Ghost (1984 film)

Ghost is a 1984 Japanese experimental short film directed by Takashi Ito. As with Ito's shorts Thunder (1982) and Grim (1984), Ghost was shot in 16 mm, features long-exposure photography,[1] and has been characterized as using light, sound, and photographic techniques to create an ominous atmosphere and invoke the feeling of a space haunted by a ghostly presence.[2][3]

Ghost
Directed byTakashi Ito
Release date
  • 1984 (1984)
Running time
6 minutes
CountryJapan

Synopsis

Ghost depicts spaces in and around an apartment building, utilizing frame-by-frame[4] long-exposure photography. A figure holding a flashlight is sometimes seen, with the beam of the flashlight appearing as a trail of light due to the long exposure; the figure itself appears weightless and fleeting.[5]

According to Ito:[1]

I made [Ghost] because I wanted to try out the idea of floating images in midair that had come to me when making Thunder. The entire work was shot frame-by-frame with long exposures. I filmed this in the company dorm I was living in, in the middle of the night after I had come home from work, and thought I might die from what had become my daily pattern of sleeping for two hours in the morning then going off to work.

Release

Ghost screened on 24 September 1985 at RMIT University's Glasshouse Cinema at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, as part of "Continuum", a program of "Japanese alternative cinema made in 1984."[6] It was later released on DVD along with a number of Ito's other works as part of the Takashi Ito Film Anthology.[7]

References
  1. "伊藤高志《フィルモグラフィー》" [Takashi Ito Filmography]. ImageForum.co.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  2. Nishijima, Norio (1996). "The Ecstasy of Auto-machines". In Bouhours, Jean-Michel (ed.). L'art du mouvement: Collection cinématographique du Musée national d'art moderne, 1919–1996 (in French). Centre Georges Pompidou. ISBN 978-2858509027. [...] his other series such as Thunder (1982), Ghost (1984), and Grim (1985), which are occult experimental "horror" films featuring the technique of bulb shutters and time-lapse photography.
  3. Dahan, Yaron (4 June 2015). "Ghosts of Time and Light: The Experimental Cinema of Ito Takashi". MUBI. Retrieved 17 January 2023. Ito Takashi's second period, which begins with the short film Thunder (1982), adds many of these elements to the experiments of the first: light painting, superimpositions, mystical demons, ghostly voices. [...] Thunder and the other films in this style—Ghost (1984), Grim (1985)—all portray retinal echoes of ghosts and televisions and lights, remnants of abandoned images, accompanied by insidious electronic soundtrack.
  4. "Art and AsiaPacific". Art and AsiaPacific. No. 26–28. 2000. p. 28. In Ghost, the Japanese artist Takashi Ito adopts a primitive method of animation, shooting one frame at a time, creating high-speed, high-precision scenes that excessively stimulate the retina of the viewer and make the space of ordinary life strange.
  5. Cameron, Allan; Misek, Richard (April 2014). "Time-lapse and the projected body" (PDF). Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ). 3 (1): 11–13. doi:10.1386/miraj.3.1.38_1. ISSN 2045-6298. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  6. "What's On | The Complete Weekly Entertainment Directory | Buff's choice". The Age. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 20 September 1985. p. 10. Retrieved 17 January 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Takashi Ito Film Anthology (DVD)". British Film Institute (BFI). Retrieved 17 January 2023.


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