鲸

"Kujira" (The Whale) is a work in which Noburō Ōfuji, a genius of Japan's early animation period, challenged himself to create his first full-fledged silhouette animation. A large ship carrying merchants, samurai, and other men, along with a beautiful maiden, is wrecked in a storm. Three men, clinging to the wreckage to survive, begin an ugly struggle over the maiden who also survived. Just as the maiden is about to be violated, a gigantic whale emerges from the sea and swallows all four of them. The men, desperate to save only themselves and forgetting the maiden, are then expelled from the whale along with its spout. Once again, on the whale's back, an ugly struggle begins as the men vie to be the first to assault the maiden... Inspired by the 1923 German masterpiece silhouette animation "The Adventures of Prince Achmed," Ōfuji created this work. Its high degree of visual completion and strangely flavored story garnered significant attention and was even exported to the Soviet Union. As of the 21st century, the existence of this film's original version has not been confirmed, but Ōfuji remade it in 1952 using the cellophane technique as a color work titled "Kujira."