowed to look that beautiful?

It is in animation.

Russian animation will make you rethink everything you thought you knew; you get to experience it through some of the most brilliant imaginations in the world. Seen that way, it's breathtaking.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:53 PM on December 17, 2010

Is Russia allowed to look that beautiful?

I was watching the old Russian Sherlock Holmes series and during an outdoor scene wondered if all the production crew were as keenly aware as I was that the English countryside looks absolutely nothing like a taiga.
posted by griphus at 7:56 PM on December 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

So that's what Makoto Shinkai looks like with a budget. I'll reserve judgment until I see it, but the strength of Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days, two of my favorite anime films, is their simplicity.
posted by eyeballkid at 10:08 PM on December 17, 2010

This is beautiful, but calling it "reminiscent" of Shinkai is understating it a bit. It's pretty clearly inspired by his art. The backgrounds could have come straight from one of his films. Not that that is, by any means, a bad thing. Too much animation ignores the backgrounds or leaves them muddy and uninteresting.
posted by cthuljew at 10:48 PM on December 17, 2010

The speech in the animation is just a long, sentimental poem about life, beauty, youth, spring, fleetingness of the moment, wasting precious time on routine, etc. It's remarkably generic, and something about the sentiment seems very generically Japanese. So the creator's effort to create an anime pastiche as a tribute to his inspiration has apparently succeeded.

Here are my efforts to transcribe and loosely translate the first half (the woman's lines):

Ты со мною — одно
You're one with me

Ты как будто частица меня
You're like a part of me

Ты со мною, когда я окно по утрам открываю
You're with me when I open the window in the morning

Ты со мною, когда тишину прерывает трамвай
You're with me when the trolley breaks the silence

Их вагоны плывут сквозь туман нерасцветшего дня
Their cars swim through the fog of a day that's not yet blossomed

Ты со мной, по каким-бы предметам мой взгляд не скользил
You're with me no matter what objects my gaze glides over

Когда птицы фантазии летят к неизвестному краю
When birds of whimsy fly to lands unknown

Я с тобой их маршруты и трассы невольно сверяю
Their courses and routes you and I will unwittingly plot

Ты — как вечный источник моих вдохновений и сил
You're like a perpetual source of my inspiration and strength

Начинается день словно волны, наткнувшись на риф
The day starts like waves cresting a reef

Пешеходное море вскипает у каждой конторы
At each office building, the pedestrian sea turns to boiling

Над квадратом стола расцветает квадрат монитора
Over the square of a desk, the square of a screen comes to life

Начинается танец холодных, мерцающих цифр
Cold, glimmering digits start their dance

Мы все время спешим. До чего надоели дела
We constantly hurry. How tiresome our chores become

Суета-маета, механический звон телефона
Hustle-bustle, the mechanical ring of the phone

Глянь — прозрачные кроны подернулись нежно зеленым
Look — the bare canopies have been robed in pale green

А невзрачное яблонька будто невеста бела
And the plain apple tree is like a bride all in white

В белоснежных ветвях собираясь сгущается свет
In the snow-white branches, the light gathers and thickens

Каждый нежный цветочек любовью и счастьем лучится
Every gentle flower radiates love and enjoyment

Что расцветшему деревцу наши унылые лица
What are our sad faces to a tree that has bloomed

Если ветер весенний сверкающим солнцем согрет?
If the springtime wind has been warmed in the gleaming sun?

Мотыльки лепестков вслед за ветром рванут в небосвод
The butterfly petals will fly with the wind in the wide-open sky

Там нарядная синь, там и воздух прозрачней и чище
There the azure is festive, and the air there is cleaner and clearer

Понимающим взглядом их молча проводит Татищев
With understanding, Tatischev give them a silent glance farewell

Старый бронзовый Геннин им вслед незаметно вздохнёт..
And the old bronze Gennin will discreetly sigh in the wake of their departure

The names refer to this monument, located in Yekaterinburg, also depicted in the short.
posted by Nomyte at 12:16 AM on December 18, 2010 [5 favorites]

griphus: I was watching the old Russian Sherlock Holmes series and during an outdoor scene wondered if all the production crew were as keenly aware as I was that the English countryside looks absolutely nothing like a taiga.

Are we talking about this Russian version of Holmes? I'm not sure which scenes you mean. There are certainly plenty of outdoor scenes in the corresponding version of the Hound of the Baskervilles, but it's set on the Scottish moors, where it makes sense for the landscape to be dreary. Granted, they don't get t quite right, but they do try.
posted by Nomyte at 12:33 AM on December 18, 2010

Too bad they had to ruin it with that stupid ending.
posted by daniel_charms at 12:59 AM on December 18, 2010

It sounded to me like the woman was speaking Russian with a Japanese accent. Was it supposed to be like that or was I just imagining it?
posted by DarkForest at 6:16 AM on December 18, 2010

...it's set on the Scottish moors, where it makes sense for the landscape to be dreary.

I guess that depends on whether the scene at about 35:00 is supposed to take place in the moors or not; I watched it without subtitles (and while unfamiliar with the storyline), so I will admit that if it does, that's pretty accurate.
posted by griphus at 9:16 AM on December 18, 2010

Was it supposed to be like that or was I just imagining it?

It wasn't an accent, that is for sure. It definitely felt like it had the cadence of Japanese narration, though.
posted by griphus at 9:20 AM on December 18, 2010

The woman has a Moscow accent, but the cadence of speech is that special voice in which Russian poetry is read. For example. Clicking on the link is highly recommended for Russian speakers to clean the palate after the terrible poem in the cartoon.
posted by Shusha at 1:30 PM on December 18, 2010

griphus: I watched it without subtitles (and while unfamiliar with the storyline), so I will admit that if it does, that's pretty accurate.

This scene corresponds to chapter 12 in the book. It's a pretty accurate rendition.
posted by Nomyte at 1:42 PM on December 18, 2010

the stones on the ground turning wet with rain was my favorite part
posted by naplesyellow at 8:15 PM on December 18, 2010