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<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
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mso-vertical-align-alt: auto">This is terribly sad. I was lucky enough to
share a dinner table with Aoki-san during the 2002 Shin Yurigaoka film
festival, having been introduced to him by Makoto Shinozaki. I remember him
as a very lively old man (Tokkan Jiji – as Shinozaki called him!), who
was rather curious as to why someone of my age from England knew who he was,
as he hungrily sneaked cigarettes from my packet of Gauloise a friend from
France had just brought me out. I still find it very sad that Not Forgotten
was never released anywhere with English subtitles, as, despite its flaws,
it was one of the most interesting to come from Japan in the past few years,
and Aoki’s performance in itself was something to cherish. He shall be
missed. </P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric;
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mso-vertical-align-alt: auto">Jasper Sharp</P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt;
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mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language:
AR-SA">www.midnighteye.com<BR></SPAN><BR>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">--------- Original Message --------<BR>From:
KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<BR>To: "KineJapan"
<KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu><BR>Subject: Sayonara Tokkan
Kozo<BR>Date: 26/01/04 12:15<BR><BR><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><BR>The
papers reported that Aoki Tomio, who was known as "Tokkan Kozo" as<BR>a
child actor, died on the 24th at the age of 80 from lung cancer.<BR><BR>Aoki
first debuted in films in 1929 and came to fame in playing the<BR>title role
in Ozu Yasujiro's _Tokkan kozo_, a street-wise, comical punk<BR>who came to
be featured in dozens of Shochiku Kamata films, the most<BR>famous of which
is _I Was Born But..._. Aoki played in many of Ozu's<BR>early films, but
quit the movies in 1940, only to start a second career<BR>in 1955 as a
character actor in many Nikkatsu films. That career lasted<BR>until 1972,
when he again retired from the screen. What launched his<BR>third career was
Shinozaki Makoto's _Okaeri_ in 1996, where he has a<BR>brief role as an old
man sitting on a bench. Shinozaki got along with<BR>Aoki so well that he
built the film _Wasurerarenu hitobito_ around him<BR>(it is partially based
on Aoki's wartime experiences), a film which<BR>earned Aoki and his two male
co-stars a best actor award at the Nantes<BR>Film Festival.<BR><BR>The
Japanese Movie Database lists 191 films to his name, but given
his<BR>activities as a character actor, he probably appeared in many more
than<BR>that.<BR><BR>Aaron Gerow<BR>KineJapan owner<BR><BR>Assistant
Professor<BR>Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and
Literatures<BR>Yale University<BR><BR>For list commands, send "information
kinejapan" to<BR><A class=autolink
href="mailto:listserver@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu">listserver@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu</A><BR>Kinema
Club: <A class=autolink target=_blank
href="http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html">http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html</A><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR
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