The short “Little Wonder” by Japanese director Kento Izawa is a real curiosity. The title of the film says it all: “This is a little wonder story. Mysterious little people lived in the secret tower.” These creatures, who physically are indistinguishable from normal people, are having fun. They jump up and down in their elegant clothes, and think of the tricks they could do to tease each other. One of them is a doctor sitting in his office, one is a mother who runs the household and two others are the ones playing around. At some point the earth trembles. Another person founds in his closet a Yenga tower and starts to break it down. The tower is the little people’s home.
Little Wonder is screening at Japan Filmfest Hamburg
It’s an interesting idea for a story. Since “Gulliver’s Travels” the motif of particular small persons living among the “normal-sized” ones is very popular. It doesn’t matter why they are so small, if they have been shrunk or are small for other reasons. It is an old fascination of humans and especially storytellers to think of things populated by miniature creatures.
Elves, dwarfs and creatures of other kinds can be good or bad. The little people in the short film by director Izawa are neither. Actually they don’t have any specific function. This has not per se to be a weakness of the film. But unfortunately the characters seem random. We do not learn about their background, about their future or even enough about their present. The film is not absurd enough to convince.
As for the esthetics “Little Wonder” follows the form of a silent movie. It is in black and white, the gestures and expressions of the actors recalls that of silent movie actors. We see a few boards with indications that loosely function as chapters. The use of a split screen that shows all the little people moving at the same time is interesting. This reinforces the claustrophobic feeling of them living inside this toy.
For the short length of four minutes, it is undoubtedly funny to watch the film. For a longer duration, however, the idea is just not pertinent enough.
