<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>Dear All,</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>Anne's commentary here captures tremendously well the critical work of a very necessary film. I'd suggest starting with Tsuchiya's work, too. If one looks more broadly at the phenomenon of youth isolation and its relation to technology, I think popular films such as Iwai Shunji's ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU and Kurosawa Kiyoshi's PULSE also become relevant.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Jonathan</DIV><DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">-----</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">Jonathan M. Hall</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">Japanese Film, Media, and Modern Literature</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature / Film & Media Studies</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px; font-size: 10px; "><BR style="font-size: 10px; "></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">320 Humanities Instructional Building</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">UC Irvine, Irvine CA 92697-2651 USA</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">office: 1-949-824-9778</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">fax: 1-949-824-1992</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; ">Co-Chair, Queer Caucus, Society for Cinema and Media Studies</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></SPAN></FONT></P><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 23, 2007, at 5:38 PM, anne mcknight wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tsuchiya Yűtaku's film/video _Peep "TV" Show_ has an interesting</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">hikikomori character.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The character is featured in one of the film's "cinéma verité"</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">sequences, when the character, a college age-ish boy, directly faces</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">the camera and speaks, a bit emotionally, in defense of himself,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">responding to what he sees as unfair typing by pop sociology writers</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">and academics. These are writers who typically see hikikomori as a</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">kind of sad-sack failure to engage with reality in more conventional,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">less mediated ways. This character is skeptical of the glee with which</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">the term is often applied, and treats it quite clinically himself.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">While the advocates of "sociologising" are not named in the film, the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">very judgemental tone and their quick typing of hikikomori as a</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">"social problem" resonate with writers such as sociologist Miyadai</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Shinji, who has many publications speaking and diagnosing the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">unconscious of hikikomori. Other such sequences in _P"TV"S_ include a</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">female sex worker of a similar age, who also speaks her mind in the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">face of sociologising stereotype, and a salaryman who is about to</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">explode out of anger at the sentimental rituals devoted to nationalist</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">war memory as August 15 approaches, in the film.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I think the three are linked because each snaps at a certain point,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">and has an outburst directed, in cinéma verité form. The roles that</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">antagonise them are different--the boy who "doesn't want to grow up,"</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">the girl who "sells her body" yet makes more money as a "health</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">worker" than in a respectable job, the salaryman who "takes things too</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">seriously."</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I use all these scare quotes just to indicate how critical the film</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">is, in general, of social typing, and how the mysteries of social</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">types fuel media hysteria about various crises in the film--from 9/11</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">and its relation to Tokyo, to the crisis of boys who stay in their</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">rooms.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Amazon now carries the film, so you can get your hands on it pretty easily.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Anne</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">On 23/03/07, Rob Smith <<A href="mailto:robixsmash@gmail.com">robixsmash@gmail.com</A>> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I apologize if this has been brought up before I joined the list, but I was</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">wondering if anyone could offer a list of Japanese films about hikikomori</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">(that have English subtitles, of course), whether as the main plot or as a</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">subplot.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thanks.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-rob</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://www.robixsmash.com">http://www.robixsmash.com</A>/</DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>