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Jarinko Chie (film)
Jarinko Chie (Japanese: じゃりン子チエ, lit. "Chie the Brat"), also known as Downtown Story,[1] is a 1981 Japanese animated film co-written and directed by Isao Takahata, based on the manga of the same name by Etsumi Haruki. It stars the voices of Chinatsu Nakayama, Norio Nishikawa, Kiyoshi Nishikawa, Kyoko Mitsubayashi, and Gannosuke Ashiya. The film takes place in a working class town in Osaka, where sly and street smart Chie navigates the adult world around her, seeking to reform her father's behaviour and keep her family together. Distributed by Toho, it was released in Japan on 11 April 1981, Jarinko Chie has received generally positive reviews since its release date, particularly for its social concern and comedy. After the film's success, Takahata served as the chief director for a follow-up TV series. The film makes extensive use of local geography and culture, the characters use Kansai dialect, and Chie herself has remained a popular character in Osaka. PlotSet in a working class district of Osaka, ten-year-old Chie is tasked with helping her troublesome, unemployed father Tetsu run a local izakaya. Whilst cooking horumon, she sees a stray cat looking hungry. After deciding to feed it, the cat (named Kotetsu), enters the izakaya and begins living with her and Tetsu. Constantly in need of money, Tetsu lies to his father (Ojii) to get money from him, only for him to lose it gambling. Obaa admonishes her husband for always falling for Tetsu's lies. After accusing the yakuza boss of cheating, Tetsu fights his way home. Ojii and Obaa come to the izakaya after closing time to scold Tetsu for his neglect of Chie. After insulting Chie by calling her a boy in order to win a bet, Tetsu picks up a paper that dropped out of her bag. Chie grows increasingly upset with him for always putting himself first. The paper is a notification of an upcoming parent's visiting day in school. Tetsu shows up to Chie's class unexpectedly and causes a scene, threatening to fight the teacher and making Chie cry. After school, Chie and Tetsu fight, with Chie claiming he doesn't understand her. Just as she is about to leave the house, she notices a flower on the doorstep, recognising it as a sign from her mother Yoshie who has recently separated from Tetsu. Happy at the prospect of seeing her mother again, Chie dresses up smartly and leaves without telling Tetsu her plans. After enjoying their time together Chie schemes of a way to reunite the two, but recognises it is still too early for them to meet again as Tetsu has yet to change his attitude. That night Shachou and his yakuza underlings come to the izakaya demanding Tetsu pay his debts to the gambling house. Chie gets them drunk in order for them to pay it off themselves, when in their stupor, Shachou encourages his beloved cat, Antonio "the ox-killer" to fight Chie's Kotetsu. To their shock, Antonio loses, with Kotetsu partially castrating him. Upset by Antonio's condition, the yakuza leave the izakaya before Tetsu returns. Chie spends her free time searching for a job for her father, when she encounters Shachou, who has now turned his gambling house into an okonomiyaki restaurant. Soon after the fight with Kotetsu, Antonio ended up dying after fighting a dog, leaving him without a will to continue. In need of security, Shachou ends up hiring Tetsu at his restaurant. Later, Chie is out secretly with her mother again, when by chance Tetsu spots them both. Upset at what he perceives as Chie's rejection, he spends the day sulking, until he learns of the upcoming sports day at Chie's school. Seeking to win her forgiveness and affection he buys her new trainers and gathers a small cheering squad. Embarrassed by his excessive support, Chie outruns him, in trying to keep up Tetsu steals a policeman's bicycle, before inadvertently crashing it and being kept in a holding cell for the night. During a home visit by her homeroom teacher, the teacher reveals that he is the son of Tetsu's former homeroom teacher, the man who also set up the marriage between Tetsu and Yoshie. The elder Hanai-sensei has come to repair the relationship between Yoshie and Tetsu, the two tentatively agree and Yoshie moves in again. Despite an initially frosty relationship, after Chie starts acting up on the train the two of them begin talking again, during the course of the day at the amusement park their relationship rekindles. One evening, Tetsu is at Shachou's okonomiyaki restaurant complaining about Kotetsu's violent tendencies when unexpectedly Antonio Jr. appears, seeking revenge against Kotetsu. Despite pleas, initially from a sober Shachou, and then Chie, for things to remain peaceful, Antonio Jr. demands a fight. Kotetsu attempts to defuse the situation by showing his respect for the dead, and eventually refusing to fight Antonio Jr., Antonio Jr. forgives Kotetsu and everyone goes home together. The film ends with a montage of characters entering the izakaya. Cast
ProductionJarinko Chie was produced by Toho and animated by TMS Entertainment with supporting animation done by Oh! Production.[3] The film is based on the manga of the same name by Etsumi Haruki.[4] It represented a shift for Takahata from working under an established studio (as he had done at Toei Animation) to making films independently.[5] Animation director Yasuo Ōtsuka and character designer Yōichi Kotabe may have convinced Takahata to direct the film upon realising the manga's entertainment value.[6] Katsu Hoshi composed the music. During her work on The Castle of Cagliostro, Takahata was impressed by the work of Makiko Futaki and employed her as an in-between animator for Jarinko Chie.[7] The production lasted only a few months, leading to a more solid style of animation that was easier to animate than the manga's more sketched visuals.[8] The film faithfully adapts much of the manga's first few volumes. This was the first film in ten years that Chie's voice actress Nakayama had been in, during her first meeting with Haruki, the artist revealed that he partially based Chie on Nakayama's character from the film Gametsui yatsu (ja).[9] The film's dubbing started on 7 February 1981 at Tohokushinsha Studio in Asakusa, with characters being recorded separately in Osaka, which began on 13 February. During the dubbing process, Gannosuke Ashiya's nearsightedness made it difficult for him to watch the screen to match his character's mouth movements. Commenting on the process, Takahata referred to the voice acting as "honest", but found that the pre-animated sequences limited the ability for experimentation. The film's theme song "Chie" was performed by the band Busy Four (ビジーフォー).[10] Setting Takahata and Ōtsuka tried to ensure accuracy to the area of Osaka they were depicting,[8] in order to do so, Takahata reportedly stayed overnight in a doss-house in Osaka.[11] The film is based in the north-east of Nishinari Ward, in a working class district of Osaka.[9] The characters of the film speak using Osaka dialect, a way of speaking considered harsher by speakers of standard Japanese,[12] Chie herself uses it increasingly in proportion to her level of anger, toning it down dramatically when she is with her mother.[8] Numerous references to regional culture are made in the film, for instance, Shachou's restaurant serves okonomiyaki which is considered a regional specialty, and Tetsu and Chie's izakaya is named 'Horumon' (ホルモン), referring to offal, derived from Osakan dialect meaning 'to throw away'. Throughout the film, the Tsūtenkaku can be seen in the near-distance and Chie and her mother visit Tennōji Park together.[9] The film also features many manzai comedians in its voice cast, a form of double-act comedy associated with Osaka and the Kansai region.[4] ReleaseJarinko Chie was released on 11 April 1981. For the manzai comedians playing characters in the film, this was their first role in animation.[10] The television programme Kao Master Theatre TV promoted it with an animated sequence.[4] During an interview to promote the film, Takahata was asked by Toshio Suzuki—then a journalist—how he could shift from "producing a classic like Heidi" to a film about "skid row" in Osaka. Suzuki would later become the president of Studio Ghibli, working with both Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki.[6] Following the film's success, Takahata agreed to be the chief director for an animated television series, although he later left the production team.[13][14] The film has not received a wide distribution outside of Japan.[15] ReceptionBox officeThe film was moderately successful across Japan, but proved incredibly popular in the Kansai region.[16] Since the premiere of the film and television series, Chie has continued to remain a popular character in Osaka and the Kansai region more broadly.[17] Critical receptionAcademic and manga critic Tomohiko Murakami said of the film that it was steeped in pathos despite its funny moments, that adults and children swap roles and that as such, the mediating role Chie plays is the source of both its comedy and sentiment.[18] Writing in 1991 in anticipation of the release of Only Yesterday, film critic Tadao Satō referred to Jarinko Chie as his favourite of Takahata's films, emphasising that the film had beautifully captured a human expression that could only be replicated through his unique blend of entertainment and social consciousness, referring to Takahata himself as a "social activist".[19] British film and animation journalist Andrew Osmond contrasts the "ungainly" animation with its "careful life observation". He analyses the film as a commentary on masculinity, drawing attention to the parallel plotlines between the human and animal elements of the story, however concluding that it is neither especially funny nor engaging.[6] Odell and Le Blanc, in their writing on Takahata's filmography, also analyse the film through the topic of masculinity, discussing how references to gender affect the relationship between people. They refer to the film as a "comedy of dysfunction",[20] comparing these aspects to two of Takahata's later works, Pom Poko and My Neighbours the Yamadas. They additionally emphasise the redemptive power of food, noting how the yakuza boss and his underlings each open food stands while Chie is left responsible for cooking meat at the family's izakaya.[8] References
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