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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><U><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Thermae
Romae</SPAN></U></I><U><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">, TAKEUCHI
Hideki<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></SPAN></U></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">The Far
East Film Festival in Udine this week was sometimes in danger of losing its tag
as "the film festival for popular asian cinema".<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Besides campaigning South Korean films,
we've had indie Chinese films, both realist and satirical.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the Japanese films have stayed
steadfastly mainstream.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Since
Udine last Saturday beat Tokyo this weekend for the world premiere of <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Thermae Romae, </I>perhaps I<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> </I>could write a little on this
film.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Filmed in
Cinecittà, it's essentially a sci-fi rom-com that builds on the premise of that
well-known worm-hole that runs from the thermae in Rome in 130AD to an onsen in
present-day Japan, via a bravura tenor singing Verdi atop a mountain.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is no more preposterous than <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Dr. Who</I>, but unlike that series, the two
sides of the romantic pull are two thousand years apart.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For Japanese fans, the credibility
problem may be in believing that two such well-exposed faces can be habitués of
the baths (Dr. Who principals don't usually <U>start</U> famous).<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For non-Japanese, the problem is
different: why do these two not understand each other when they're both speaking
Japanese? - and, for the same reason, why does she need to pick up 'Latin for
dummies' ?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But this is just a
quibble: fantasy characters have their own attributes ('zombies don't run' is a
line from another Japanese film here) and, I'm sure, when Dr. Who visits ancient
Egypt, a couple of cod-pharaonic phrases serve to set it all up.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the essential cod-phrases didn't
make it through the subtitles.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">None of
this mattered too much because the film was funny. Takeuchi and his writers
fashion an especially shiny suite of lavatorial jokes<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">The worst
of the film is right at the beginning. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It starts with an absurdly 'serious'
heavy voice-over 'telling' how the Roman empire became the greatest empire in
the world, ruled by emperors who were worshipped as gods. But this is forcing a
historical parallel that isn't there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The Roman expansionist phase was as a <U>republic</U>, the subsequent
deifications were top-down, and didn't lead to much actual religious activity by
subjects. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The tribes the early
Romans defeated seemed more prone to leader-worship. Given the thread of other
fantasy manga and films that serve up alternative imperial histories, perhaps
this does matter, particularly as we go back into history at the
end.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Due to the
warm reception to the film, the small pile of the original manga had sold out at
the bookstall, so I can't readily check how much of this is just following Mari
Yamazaki's original, but looking at part 2, it seems the film follows one
striking aesthetic. Nearly two hours shooting in bathhouses revealed not a
single pubic hair, let alone pudenda.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Roger<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>