Bath House of Whales

Synopsis

Mizuki Kiyama’s short film employs a paint-on-glass technique to depict a young girl’s trip to a neighborhood sento with her mother, filled with dazzling sensuous wonder. Evoking a childlike fascination with everyday routines, this ordinary act within a space of feminine intimacy becomes a realm of otherworldly fantasy. Bath House of Whales received the Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award for Animated Film at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film in Germany. The film was created as a graduation project at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts.