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Shiki-Jitsu
Directed by	Hideaki Anno
Written by	Hideaki Anno (screenplay) Ayako Fujitani (novel)
Starring	Shunji Iwai Ayako Fujitani Jun Murakami Shinobu Ōtake
Distributed by	Tokuma Shoten
Release date(s)	7 December 2000
Running time	128 min.
Language	Japanese

Shiki-Jitsu (式日, lit. "Ritual Day" or "Ceremonial Day" ^?) is a (2000) live-action film directed by Hideaki Anno.

The screenplay is an adaption by Hideaki Anno and Ayako Fujitani of Fujitani's novella Touhimu, which was inspired by an emotionally difficult time spent in Los Angeles during her work in her father's 1998 film, The Patriot.

The film tells the story of a director, played by independent filmmaker Shunji Iwai, who meets an odd young woman, played by Ayako Fujitani, who wrote the novella Tohimu the film is based upon. The story takes place over a period of 33 days.

Story

The film follows a young Director returning to his hometown, a suburb of a larger Japanese city, and an eccentric young girl he meets, whose quirks include saying "tomorrow is my birthday" every day and wearing very unusual clothing.

But as the days go by, it appears that the woman has little touch with reality and is constantly escaping into a fantasy world, while the Director himself is a former anime director who is seeking to do a "real film" and embrace reality. The two eventually fall in love.

In the end, the Director confronts the Woman and her mother, allowing the Woman to make the first steps into the real world. The films ends with the Girl circling December 7 as her real birthday and the words "beyond the 33rd day: unknown".

Analysis

Hideaki Anno's previous relationship to anime and live action films and ideas such as Superflat can be construed the film's strongly contrasted psychological characters, the use of animation and drawings to portray the Woman's inner thoughts, the decision to change the character of the Director's occupation from shopkeeper as in the original novella to director, and the outlook of the character of the Director:

"Images, especially animation, simply embody our personal and collective fantasies, manipulating selected information, and fictional constructs even live-action film, recording actuality, does not correspond to reality conversely, reality, co-opted by fiction, loses its value. 'The inversion of reality and fiction.' None of this matters to me anymore. My consciousness, my reality, my subject, all converge in her. Certainly, she longs to escape into fantasy. Certainly, I long to escape from fantasy." (29:54-30:36)

Release

The film was released by Studio Kajino, an offshoot of Studio Ghibli run its president Toshio Suzuki. It was given a première at the Tokyo Photography Museum in Ebisu Garden Place on December 7th, 2000.

External links

• Shiki Jitsu Official Site
• Tokyo Movie Report 26
• Shiki Jitsu page on "Hideaki Anno - Life after Evangelion
• Shiki-Jitsu at the Internet Movie Database