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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Last week, I went to the final screening at
the NFT of the BFI's season: 'Wild Japan: Sex in Japanese Cinema in
the 60s and 70s', where they showed Imamura's <SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><EM>“Erogotoshitachi”
yori: Jinruigaku nyūmon</EM> (<EM>The Pornographers</EM>).</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">I
was irritated by this passage from the notes: "Incest and paedophilia would be
almost universally accepted disturbing pornographic concepts, and yet Imamura
turns both conventions on their head by making mother/son, father/daughter
trysts at any age seem a normal, if unspoken, rite of passage for many
Japanese."</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">The
notes were all taken from one site, dvdverdict.com, and credited to Bill
Gibron.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Clearly,
Imamura <U>does</U> address incest in this film and is making a commentary on
the society he sees, but to put into his mouth the observation that incest is a
national activity is unjustified and, in my view, plain wrong. What is it
about much popular writing on Japanese that allows non-specialists to write
generalisations about 'The Japanese' that they wouldn't dream of writing about
fiction from closer to hand? (And I think that putting the racial
categorisation into the mouth of Imamura makes it worse, not better.) Was
Euripides, and his many followers, in <EM>Medea</EM>, writing that child
murder was normal for many Georgians? etc. etc. It recalls, to my mind,
some of the war-time propaganda for which some of the writers at least, made
amends afterwards.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">I
should add that most of the season's notes have been very good, as the notes'
editors have relied on Jasper Sharp's new book. In its many tens
of thousands of words, although there is the material for several debates,
I don't think you'll find a remark like that. But <EM>The
Pornographers</EM> is not directly reviewed there, so the editors had to
cast elsewhere. Far better sources would have been David Desser's
<EM>Eros plus Massacre</EM>, where <EM>Pornographers</EM> and incest
is dealt with very carefully, or in Audie Bock.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">I
can see that the list has looked at western takes on the Japanese before, but I
hope you will indulge my getting this off my chest?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Incidentally,
whilst casting around the internet for reviews, I noticed I could buy a term
paper on <EM>The Pornographers</EM> for $55, <SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">so
I'm guessing that at least one list-member has set such
paper?</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><A
href="http://www.academon.com/lib/paper/103002.html">http://www.academon.com/lib/paper/103002.html</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">or,
if<FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4> <FONT size=3>'you want your essay to
have an added edge'<FONT face=Arial>, it's still £30,
</FONT></FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><A
href="http://cssa-shef.org.uk/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=82139&extra=page%3D2">http://cssa-shef.org.uk/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=82139&extra=page%3D2</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">so
you might as well have the reading done as well ...</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Roger</SPAN></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>