<div dir="ltr">Anecdotally, one of my strong experiences of the last Yamagata festival occurred late at night at Komian Club (the venue everyone gathers at after the films). I noticed a slightly awkward looking fellow flitting from one clutch of people to the other. At some point, it was my turn. He pushed a chirashi into my hand. It was a film he had produced about the Senkaku Islands, and featuring some aged rock star. Probably because I didn't turn and walk away from him, he become increasingly agitated as he described his film and explained Japan's natural right to the rocks—along with China's pernicious claims to sovereignty. After a few minutes, his eyes started to gleam and thanks to his vigorous, clipped speech he began foaming at the mouth. Becoming nervous, I found an excuse to hand him off to the next poor soul. The pattern continued until the end of the festival, I noticed. What amazed me was the way his body language and speech took on the conventions of the New Order films—think Abe Yutaka's war films, for example. I'd actually like to see his film. He wanted me to buy the rights and distribute it for him, but didn't offer a screener. <div>
<br></div><div>Markus</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 10:38 PM, Gerow Aaron <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:aaron.gerow@yale.edu" target="_blank">aaron.gerow@yale.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">I had forgotten to respond to this, sorry.<br>
<br>
There are many ways one could talk about right wing cinema. Personally, I would argue it was more marginal to what at least the film studios and film critics wanted to say was Japanese film culture. What has changed now is this marginal status.<br>
<br>
Shintoho of course had its Meiji Tenno films, but those occupied an odd position, especially next to the eruguro Shintoho was also selling.<br>
<br>
Clearly there were a lot of war films. Some talk of films by Matsubayashi Shu'e or Abe Yutaka as rightist, in part because of their backgrounds, though Matsubayashi also made some great comedies. And Abe's Senkan Yamato is very different from Otokotachi no Yamato. Also, not a small number of war films were anti-war films, and others, like Okamoto's Gurentai films or the Heitai yakuza films, made mockery of the military.<br>
<br>
Isolde Standish has written about some of the war films and masculinity. Yoshikuni Igarashi has written about recent kamikaze films. I have several articles on Japan Focus about recent neo-nationalist war and fantasy films, one of which is a shorter version of a much longer piece about Yamato films that is forthcoming.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
Aaron Gerow<br>
</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
On Feb 15, 2014, at 8:40 AM, Peter Larson wrote:<br>
<br>
> All,<br>
><br>
> A friend and I were discussing the recent success of Eien no zero (a recent war piece about Kamikaze pilots in WWII) in the context of the recent "resurgence" (did they ever go away?) of right wingers in Japanese politics.<br>
><br>
> It seems like every few years a film with nationalist undertones comes out of Japan. Does anyone know if anyone has ever done any work on right wing cinema?<br>
><br>
> Pete<br>
</div></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">> _______________________________________________<br>
> KineJapan mailing list<br>
> <a href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.service.ohio-state.edu">KineJapan@lists.service.ohio-state.edu</a><br>
> <a href="https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan" target="_blank">https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan</a><br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
KineJapan mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.service.ohio-state.edu">KineJapan@lists.service.ohio-state.edu</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan" target="_blank">https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><font face="courier new, monospace"><b>Markus Nornes</b></font></div><div style="font-size:small"><font face="courier new, monospace" color="#6aa84f">Chair, Department of Screen Arts and Cultures</font></div>
<div style="font-size:small"><font face="courier new, monospace" color="#6aa84f">Professor of Asian Cinema, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures</font></div><div style="font-size:small"><font face="courier new, monospace" color="#6aa84f">Professor, School of Art & Design</font></div>
<div style="font-size:small"><font face="courier new, monospace" color="#6aa84f"><br></font></div><div><font face="courier new, monospace" size="1" color="#274e13"><b>Department of Screen Arts and Cultures</b></font></div>
<div><font face="courier new, monospace" size="1" color="#274e13"><b>6348 North Quad</b></font></div><div><font face="courier new, monospace" size="1" color="#274e13"><b>105 S. State Street</b></font></div><div><font face="courier new, monospace" size="1" color="#274e13"><b>Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285</b></font></div>
<div style="font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-size:small">
</div></div>
</div>