Franz Kafka anime "Doctor, let me die"

December 6, 2012 11:47 PM

Franz Kafka's hallucinatory A Country Doctor anime by Kōji Yamamura. The original text is very short.
posted by stbalbach (9 comments total)

This is fabulous! A Country Doctor is one of my favorite Kafka stories, and the animation here is beautiful and really well-suited. I'd hate to see The Penal Colony given this treatment. I don't think I'd ever sleep again.
posted by OmieWise at 2:37 AM on December 7, 2012

It occurs to me that Bill Watterson must have been influenced by Kafka...
posted by joecacti at 5:37 AM on December 7, 2012

And I'm not wrong!
“HOBBES:
If you don't get a goodnight kiss you get Kafka dreams.”
posted by joecacti at 5:38 AM on December 7, 2012

This animation roughly summarizes how I feel living in the Midwest during the winter.
posted by deathpanels at 7:27 AM on December 7, 2012

I am glad I live in a century that a "Franz Kafka anime" exists. Feeling very GreatDismally this morning.
posted by Celsius1414 at 7:44 AM on December 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

It would never have occurred to me, but "A Country Doctor" fits very nicely into the Japanese ghost-story tradition; it could have come straight out of Ugetsu Monogatari. Thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 8:22 AM on December 7, 2012

I didn't watch the Country Doctor, but it's available on DVD with a bunch if Yamamura's other films. They are seriously cool and good and totally weird.
posted by vespabelle at 8:42 AM on December 7, 2012

Excellent stuff. Yamamura deftly conjured up a world of painful paranoia and angst that perfectly conveys Kafka's sensibilities. Kudos, Yamamura-san!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:06 PM on December 7, 2012

Thanks for posting this, stbalbach.
posted by homunculus at 1:30 AM on December 8, 2012