MR Gauche the Cellist

Time for one more anime movie from the pre-Studio Ghibli years!

This time, let's see a radically different genre of movie, once more from sensei Isao Takahata.

Movie: Gauche the Cellist
Directed by Isao Takahata
Release date 1982
Genre Anime/musical
Country Japan

Gauche the Cellist.
What a unique movie this one is!

Sometimes called "Gorsch the Cellist" or "Goshu the Cellist" depending on the translation (though I prefer the original "Gauche" name better).
This little movie - and by little I mean, slightly over a mere hour -  is based on a short story by Kenji Miyazawa. Easily one of the most popular Japanese writers/poets. A great influence to both Miyazaki and Takahata, who based several of their works on his storytelling.

There's been literally dozen adaptations of this story, including several movies.
This one's the adaptation Isao Takahata wrote for the screen and directed himself in the early 80s.

This is the story of Gauche.
Gauche is a cellist who lives in a small town in some unidentified part of the rural Japan of old.
He's also part of a small local orchestra, The Venus Orchestra.

Gauche is having some problems at the rehearsals.
He's a good musician, with a great technique, but his work lacks heart and spirit.
While he struggles daily there, the conductor tells him he needs to add some emotion when playing. Devoid of that, the music can be as good as he tries..there's simply no solid foundations beneath his sound.

During the course of the next four nights, Gauche is visited each time by a talking animal (a cat, a cuckoo, a tanuki, and finally a mother mouse and her son).
The animals seem to only annoy him at first, the cat only wants to heard a song. But then he starts to learn something every night, the cuckoo practice scales with him. And enjoys himself, like when he's accompanied by the tanuki's little drum. And accept playing as more than just practice, when he helps the mice while playing a rhapsody.

The animals teach something about himself, playing music from the heart...
Will Gauche be ready for the big concert at the end of the week?

Gauche is a very unique sort of movie.
More Fantasy (for an American comparison) than your usual generic animes.

It took Takahata and his crew ~5-6 years to produce this little hour-long movie.
This one was done at the Oh! Production's studios.
It's a beautiful looking and sounding story. And no doubt a timeless film.

Visually, it's gorgeous, and holds quite easily to this very day. The beautiful painting-like landscapes, colorful backgrounds with noticeable brushstrokes make it come to life.

The music, by Michio Mamiya, breathes life into this production.
The various rehearsals sound like rehearsed music.
There's various interesting pieces throughout the movie. Be it Beethoven's Sixth Symphony (and important influential figure in Gauche's life) or some other more obscure little cello pieces.
The "Tiger Hunt in India" piece Gauche plays..
And it ends on a beautiful Pastoral symphony when he's at peace at the end of the day.

Overall, easily one of the most underrated and sadly too often overlooked master pieces from Isao Takahata.
Gauche becomes a better musician with his interaction with the small animals that visit his home.
It's a story about music.
The various steps of learning. Trying at first, learning, working hard, and once all this his mastered, acquiring emotion through it.

One of my personal favorites to be honest.

It's more of a naturalism story compared to other movies from Takahata.
As his late work, there's some tragedy as well as some comedy.
The talking animals are never quite explained or understood (in Gauche's mind, for real..in the end it has no importance, only what Gauche experienced does).
A sort of meditative musical film.

Sadly this is one of the harder movies to find around.
There's been one English-based release (and a rare French release like mine, seen above).
It is now under Ghibli's name in Japan, so there's still hope for a new release (it will be easier for outside Producers to export it now).
Though you can just as well get one of the Japanese copies, they're all subtitled in English. (not that dialogues are that important here)


I give it:

3 / 3 DonPatchis!