Director's journey in dreams

A JAPANESE film to be shown at the Hongkong International Film Festival may be just the movie for those looking for something unconventional.

I've Heard the Ammonite Murmur (1991), directed by Isao Yamada, comes close to a feature-length experimental movie. Departing from the mainstream Japanese films, it is a journey in dreams - a visual fantasy of a series of images.

Of all objects, Yamada chooses the unfamiliar ammonite as the motif of his work. An inorganic object that does not mean much to the layman except the archaelogists, the marine shell becomes, interestingly, the key to unlocking the emotional mystery of a central character.

The story begins with a young mineralogist (Kenzo Saeki) undertaking a long journey to visit his beloved sister (Hiroko Ishimaru), who is seriously ill in a hospital by the seashore.

The plot and the dialogue are reduced to the basic. As the protagonist Kenzo declares: ''This is the first minimal-entertainment-art film ever in Japan!'' And the audience may be puzzled by the repeated appearance of an ammonite, ticking away like a clock.

To Yamada, the coiled marine mollusc symbolises Kenzo's world as a mineralogist. He chose the inorganic mineral, a synonym for death, to connection with people.

''The only exception is his love towards his sister which he gradually becomes aware of,'' said Yamada.