SKI JUMPING PAIRS: ROAD TO TORINO 2006 (Japan – 2005)
Directed by: Riichiro Mashima & Masaki Kobayashi
Starring: Kazuhiro Masuko, Tomoyuki Masuko
“When I saw ROAD as a judge at the Japanese Eyes section of last year's Tokyo International Film Festival, I knew next to nothing about its production history, but I immediately got its brilliant send-up of the sober-sided, po-faced NHK documentary about a heroic underdog's struggle to victory. I went from knowing grins to helpless belly laughs in record time, as did my two fellow judges. When the CG sequences started I was on the floor, barking at the moon -- and stayed that way until the end…a work of warped genius.”
- Mark Schilling, Japan Times

If you watched the Torino Olympics it’s likely you missed the most beautiful tribute to human endeavor and scientific progress ever to grace the games, but it was there: Ski Jumping Pairs. It’s like the ski jump except the skis hold two – TWO! – top athletes who must strike graceful poses in the air and stick their landing. Based on an obscure branch of physics known as Rendezvous Theory - which posits that at low temperatures, objects in flight duplicate themselves in order to provide greater stability - Ski Jumping Pairs is the brainchild of a physicist, Professor Harada, and his twin sons. And now, finally, there’s a documentary that follows this sport from its humble beginnings in an laboratory to its greatest triumphs and tragedies (including the painful “Bermuda Incident”).

Not since THIS IS SPINAL TAP has a movie twisted the documentary format this hard. Disguised as a po-faced Japanese television documentary (in three episodes) SKI JUMPING PAIRS is actually a comedy that hides its anarchic Monty Pythonisms beneath soberly surreal talking head interviews, dramatic recreations, and earnest actors pontificating about “Samurai spirit.” Making its debut as a CGI graduation project from Riichiro Mashima a few years ago, the short film version of SKI JUMPING PAIRS was invited to over 40 film festivals, picking up awards and acclaim along the way. Now it has burst onto the scene as this full-fledged CGI and live action faux-documentary (with the live action shot by Masaki Kobayashi). Where else can you can feel the drama, the passion and the beauty of world’s greatest nonexistent sport?