Introduction
Miyabear
Miyabear
Sun Mar 29 12:12:56 EST 1998
As one who's newly wired, it's a pleasure to find an organization that's
seriously devoted to Japanese film. This will just be a brief introduction.
My name is Michael Singer. By profession I'm a full-time motion picture unit
publicist, and part-time writer of books--including an upcoming compilation of
interviews with 50 international filmmakers, and the annually published
Michael Singer's Film Directors: A Complete Guide--and articles (for such
publications as Film Comment and Films in Review, although not for quite some
time). I've loved and appreciated Japanese cinema since my early viewing of
kaiju films as a kid, but it was as a college film critic in the very early
1970s that I became more serious. I was fortunate enough to be writing about
film at a time when New York's Bijou Cinema, on 45th Street just off Broadway
(and long gone), was showing nothing but Japanese films for at least two or
three years. I saw everything, and while I was making my two or three weekly
trips into Manhattan from Queens, also learned to eat Japanese food across the
street from the Bijou at a terrific dive called Sushi Ginza. It was quite an
education on both counts. And so, my love affair began with Kurosawa,
Ichikawa, Ozu, Kobayashi, Inagaki et al, and that's only increased through the
years...particularly since I've now been married for four years to a Japanese
woman who has been instrumental in deepening my understanding of the culture.
Good thing too, because my Japanese is still basically non-existent, except
for phrases and words. In any case, I've been deeply saddened by the eclipse
of appreciation for Japanese film in the general film-watching community, and
am constantly flogging its virtues to anyone who will listen. I'm glad to be
a part of KineJapan, and look forward to the exchange of information and
ideas.
Michael Singer
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