Film Screening | A Letter to Momo by Hiroyuki Okiura (2012) 

From the creators of Ghost in the Shell comes a wonderfully expressive and beautifully hand-drawn animated tale that combines bursts of whimsy and kinetic humor with deeply felt emotion and drama.

The last time Momo saw her father they had a fight – and now all she has left to remember him by is an incomplete letter, a blank piece of paper penned with the words “Dear Momo,” but nothing more. Moving with her mother to the remote Japanese island of Shio, Momo soon discovers three yōkai living in her attic, a trio of mischievous spirit creatures that only she can see and who create mayhem in the tiny seaside community as she tries desperately to keep them hidden. But these funny monsters have a serious side and may hold the key to helping Momo discover what her father had been trying to tell her.

A Letter to Momo was seven years in the making, and the handmade animation is superb, from the painstakingly rendered serenity of the island’s Shinto shrines to the climactic finale – a frantic chase featuring thousands of squirming, morphing ghosts and spirits that is the best cinematic flight of supernatural fancy in years.

*Registration for tickets will be required.
*Film streaming available to residents of North America only.

 Film length: 120 min. 

Yōkai Webinar and Virtual Exhibition 

In the film, Momo discovers an old, woodblock printed book similar to the Hokusai Manga book featured in the NATURE/SUPERNATURE virtual exhibition accessible now. The book contains images of yōkai, like the ones that magically come to life as the yōkai in the story. The role of such yōkai in the lives and lore of the Japanese people will be one of the themes discussed in a yōkai-themed webinar on March 25.