<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>The way bandwidth works, I'm looking forward to the day I can watch any Japanese film from here in midwest America. It seems to me Youtube is significant step towards this anytime/anywhere film culture. But it's low-bandwidth aesthetic, length restrictions, and peculiar online sub-culture lends it to surveillance of dumb politicians, a new brand of home-movie, porn (the other brand of home movie), dull parodies by children and film school students—and television weirdness of every sort. I'm partial to the latter, so....</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><B>I propose we start an annual KineJapan Youtube Festival. </B></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>I have been meaning to do this for a while now, but have finally been compelled by a recent problem. My son and I had been enjoying a particularly crazy SMAP skit on Youtube when it suddenly disappeared. All that was left was something rude about copyright violations. Google didn't pull it up anywhere else, either. We threw up our hands and went on with life. <DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Then I noticed a piece in the New York Times business section that explained what happened. After Google bought Youtube for $1.65 billion, the site began purging copyrighted material. Japanese films were the first to go, thanks to a threat by the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and publishers. Citing copyright infringement they forced Youtube to get rid of 30,000 clips, including my son's favorite SMAP madness. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Youtube's not going to around forever, and obviously the clips on it are ephemeral. Not only would it be interesting to share the current best of Japanese Youtube clips—because I'm sure you have some—but it would be a nice record of our current moving image culture. For posterior's sake. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>So I'll kick it off. I hope you can join me by posting your favorites, along with a short kaisetsu, if you don't mind. And it doesn't have to be Youtube; I use that only because it's reaching a popularity that turns it into a verb, like Google before it. In fact, the first clip I'll send is actually my son's SMAP bit, which I found on a Youtube clone. So any moving image clip will do. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">Join me in the <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Grand Premiere </SPAN>screening just below; party will be afterwards—How about Kinema Club at Nippon Connection?</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</DIV><DIV><B>Katsuken II Lesson</B></DIV><DIV><B><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></B></DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhpd7_katsuken">http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhpd7_katsuken</A><B></B></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Matsuken Samba, a song-and-dance routine by jidai geki actor Matsudaira Ken, was under the radar of the under 50 crowd until SMAP started making fun of it with "Katsuken." I heard Matsuken was doing a new Matsuken Awaodori; while searching for that, I came across the flash of brilliance from SMAP. My son became obsessed with this, so we've been mastering the moves (far more difficult than you'd think—try it!). I can cry "Spanish!" and he'll stop whatever he's doing and strike me a pose. Here's the original tutorial (<A href="http://www.geneon-ent.co.jp/music/sounddata/matsuken/gnbl1015_03.ram">http://www.geneon-ent.co.jp/music/sounddata/matsuken/gnbl1015_03.ram</A>) from Matsuken's website (<A href="http://www.geneon-ent.co.jp/music/matsuken/">http://www.geneon-ent..co.jp/music/matsuken/</A>). </DIV><DIV>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>So let's get festive. What have you been enjoying lately?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Markus</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>