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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Firstly, if anyone was heading down to the ICA in London
this evening to hear Tian Zhuangzhang speak of his experience of making 'The Go
Master' in Japan, it ain't gonna happen due to 'visa problems'.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>There have been a number of directors billed to appear at
the ICA from a variety of asian countries who did not appear, often due to 'visa
problems', sounding more like the cold war era. This prompts me to reflect
upon difficulties in dissemination of Japanese films in the period I am looking
at, around 1930. There's a tangled web of language problems, political
resistance, cultural incomprehension, prejudice and mis-matched commercial
ambitions that each masquerade as each other. Which makes it all the more
surprising that no-one seems at this time to have used 'visa problems' as a
reason or excuse. All the more so when they were a real problem for Soviet
directors of this period. Pudovkin's three-day visa to the UK couldn't be
extended by the Film Society despite impressive string-pulling and Eisenstein
famously encountered visa problems in the US. But these obstructions
ultimately had little effect, I suggest, on film penetration, mainly due to the
visibility of the obstruction.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>But has anyone noticed a pre-war figure from the
Japanese film industry cite visa problems as a difficulty, either real or
not?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Finally, someone asked a while back whether 'Nippon
Modern' was available yet. My copy, ordered airmail from Honolulu, has
turned up today, second class surface post from the Lebanon. In the
meantime, I see, it has become easily available on Amazon.</FONT> <FONT
face=Arial> One of the joys of film studies is that I can look at the
nice pictures in a book and claim to be doing research. And no, there
are no matches with the mis-labelled stills in 'Close Up',.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Roger</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>