The Underground Water

A behind the scenes documentary of Kenji Onishi's never completed 35mm feature film "Shiroyasha", shot between 2002 and 2004.

The Air-Conditioning System (1997) introduces us to a young man in his flat, and the ways of communication with his girlfriend. The sky is blue and skirts are put on the balcony for drying. The wind will carry everything away, just like the noise and music or the porn we watch with him later on TV (he prefers to look at western blonde women). What will happen when the young woman in her flat will have found out soon that he is looking at her (and listening to her) via the air-conditioning system?

Blue Max (1997) shows a woman looking out of a window, but also working with extreme close-ups: The street, her neck, the window, her knees, the floor and her toes, brought together by the sound of a passing train. Her ears, her mouth, the wall and the door. The sparkling glass of a window and the young woman on top of a naked young man and later the shadows on the wall of both of them. A telephone is ringing and the clouds in the blue sky are travelling by while it all turns into a rape. And the calmness of both of them is quite irritating when they later watch TV together. (www.desistfilm.com)

A girl and a boy, a chance encounter with the camera. She invites the photographer to her room. Once inside, the woman takes off her clothers and provokes the man. An unblemished composition of umblemished eroticism. Kenji Onishi's entry in the "Roji no ko" series.

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

An improvised film study starring Kumiko Watanuki's solo play in an empty room.

A girl named Fuchyako (Kumagai Fusako) is smoking a cigarette and singing to the background music of a blues song. Waterdrops.

8mm film portrait of Fusako Kumagai.

Production and sale of Fujichrome RT200 sound film stock ended in 1999. It was the ultimate analogue technology allowing audio to be simultaneously recorded. As the director develops his film shot with expired RT200 stock, unique visuals and sounds begin to emerge.

The silence capturing all the surroundings of Mt. Buko. Documentary directed by Minoru Shinojima 1979, 8mm.

8mm experimental film directed by Minoru Shinojima. Shot and edited by Kenji Onishi. For 40 years, Minoru Shinojima has been opposed to mining Mt. Buko and is striving to protect the natural environment and cultural ground that inhabit the local area. Idomu’s Testament - Sequel or IDOMU II. In Saitama prefecture Chichibu city there’s a mountain which was most loved by Tokugawa Ieyasu (founder of Tokugawa shogunate). It is Mount Buko, which rose 2 hundred million years ago when the pacific plate moved the underwater volcanoes around Hawaii. It is like the giant turtle shell where Myouken bodhisattva stood. A gentle mountain which heals people’s hearts and gives them the blessings of green and water.

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

Summer in my hometown captured with an 8mm camera. Green light erodes and relieves the drunken times

Music clip by Kenji Onishi.

An 8mm film drama. Written by Fusako Kumagai and directed by Kenji Onishi.

Silent art film utilizing landscape and light.