Happy New Year

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

Things change yet always seem to stay the same.

_Cure_ may be the most interesting New Year's film, but little is new 
with the Tora-clone _Niji o tsukamu otoko 2_ and _Mothra 2_.  

The _Mainichi_ praised the revival of Japanese cinema in 1997, but in the 
typical way the major media still tends to support only the petrified 
majors, forgot to even mention Kawase's win at Cannes.

Nakai-kun hosted the _Kohaku_ and Amuro was Aka-gumi's tori, but 
Shiro-kumi won again as usual.

Takeshi hosted a series of taidan after NHK's _Yuku toshi kuru toshi_, 
but in the bit with Ennosuke, spouted the tired ideology that Japanese 
must become more self-consciously "Japanese" before they are to 
internationalize.

Let's just hope that KineJapan continues to evolve and yet remain a site 
for intelligent and entertaining discussion of Japanese moving image media.

Here's wishing you and your own a Happy New Year.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
KineJapan list owner
For list commands: send "information kinejapan" to 
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