Sada

[moshi moshi]

> Anyway, I was in Taiwan a while back and there I saw a recent film called
> "Sada".  As the name implies, the film was a reworking of the notorious
> Abe Sada story, most famously depicted in "In the Realm of the Sense."
> This film was incredibly self-reflexive and stylized.  Has anyone else
> seen this?  What was the critical reaction in Japan?

I've had the occasion to see Sada a few months ago when it played at the
Montreal Film Festival. I went there trying to push Nagisa Oshima's movie 
in a far away subconscious drawer, something I might not have needed to 
do due to the fundamentaly different nature of both movies. 

I found Sada very light hearted, not managing to draw me in a
different world like ITROS did. Actually, I think the 'style' you're
speaking of was the major factor contributing to this. I found it contrasted 
very much with the semi-documentary approach and every time technical
novelties were used, it drew me out of the story, likewise when the
characters spoke to the public. I didn't really see what it brought to the
film, giving it a very gimmicky feeling. A comparison with the Hongkongese
'Too Many ways to be Number One" might be a little far fetched but I see
the two as examples of experimental techniques used in non-experimental
contexts and I think they were more 'naturally' used in one (TMWTBN1) than
the other. I've a hard time explaining myself, I'm sorry, it's been a
while already since I've seen both movies and no notes were taken but I
hope this still makes some sense and can contribute to a debate (something
lacking in KineJapan lately dare I say!).

Take care,
Olivier Petitpas