The Golden Flower is a weird paper dream about snake-hating tobacco

You should watch this if you have fifteen minutes and want to see what a nightmare made of beautiful stationery looks like. It is perfect for anyone who likes old-school crafts or just wants to see something totally different from the usual stuff. People who need high-speed action or 4K resolution will probably hate it within thirty seconds.

It is a short film by Noburō Ōfuji. He used this technique called Chiyogami, which is basically colored paper with patterns. It makes the whole movie look like a haunted scrapbook coming to life.

The story starts with this guy who is an actor. He is walking home from a festival and he looks a bit tired. I like how his little paper legs move. It is jittery and nervous.

Then this giant snake appears. It is actually pretty scary for being made of paper. It has these big, flat eyes that just stare at you. It doesn't blink because, well, it is a cutout.

The weirdest part is how they beat the snake. They use nicotine. Our hero figures out that the snake hates tobacco. It feels like a very specific thing to include.

Maybe the director just really liked smoking? I don't know. But the neighbors all get together to attack the monster with their pipes.

The way the smoke is animated is really something. It looks like swirling patterns of light and dark. It is not realistic at all, but it is beautiful in a strange way.

It reminded me a bit of the artifice in The Doll. Everything is clearly fake, but that makes you look closer at the details. You can see the texture of the paper.

There is a moment where the snake is writhing around and you can almost see the fingerprints of the person moving it. I love that stuff. It feels human.

After the snake is gone, the actor goes up a hill. He meets a Buddha. The Buddha is just sitting there, looking very calm.

The Buddha asks for help, which I thought was funny. Usually, it is the other way around. But the actor helps him out anyway.

And then the guy gets rich. That is the end. No big moral, just a guy getting paid for being nice to a paper god.

It is much shorter and stranger than something like The Strong Man. It doesn't have that big Hollywood energy. It feels more like a private joke or a bedtime story.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Golden Flower (1929) through its definitive frames.

I noticed a tiny tear in the paper background during the mountain scene. It is right in the corner. Most people would miss it, but it made me smile.

The music in the version I saw was very loud and screechy. It fits the vibe. It makes the whole thing feel a bit more urgent.

I wonder why we don't make movies like this anymore. It probably took forever to move those little cutouts frame by frame. It is much more interesting to look at than a lot of the flat animation we get today.

The actor’s costume has these tiny intricate patterns. If you pause it, you can see how much work went into it. It is almost too much detail for such a short film.

It has that same kind of "anything can happen" feeling you get in Pop Tuttle's Tac Tics. Logic doesn't really matter when you are playing with paper.

The snake's death scene is actually kind of sad. It just sort of wilts. Like a piece of paper being dropped in water.

I think the Buddha part was added just to have a happy ending. It feels a bit rushed compared to the snake fight. But I guess you can't complain about a guy getting rich.

Is it a masterpiece? I don't know. I don't like using that word. It is just a very cool thing that exists.

If you like weird historical artifacts, search this one out. It is better than watching another superhero trailer. It feels like someone's actual hand touched every single frame.

Also, the way the actor bows is very charming. Even with paper joints, he has a lot of personality. More than some actors in A Virgin Paradise, honestly.

The whole thing is just a vibe. A very old, very paper-thin vibe. It makes me want to go buy some craft supplies and start cutting things up.

One more thing—the hill looks like it was made of layers of cardboard. It gives the screen this weird depth. It is like looking into a very small, very deep box.

Go watch it. It is short. You won't regret it even if you find it confusing. 🐍✨