Keigo Ito

At night, a man holds out his own leash into the void. He has to explode in order to escape.

In the pitch darkness a man cannot see anything. Only light source is a light lit with a match by someone else. The light is lit and put out. This repeats sometime and eventually the man makes up his mind.

Directed by Japanese filmmaker Ryo Orikasa, this animated short was inspired by Henri Michaux’s book of poetry and drawings of the same name, about his experiences with mescaline. The film explores the limits of language and perception, creating connections between sound, meaning, shapes and movement.

Short animation by Simon Feat at Tokyo University of the Arts