News
Live-Action/Anime Lexus Short by Mitsuyo Miyazaki, Koji Morimoto Streamed
posted on by Egan Loo
Lexus International began streaming "A Better Tomorrow," a live-action/anime hybrid short created by award-winning short film director Mitsuyo Miyazaki and anime director Kōji Morimoto, on Tuesday. The short has English subtitles:
The short is part of Lexus and The Weinstein Company's short film series. Lexus describes the story:
In the near future when water is scarce, Shin and Myra, two orphans following in their scientist father's footsteps, develop a technology that could turn the tides of time and heal the earth. But when dark forces kidnap them in an attempt to steal their father's invention, the device is mistakenly activated and a mysterious power unleashed. While trying to escape their captors, they are magically transported on a voyage out of this world.
Miyazaki delved into filmmaking after studying music and performing arts and moving to the United States as a teenager. She won numerous international film festival awards for "Tsuyako" — her University of Southern California thesis film that she partly financed through the Kickstarter fundraising site. In the short, "Tsuyako, a factory worker and mother, must decide between duty and love, her family and her freedom."
Morimoto has worked as an anime director, filmmaker, visual creator, and art director on Akira, Magnetic Rose, Extra, Ai Monogatari, Macross Plus, and Tekkonkinkreet. He directed the Beyond segment in The Animatrix, the cult fan favorite Noiseman Sound Insect, the "Connected" music video for Ayumi Hamasaki, and the "Dimension Bomb" portion of the Genius Party omnibus film. As a founding member, Morimoto worked at Studio 4°C from 1989 to 2011. He now helms the new Φphy creative team as Executive Art Director.
The short stars Kaito Kobayashi and Suzuko Hara as Shin and Myra and features key animation by Yasuhiro Aoki, Atsuko Fukushima, Jamie Vickers, Bahi JD, Tōru Yoshida, Yūichi Nakazawa, Satoru Utsunomiya, and Morimoto himself. (Morimoto also designed the characters, directed the art, and co-wrote the screenplay for the anime segment.)
