Do Japanese films really stink??

[Stephen Cremin]

Re: Paul and Brian's comments.

Whether or not you agree that "Begging for Love" (Ai o Kou Hito), 
Japan's official Oscar nomination,  is the best Japanese film of the 
year, doesn't really matter.  Even if your Japanese film of choice was 
nominated - "HANABI", "Bayside Shakedown" or "Pride" - it wouldn't win 
because of the voting system.  My understanding is that Academy voters 
are often bidding for (and, of course, against) films they haven't seen, 
which means that they'll go for a European film more often than not 
which fits into their "Cinema Paradiso" idea of what makes for a good 
foreign language film.  (Let's not enter into Jewish conspiracy 
theories.)

Perhaps in the past, Japanese films were more fashionable, or seen as 
the cutting edge of world cinema.  (Didn't the director of Cannes last 
year refer to Japan as an "obscure country"?).  But I can't see any 
possibility of Iwai Shunji winning an Oscar, Brian, although he seems to 
have run away with audience awards internationally for all of his 
features.  (Out of curiosity, I'd love to know who was on the NETPAC 
jury in Berlin when "undo" got the prize.  Anybody who's now trashing 
Iwai?)

The "serious" international prizes in the festival calendar are given by 
juries who actually see all the films in the category that they are 
voting for.  But, of course, we all know how political they are.  
Looking through the list of previous winners at Berlin, its interesting 
to note how many times Asian films SHARED the Golden Bear.  I do get the 
impression that 1997 was THE fashionable year to give Asian films awards 
and as such I'm guessing no major prizes will be given out at Cannes or 
Venice for Asian films this year, although Kitano will probably get best 
director as a token gesture.

Just looking through the Kinema Junpo poll of 1998, I was shocked to 
find no bids for "PERFECT BLUE" (which, of course, made Mark Schilling's 
top ten).  But also interesting was that Toyoda's "PORNOSTAR", my 
favourite feature debut on release last year, just got two votes: both 
from women.  But probably no point analysing the Kinema Junpo poll too 
much...

Comments?

Stephen Cremin


PS: Thanks for all the advice on Asano.

I still can't decide whether to show "Acri" or "Nejishiki".  (Latter 
would probably work very effectively with a live voiceover, given the 
amount of "narration".)  The reason I'm showing "Fried Dragon Fish" and 
not Asano's other TV work is that I have a subtitled print in London on 
loan from Rockwell Eyes.  And I do think it was a very important work 
for establishing Asano's image.  Although, it would be great to run a TV 
series during a film festival, I really don't think an audience would 
come, however attractive the subject matter: "NIGHT HEAD", "Odoru...", 
etc.

For any other festival directors out there who are curious about the 
current responsiveness of Japanese sales agents: everyone has been 
fantastic.  Sakano at Kawakita has also been great.  (If Unijapan have 
relocated, I'd appreciate the new contact details, or Fumiko's email 
address, just to keep her posted.)
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