Hawaiian Shirts & Cheesy Grins...

[Stephen Cremin]

Just before the Imamura-defenders start flaming me, I should stress that I 
don't have access to his wardrobe and I'm sure the Hawaiian shirt collection 
was still there: physically and psychologically.  And I want to distance 
myself from the critics who had written Imamura off, being very outspokenly 
critical of "The Eel" until it won the Palme d'Or at which point they 
realised they could use him to further their careers ... and their critical 
opinion turned 180 degrees.  When Imamura came to Edinburgh in 1994 he 
became the image of the Japanese abroad with all the stiffness that implies, 
although he was quite ill at the time.  Unfortunately, we never had the 
chance to see Kim Ki-Young in Berlin.  Of course, Dr Akagi was a very 
"youthful" work in the best sense of the word.

And just to wipe the cheesy grin off Aaron's face, I guess I'll do the 
unnecessary and defend Iwai.  I'm not suggesting he's popular in Korea 
because of the reception of "April Story" in Pusan: it sold out in two hours 
and won the audience award as the best Asian film.  I'm basing his 
popularity on the fact that both "Kino" and "Cine21" magazines put him on 
the front cover after the festival.  And Iwai isn't an actor-director like 
Kitano, Tarantino, Eastwood, Lynch, etc.  I think there was a commercial 
consideration here, especially given the critical pressure they must be 
under NOT to support Iwai.  "Cine21", in particular, seems a little 
dependent on foreign critics' views of what's important about Asian film.  
Anyway, lets see what happens when his films are released commercially.

Stephen Cremin


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