Red Colored Elegy

Young artists Ichiro and Sachiko are portrayed in Seiichi Hayshi's Red Colored Elegy as temperamental and discouraged, experiencing heartache, passions, and bickering in their stormy love affair. The film beautifully captures their quiet lives, influenced by underground Japanese comics and the French New Wave. This new paperback edition includes an essay on the film and its contributions to contemporary Japanese comics.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 20 February 2018
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly

Young artists Ichiro and Sachiko are passionate and disheartened by the possibilities life has to offer. They experience romantic relationships, exhibit jealousy towards each other's interests, and remain unchallenged by their professional pursuits. Red Colored Elegy, a seminal work of the Japanese underground scene from the 1960s, was penned by Seiichi Hayshi between 1970 and 1971. This period marked a politically tumultuous and culturally vibrant decade that held promise but ultimately fell short of delivering new possibilities. Hayshi's sparse line work and visual cues, influenced by animation and film, exquisitely portray the modest lives of a young couple struggling to make ends meet. While Ichiro and Sachiko harbor hopes for something better, they lack the revolutionary spirit; their leisure time is spent engaging in drinking, smoking, daydreaming, and occasionally engaging in intimate relationships with others. Red Colored Elegy draws inspiration from both underground Japanese comics of the time and the French New Wave. Its profound impact in Japan was such that Morio Agata, a renowned Japanese folk musician and singer/songwriter, made his debut with a love song inspired and named after it. This new paperback edition includes an essay on Red Colored Elegy and Hayshi's contributions to contemporary Japanese comics, written by art historian Ryan Holmberg.

Weight: 736g
Dimension: 220 x 167 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781770462120