Morita's New Film

[Li Hoo Cheong]

Morita Yoshimitsu's new film <Keiho daisanjukyu jo> (or 39)
was shown recently at the Hong Kong International Film 
Festival.  It is a stunning film which impressed me and
my friends on a first viewing.  I saw it a second time the
next week and attended the short post-screening meeting
with Morita.  The film will be opened in Japan from 1 May.

It is a heavy film about painful memories,
obsessive revenge, insanity and diminished responsibility,
with many close-ups, disjointed framings, and superb
actings.  Like many earlier Morita films, the sound track
is striking.  More than one viewers wanted to buy the 
sound track to enjoy the music, and were disappointed 
that it was not available for sale.

As I have always liked Morita's films, I would not like
to comment further on his new work until its Tokyo
premiere.  But two questions can be raised at this point:

1.  I read somewhere that this film was shown in another
  film festival, but did not collect a prize.  Is this true?
  Have any list-members seen it already? 

2.  Morita's <Family Game> was shown widely (?) outside
  Japan and he is not unknown worldwide.  His <Sorekara>
  (And Then) also won the KineJun Best One Award.  <Lost
  Paradise> is of course very successful in Japan.  But his
  international reputation is not high, or not as high as
  he expects it to be  (according to my guess).  If this
  is the case, why?  After all, He is an excellent visualizer 
  and at times, a very original director.

H. C. Li