Imamura

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

>But are there other leftist filmmakers that have the same kind of
>idealization of the rural besides Ogawa and Imamura? Most of them seem
>pretty cosmopolitan. I'd be interested in hearing other examples...

Actually, the people I had in mind were not all in the film world (though 
one could add Fukuda to the list, as well as some of the films of 
Kuroki).  One can definitely see a trend within the sixties cultural left 
of "rediscovering" the rural as an alternative, third way against 
American imperialism/LDP corporatism and JCP orthodoxy. I'm thinking of 
elements in avant-garde theater, or in ankoku butoh (Sankai Juku), 
Ondekoza and Kodo, etc. (it's also interesting that it is many of these 
groups that have gained fame abroad).  While I too can see Imamura and 
Ogawa working to demystify established images of the rural, there are 
definite problems with Imamura's use of Okinawa (which shows none of the 
sensitivity and commitment to subject participation in film production 
that Ogawa had).  Furthermore, I can't help but see their efforts in the 
light of subsequent history: the 1970s rediscovery of "furusato" and the 
Discover Japan series (which Ivy and Robertson discuss).  I'm too much of 
a structuralist to see Imamura and Ogawa as free agents divorced from 
these historical trends.

I think a very important reference point to this discussion is Saito 
Koichi.  In the sixties, he was one of the few Japanese directors to 
truly perfect a kind of European modernist, urban jazz-kind of style in 
his kayo eiga and youth films, but when he enters the 1970s, he 
"discovers" rural Japan as a site of authenticity lost by city dwellers.  
_Tsugaru jangarabushi_ and _Tabi no omosa_ are texts that fit in quite 
well with the seventies "furusato" boom (albeit not without 
complications: _Tsugaru_ paints the city boy as tragically fated never to 
regain the rural "furusato" he has created).  While Saito was never on 
the left, it is interesting that a spokesman for youthful angst 
(_Chiisana sunakku_) would try to send his children back to the farm.

Aaron Gerow
YNU