Question RE <Shinjuku Boys>

[Livia Monnet]

Because Eric's question 2 was answered by Aaron,only a few brief comments
..1)Have not found any scholarly evaluation of Shinjuku Boys.The film
interviews onnabe working in bars catering to female customers mainly.The
Dream Girls documentary,which was awarded the best Documentary Award at the
Creteil festival in 1994,was much better.Frankly I do not see why any
documentary filmmaker ,Japanese or not ,would want to know what a female
college student living with a male-identified onnabe fantasizes about the
latter's missing chinchin/penis.There is no interrogation in the movie of
these male-identified female emtertainers' social background,of customer
perceptions,whether or not there is discrimination etc.3)I don,t know where
the Shinjuku Boys fits in the canon of films on Japanese sexuality(is there
such a canon),but it is a rather conventional documentary which clearly
emulates Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning.The visual opulence and the
questioning of racial and sexual identifications in the latter movie is
absent in the Longinotto-Williams documentary. 4)Onnabe are
male-identified,cross-dressed female entertainers for female customers in
special bars in Shinjuku.Some of these onnabe(probably female equivalent of
sukebe,but I maybe wrong)underwent surgery,female to male transgender.One
interesting couple is an onnabe living with a female-identified gay male
dancer.All of these onnabe are very young and of apparently working-class
background.The movie is available from Women make Movies,phone
1-212-925-0606,email:info at wmm.com,also www.wmm.com.All Longinoto
documentaries are available at Women Make Movies.Sorry for the hasty info.
                        At 16:49 99-10-12 -0400, you wrote:
>Apologies in advance for a questions that may be off-topic for the list.
>
>Because I do Japanese "stuff", I have been asked to comment on the 
>film <Shinjuku Boys> which will be shown later this year.  The film 
>is NOT produced by Japanese (Kim Longinoto & Jano Williams) and seems 
>to be of a documentary nature (I have not yet been able to see the 
>film since the university does not have it yet).
>
>My questions, assuming people know of this film, are:
>
>1) What is the general perception of this film?  What is the 
>scholarly evaluation of it?
>
>2) What credentials do Longinoto and Williams bring to this 
>particular project that suggest they are "reliable" (however one 
>might choose to define this)?
>
>3) Where does this fit in the canon of films on Japanese sexuality, 
>if anywhere?
>
>4) I am unfamiliar with the term used to describe the 'protagonists' 
>of the film: "annabe".  Can anyone suggest a general resource that 
>might enlighten me?  Neither Schilling's <Japanese Pop Culture> nor 
>the Kodansha <Encyclopedia of Japan> is of use here.  The 1998 
><Chiezo> sheds no light on the situation either.
>
>Thank you.
>
>Erik (12 October 1999)
>
>---------- * ---------- * ---------- * ---------- * ----------
>Erik R. Lofgren            Tel: 570-577-1765
>10 Marts Hall
>East Asian Studies Dept.   <mailto:elofgren at bucknell.edu>
>Bucknell University
>Lewisburg, PA  17837       <http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/elofgren/>
>---------- * ---------- * ---------- * ---------- * ----------
>
Livia Monnet

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