Kawase and "Suzaku"

[Birgit Kellner]

Thanks to Aaron Gerow for his enlightening remarks on Kawase (or Sento)
Naomi. In some respects, Aaron confirms what has been my working
hypothesis on independent cinema in Japan for quite a while. Namely,
that the identification of "independent" with the experimental, the
daring, the non-conformist, the anti-reactionary, as well as the
marginalized, the theory-informed, the critical comment on the
mainstream etc. - well, that this identification, does simply not hold
here. Rather, the "independent" often amounts to a kind of curling in,
going back to what are perceived as some kind of pure roots, glorifying
the authentic etc. 

I don't really want to start another debate on independent vs.
mainstream. What I would be more interested in knowing: Has the notion
of a "Third Cinema" ever been either successfully or unsuccessfully
applied to individual works/directors of contemporary Japanese cinema?
To put it in another way, can we name any contemporary Japanese
filmmakers who, in the words of Paul Willemen, "exemplify a way of
inhabiting one's culture which is neither myopically nationalistic nor
evasively cosmopolitan"? 




In case anybody is in the area - Kawase (or Sento) will be present for a
"talkshow", together with a screening of _Moe no suzaku_, in Hiroshima,
January 16th (next Friday), 20:40, Station cinema (inside the Hiroshima
station building). 

-- 
Birgit Kellner
Department for Indian Philosophy
Hiroshima University