Hidari is a stop-motion animation project created by Masashi Kawamura. A creative director at his own company Whatever Co, Kawamura is a big fan of stop-motion animation legends like Ray Harryhausen and Phil Tippett, and Hidari is his dream of creating a full length stop-motion animation film. Below is a short introduction by Masahi Kawamura, followed by a pilot of Hidari –

After being betrayed by his peers and lost both his father and his right arm, legendary craftsman “Jingoro Hidari” is on a journey of revenge with his partner “Sleeping Cat” and his mechanical prosthetic arm. Finally, Jingoro faces one of his adversaries “Inumaru” in a fight to the death…

This is a pilot version of the stop-motion samurai film that tells the story of “Jingoro Hidari,” a legendary Edo-era craftsman. All the characters are made by wood and animated frame by frame, just like how Jingoro’s wooden sculptures came to life in his many anecdotes. We hope you enjoy this film, which mixes dynamic actions as seen in Japanimation, and the rich analog expressions of stop-motion animation.

Our intention is to use this pilot film as a starting point to create a full length feature film. We have started activities to raise the necessary partners and funding to achieve this goal. Please contact us here for any inquiries: info@hidari-movie.com.

This pilot was released around the time when I was drowning in working on Spider-Man : Across The Spiderverse and so I quickly overlooked it, but it is such an exceptional piece of animation I really wanted to share it now, and I hope the artists and filmmakers will get the support they need to realize the full length animated film !


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