swallowtail

[marran]

>Swallowtail by Shunji Iwai...although this film probably wouldn't be
>seen by a critical eye as a film's film, Swallowtail does seem to
>present a younger Japan's view of a multiculturalness that exist on the
>fringes.  The potpouri of languages and culture seems to place Japan in
>today's multicultural global youth.

Alan Kita
California USA

Dear Alan,
First let me extend a belated thank you for your response to my question
regarding the JFNY and film.

Second, I'd like insist that Swallowtail is a *film's film*.  I don't think
it reflects any prevailing social unconscious or an existing pattern of
multiculturalness.  Rather I think it presents a reaction against
ethnocentricism that ignores or even denies the multi*ethnicity* in Japan
which has less to do with Japanese youth and more to do with the
multiethnic population residing in Japan (spurred by eighties expansion,
etc.). Swallowtail is a critical commentary on this denial of
multiethnicity and this critical stance is achieved in part through the
representation of an ethnocentric Japan as other.  What makes Swallowtail
particularly compelling is its combination of fantasy and realism and odd
but successful joining of pathos and humor.  One might even go so far as to
say that the recent films depicting this multicultural society for which an
ethnocentric Japan is the "other" have the potential to take Japanese
cinema in new directions.

my two cents,
-christine marran