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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Dear Kinejapaners,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Could someone clarify a point for me on the term 'tendency
films' (keikō eiga). In a piece by Ian Buruma in the Guardian of 9th
January, and now getting reproduced elsewhere, he says: "The so-called "tendency
film", favoured by some leftist directors in the 1950s, attacking the class
system or capitalism or the American military presence, was of no interest to
[Ozu] ...".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I had always thought that the term 'keikō eiga' had been
specific to the period around 1930, and that comparable films of the 50s were
more likely to be called 'social films, or 'shakai mono'; although I accept that
the term 'tendenz-literatur' has a longer continuum going back at least to
Engels.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Although one can hardly dispute that Ozu steered a path
distinct from any such movement, can one use 'tendency films' to describe films
of the 50s ?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Roger</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>