Imamura

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

>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.

While I also like Imamura a lot (and _Dr. Akagi_ more than _Unagi_), 
there was an interesting talk at the Meigaku kenkyukai last night on the 
postwar Okinawan film industry.  One issue that came up was whether 
Yamato cinematic depictions of Okinawa had been shown in Okinawa.  It 
appears, for example, that Imamura's _Kamigami no fukaki yokubo_ has 
never been shown in Okinawa (where it was filmed) in part because it 
would offend everyone there.  The Okinawan filmmaker Takamine Go saw it 
for the first time as a student in Kyoto and was livid.  The experience 
actually inspired him to become a filmmaker.

Yomota Inuhiko then asked whether we should not reconsider Imamura in 
light of the kind of "Yamato" orientalism (or exoticism) evident in 
_Kamigami_.  Perhaps all of his "insect women" are the product of an 
urban Japanese desire for preternatural, god-like mother figure (which 
can be as an offensive an image as that in _Kamigami_ if you are one of 
those women)?  I wonder if we cannot also consider the 1960s turn towards 
the rural on the part of the left (Ogawa is a major case) as another side 
of this kind of domestic orientalism/exoticism.

Any thoughts?

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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