Kemurigusa monogatari

Noburō Ōfuji’s early animated short, “A Story of Tobacco,” presents a curious and rather confrontational vignette. It centers on a seemingly ordinary desktop scene where a human actress finds herself in a bizarre argument with a diminutive, cut-out animated figure. This tiny antagonist, embodying a peculiar frustration born from his size disadvantage, aggressively engages with the woman, culminating in him blowing smoke in her face, erupting into a childish tantrum, and brandishing a miniature firearm. The film, in its surviving form, concludes abruptly as the animated man embarks on a condescending lecture about cigarettes, leaving the audience with a sense of narrative incompleteness, hinting at a larger, now lost, discourse.