A Bite of Bone

Animated graduation work by Touko Yatabe from Musashino Art University. One day, Rintarou breaks the konoha fossil that his father cherished. Without being able to tell the truth, a feeling of guilt lingers. In the usual riverbank, where I was digging fossils, I met a strange boy, Toshi... A small fantasy of a summer woven by two boys and a stratum accumulates memories.

Momo is a young girl who grew up in a big city. However, following the premature loss of her father, she has to move with her mother to the old family house on a remote island. Here, time seems to have stopped: old wooden buildings, holy shrines surrounded by trees, fields painstakingly carved out from steep hills... and no shopping mall. Needless to say, Momo is not too overenthusiastic about this new environment. Most of all, her heart is still feeling uneasy about an unfinished letter left by her father. A letter that contained only two words: "Dear Momo..." What was dad going to say? One day, exploring the attic of her new big house, Momo finds a dusty and worn out book. And from that moment, something really unexpected starts happening around her...

A short film only screened at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Fuki packs all her needs in a big rucksack, and sets out on a journey to look for a new house. After going through the car-jammed city, she finds a stone Jizo statue on an old, narrow path. Fuki places an apple as an offering to ask for passage and walks on. On her way, she encounters the river guardian Nurari-Hyotan, the shrine guardian Ushi-Oni, and other strange creatures one after another. What will Fuki do now?

In the aftermath of a World War II bombing, two orphaned children struggle to survive in the Japanese countryside. To Seita and his four-year-old sister, the helplessness and indifference of their countrymen is even more painful than the enemy raids. Through desperation, hunger and grief, these children's lives are as heartbreakingly fragile as their spirit and love is inspiring.