Gauche The Cellist (1982) セロ弾きのゴーシュ / Sero Hiki no Gôshu

Gauche (Gôshu) is a young man who lives in a small house outside of town and plays the cello in the local orchestra. Unfortunately, Gauche's playing is letting down the rest of the orchestra and the conductor is running out of patience with him. Over the next few nights, however, Gauche is visited in his home by a succession of animals with musical requests for him - a cat, a bird, a raccoon dog and a mouse - much to Gauche's annoyance. What Gauche doesn't realise is that these tasks and encounters are teaching him how to overcome the flaws in his playing in the last few days before the big concert.


Because Hayao Miyazaki has been the most public face of Studio Ghibli, many often forget that he's not the only creative force at work within its walls. Director Isao Takahata has also made several features, including the acclaimed Grave of the Fireflies and the underrated Only Yesterday.


In 1982, before Studio Ghibli was formed, he made an hour-long animated film based on a classic Japanese story by Kenji Miyazawa called Sero Hiki no Gôshu (Gauche the Cellist). 2006 was the 110th anniversary of Miyazawa's birth, so Sero Hiki no Gôshu has been re-released in Japan as a double-disc DVD in the Studio Ghibli collection.


Gauche (or Gôshu, as he's referred to throughout the film) is a cellist who plays for both a small-town orchestra and in the local cinema. His group is preparing for a recital/competition, and Gauche continually has problems keeping up during practice. Over the course of four nights, as he labors under the scornful gaze of his Beethoven poster, four animals visit him. First is the wily cat, who initially taunts the musician but is soon run off by Gauche's performance of Indian Tiger Hunting, a rhythmic piece that forces the feline into all sorts of humiliating dance moves.


Second is the cuckoo who wants Gauche to teach him about scale but ends up showing the cellist a thing or two. Third is the young racoon who asks Gauche to accompany him so he can get in tune with his drumming. Finally, a mother mouse brings her sick son to Gauche to ask him to play a song and heal her child. Apparently, all the woodland creatures gather around Gauche's home so that his playing might soothe them.


Though Gauche initially thinks these night visitors are a nuisance, when competition time comes, he discovers that he has learned a lesson from each of them, and once applied, they lead him to even better playing.


Sero Hiki no Gôshu predates what would become the signature Ghibli style. Takahata has a rougher line here, but his grasp of movement is already a sight to behold. The cat character in particular is animated fantastically, the artists capturing feline mannerisms and attitudes down to the tiniest detail. The best parts, though, are when Gauche and his fellow musicians are playing and the world around them alters to express the music visually. In one scene, the entire orchestra floats into the air and rockets through space on the back of their symphonic melody; other times, Gauche goes abstract, expanding in size and changing color. When he's really in sync with his animal friends, his house disappears and the whole world becomes a beautiful forest.


One of the best scenes for music and image coming together, however, is when Gauche is playing in the cinema for a crowd of children watching an old-style black-and-white cartoon of a cat and a mouse. The animated characters behind the orchestra zoom around their self-contained screen, and then real life mimics art when an actual rodent is let loose in the theatre. It's a sly conceit, showing the interaction of film, music, and the natural world all in one tight little frame.


But that's exactly the kind of special film Sero Hiki no Gôshu is. I'm so happy that Ghibli has rescued Sero Hiki no Gôshu from its relative obscurity, because Takahata's film is definitely a charmer. It's a feel-good movie that doesn't contrive its emotions, and the classical score is an integral part of the storytelling rather than a quick shortcut to the audience's heartstrings.


Like so many of the Ghibli films that followed it, there is nothing to compare Sero Hiki no Gôshu to. It stands alone as a unique artistic expression, and it should be a welcome addition to any animation library.
It's hard to say whether Sero Hiki no Gôshu will ever make it over to America as part of the Ghibli/Disney deal, so why wait? If you have a player compatible with Region 2 discs, this release of Sero Hiki no Gôshu is top-notch, even without English subtitles on the extra features. The film itself is an absolute treasure, a beautifully executed fairy tale about the natural power of music.
Jamie S. Rich



Thanks and credit to CerealRipper for the DVD9.