Fwd: New issue of Japan Echo

[Joseph Murphy]

>A crosspost from H-JAPAN.  The new issue of Japan Echo includes an article
>by Suo Masayuki on _Shall We Dance?_.
>
>Aaron
>

That sounds like the one that just ran in Bungei Shunju (1997.8), which is
very entertaining.  Suo says that at every single stop on his 16-city tour,
someone from the press asked him if he was considering filming for
Hollywood, in a way that sort of presumed that the natural course for
'local' cinemas leads to Hollywood, and a director's success is defined by
that.  Suo glossed that as American nationalism for the readers of BS,
though its a bit more complicated with Japanese capital owning a
substantial part of Hollywood.  Itami Juzo was just in Chicago for the
Chicago Int'l Film Festival and did a very long and interesting question
and answer session at a reception, but sure enough exactly that question
came up, phrased in the same annoyingly smug way.  It was something like
this:

Media Person:  It seems that recently a lot of foreign directors have been
making their way to Hollywood, and that as soon as they do, they want to
try their hand at depicting American life.
Have you been approached about making movies in Hollywood, and if so, what
aspect of American life would you like to take up?

There's first the annoying sense of self-congratulation, then that little
slip between the setup and the question that erases the possibility that a
foreign director might make their way to Hollywood and not want to try
their hand at U.S. life.

To which Itami replied that he'd been approached many times, but didn't
feel his sense of time fit with the major studio's, but that in the sense
that he wants his films seen by as many people as possible, he has no
problem with the idea.

J.m.