A festival favorite from 2010, this short film expertly blends digital effects and live-action in a jaw-dropping way. Instead of futuristic sci-fi however, Canadian filmmaker Sol Friedman creates a chanbara mini-epic of revenge, suffused with manga and kabuki theater. Exquisite. Our boy, MarBelle at DN had a podcast with Mr. Friedman at last year’s SXSW thats very informative about the creation process.

As with many of these stylish works however, the other elements are not up to the caliber of the design. Specifically the acting from all three main characters and the execution of the final fight are lackluster. At 11min long, that can be a bit painful for some. Still I highly recommend the film to designers, animators, geeks and Japanophiles.

Placed online in order to participate in OpenFilm’s “Get it Made” Competition, Junko’s Shamisen did not make as one of the finalists sadly. We’ll have to check in on that contest soon, as the 10 films still standing must be extraordinary.