<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">Hope
everyone is enjoying the festive season…<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns
= "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">I
have to confess out of the three I have only caught KILL BILL so far, which
I personally thought was utter drivel. I can understand what Tarantino was
trying to do, and undoubtedly the film suffered at the hands of
Weinstein’s suggestion to split it into two parts. Ultimately however,
whereas I can accept that Tarantino’s world exists completely inside
of the frame of reference of cinema, his vision is far less compelling than
the films he continuously references. I thought the film was a bore, and
remained unengaged throughout. A slightly controversial view, perhaps, but
one that appears to have been shared by Japanese audiences. The film has
rather under-performed at the Japanese box office (and across the rest of
Asia?), despite the fortune spent on promotion and the soundtrack
permanently spinning every time I went to Tsutaya.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">As
for LAST SAMURAI, it seems to be going down fairly well over here. One of my
students mentioned that though the story played loose with history, it
captured the Japanese aesthetic and state of mind nicely – not sure
entirely what he meant, as he wasn’t such a high-level speaker, but
the overall opinion with all Japanese people I have spoken to seems to be
more positive than that of foreign audiences. I’ve not felt any major
pull to see if Tom Cruise is a worthy successor to Richard Chamberlain, but
my curiosity has been somewhat piqued, and if it attracts more people to
Japanese culture then that can’t be a bad thing.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">As
for LOST IN TRANSLATION, I did enjoy VIRGIN SUICIDES and I think that
Coppola is an interesting director, so though I haven’t seen it yet,
I’m very interested and won’t be going into it with the
expectation that the film is “about”
Japan.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">On
the subject of foreign portrayals of Japan, one film that hasn’t been
brought up is a French one, the adaptation of Belgian novelist Amelie
Nothomb’s STUPEURS ET TREMBLEMENTS (which translates rather
inelegantly as “Fear and Tremblings”). I’m not sure what
sort of distribution this has had outside of France, but it deals with
Nothomb’s autobiographical account of a year spent working as an
interpreter at a large Japanese trading company, and via a number of
faux-pas, her descent to the lowly ranks of toilet cleaner. I caught this at
Puchon this year, and the Korean’s seemed to be lapping up the
stereotypical portrayal of the stiff, authoritarian Japanese office
hierarchy, but I can’t imagine it going down too well here in Japan.
Admittedly, I found the movie rather more enjoyable than the book, and it
was good to see familiar character actors such as Taro Suwa in small roles
in films made outside of Japan, but when it comes to the facile and
tasteless scene in which Nothomb and her strict, bitchy boss reach a mutual
understanding in the ladies toilet laid down to the music from MERRY
CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE, it seemed clear which side of the East-West divide
this film was coming from. Anyone else seen it?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">As
for Japanese film, I agree that this year has not turned out any real
masterpieces – Kurosawa’s BRIGHT FUTURE and Kawase’s SHARA
were probably the two biggest disappointments for me, and dare I dredge up
the memory once more, BLUE (which I’ve subsequently heard many
Japanese critics speak very highly of). At the same time, when I think
harder, there’s actually been a huge number of films that fit into the
good-but-not-excellent category. Despite the usual ambivalence to plot and
pacing that we’ve come to expect from Japanese film recently, NO
ONE’S ARK was a wonderful and amusing character study, and NINE SOULS
was also impressive. ZATOICHI, whilst as shallow as a puddle, was at least a
very pretty puddle and a welcome return to form for Kitano. The tap-dancing
finale was exquisite.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">My
own personal favourite this year from Japan had to be Yutaka
Tsuchiya’s PEEP “TV” SHOW, which for all its faults, was
thought-provoking and funny and proves what can be achieved on a miniscule
Do-It-Yourself budget. I urge all festival programmers to take a look at
this ASAP. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'">Biggest bomb of the year, BATTLE ROYALE 2, though it will be
interesting to see how the film fares on its European release in the early
part of next year.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">For
now, wishing everyone all the best for the coming year, and a big thank you
to everyone out there doing their best against the odds to promote Japanese
cinema, especially to the organisers and staff of FilmEx and Yamagata, whose
work formed the cinematic highlights of this year for me, and to Aaron and
Mark for overseeing this essential mailing list. Here’s Looking
forward to many more intelligent and informative discussions over the course
of 2004.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'">Best,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'">Jasper Sharp<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'">Midnight Eye: The Latest And Best in Japanese
Cinema<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging;
mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'">www.midnighteye.com<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><BR />
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