"Émotion" (notice the French spelling) is a 40-minute short film from almost 50 years ago. The writer and director behind this piece is Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, who you may know from his most famous work "Hausu". But here, back in 1966, this was still really early during his career and he wasn't even 30 years old. Yet this was not one of his very first works as a filmmaker. Anyway, what can i say about these 40 minutes? it is an extremely experimental movie. There may be some kind of story in here, but it gets lost in the quantity of individual shots and strange actions taking place. Most of the actors in here have never appeared in another film before or after this one. I personally did not really enjoy the watch. It was too strange for my taste. It's not a complete failure, but a very unusual movie and all in all I can't recommend it.

Here we have a classic example of charming avant garde madness from none other than Japan, a country that's the home of many extremely unique and flat out bizarre films, and this is no doubt near the top of the most unique and bizarre films I have yet to see. It isn't perfect, and by the end it has descended into such chaotic experimentation that it just becomes a collage of near nonsense, but it is lots of fun and remains consistently off-the-walls and entertainingly playful as to keep itself far from being a waste of time in the least. It's funny, scary, and, of course, highly surreal, really worth seeking out for anyone who considers themselves a big fan of "weird movies."

Although I'm making the film kinda sound like nothing much more than amusing madness, there is plenty of artistic merit at play here. The cinematography is oddly eye popping, the visuals invigorating and simultaneously beautiful and disturbing at times, it's a dreamlike quest of love, taking the atmospheres of a fairy tale, horror film, and abstract work of modern art and smashing them together in a vampire-based short film fantasy that could only come from a wildly creative mind made of pure imagination. And it turns out that mind is the same mind behind the film 'Hausu', which has been on my watchlist for years and I feel I am now ready to finally get to watching...tomorrow...

'Emotion' is peculiar little film. Experimental, but it has warmth and some sweetness in it. Like many other such surreal experimental movies, 'Emotion' is very hard to analyze. The film has a core story - a girl meets another girl who looks like her and she falls in love to a vampire. Very interesting use of old Dracula myth. Although it might be little hard to follow or understand what is going on - is it a dream, a distorted real world - it's still enjoyable film, especially when you're into surreal stuff. Partly black/white, partly color, stop-motion effects. Cowboys having shoot-outs, vampire throwing knife into the air and laying down to wait his death by falling knife. Girl from sea discovering city and love, and then returning to the sea. Unlike most surrealist work 'Emotion' never falls into dark territory, it keeps it cheerful almost child like joy. Many state that Bunuel or Lynch would be perfect start in surrealist films, but I think Nobuhiko Obayashi's shorts, although hard to find, are also great start.