P.M.C. Smy — Film
ライスウォーカー
An old farmer, a leased robot, and one growing season.
2026 · 9 min 37 sec · Japanese (Tohoku dialect), English subtitles
An old farmer in rural Tohoku works his rice fields alone. His son, now in Tokyo, leases him a robot for one growing season.
He doesn’t use it. Through the thaw it stands in the yard with his laundry on its arms. Then planting comes, and his back gives out.
About the film
I carried this story for about ten years. Thirty minutes inland from where I live, there are towns where almost everyone left is old. But I’m also the son. I left Canada, and I’ve now lived more than half my life away from it. A script is a little like a dream: everyone in it is some part of you.
I tried to make it as live action, and later in Blender, and both times it stalled. This version was made with AI video tools in a handmade stop-motion style, because I love stop-motion. The choices came from the story: a robot that never speaks, a farmer with barely twenty lines, a camera that almost never moves. The tools just made it possible, finally, to finish.
Rice Walker is the first film from a pile of scripts I’ve been building for decades. It won’t be the last.
Credits
Written, directed and edited by P.M.C. Smy
Made with Wan, ChatGPT, Final Cut Pro and Topaz
© 2026 P.M.C. Smy
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