Thunder (1982 film) explained

Thunder
Director:	Takashi Ito
Runtime:	5 minutes
Country:	Japan

Thunder is a 1982 Japanese experimental short film directed by Takashi Ito. Shot on 16 mm film,^[1] Thunder makes use of long-exposure photography.^[2] Along with Ito's films Ghost (1984) and Grim (1985), Thunder has been noted for its ghostly imagery and ominous tone.^{[3] [4]}

Synopsis

Thunder features a series of photographic slides of a woman repeatedly covering and uncovering her face with her hands, projected onto the interiors of an empty office building. The images bend and distort against the interior surfaces. Additionally, a long ribbon of light is seen curling and oscillating. The effect of the ribbon of light was produced using long-exposure photography, created frame-by-frame by a person with a flashlight moving throughout the building's rooms during long single-frame exposures.^[5]

Release

Thunder screened as part of the 34th Berlin International Film Festival in 1984, and was later shown at the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art in 1996.^[6]

Home media

Thunder was released on DVD along with a number of Ito's other works as part of the Takashi Ito Film Anthology.^[7]

Notes and References

1. 1985. Takashi Ito. Cantrills Filmnotes. 47–60. 52.
2. Book: Schlemowitz, Joel. 2019. Experimental Filmmaking and the Motion Picture Camera: An Introductory Guide for Artists and Filmmakers. Routledge. 978-1138586598.
3. Book: Nishijima, Norio. Bouhours. Jean-Michel. 1996. L'art du mouvement: Collection cinématographique du Musée national d'art moderne, 1919–1996. The Ecstasy of Auto-machines. http://www.imageforum.co.jp/ito/introduction_e.html. Centre Georges Pompidou. fr. 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..
4. Web site: Ghosts of Time and Light: The Experimental Cinema of Ito Takashi. Dahan. Yaron. 4 June 2015. MUBI. 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..
5. https://vimeo.com/955569335 Thunder (audio commentary) (Art & Trash miniature 17) - Art & Trash on Vimeo
6. Web site: 伊藤高志《フィルモグラフィー》. Takashi Ito Filmography. ImageForum.co.jp. ja. 15 January 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230116005349/http://www.imageforum.co.jp/ito/filmography.html. 16 January 2023. live.
7. Web site: Takashi Ito Film Anthology (DVD). British Film Institute (BFI). 17 January 2023.