Yamagata: Annyong-Kimchi

[Abe' Mark Nornes]

This was a delightful little film by a film student and employee at Box
Higashi Nakano mini-theater. Matsue was pampleting all the parties,
fearlessly asking people to attend his work. And he managed to pack the
house! The documentary is about Koreans living in Japan, and fits into the
rubric of personal films about one's family. The latter almost turned me
away from the film, as I find most of these tedious and naive. But I liked
Matsue's spirit, and we had a long talk at one of those bars on the first
night.

Clearly, what was different about his film was that he's third generation
Korean, and a very different relationship to both Korea and Japan than any
of the other filmmakers that have dealt with the subject up to now. The
energy driving the filmmaking is Matsue's guilt for not being a good
grandson to his first generation grandfather. He makes the film to make up,
and along the way he charts the different generations' identities vis a vis
"home." His aunt in America has left Korea and Japan behind. His other aunts
seem split between Korea and Japan. His grandmother thoroughly identifies
with Korea, and he and his sister basically consider themselves Japanese.
But what of his grandfather? He remains a cypher that pushes the film along,
because he seemed to suppress his Korean heritage all the way to the
grave...which has the Matsue name on it.

Matsue's film is pretty funny, and the "characters" are charming. He was
telling Aaron and I that in the survey he passed out many respondents loved
his sister, wanted to be introduced, or compared her to Sakura in the _Otoko
wa tsurai_ series. I guess that makes Matsue himself Tora-san.

While talking to Matsue that first night, I tried to push him to express
what he thought he was doing in this film. He provoked this by initially
asserting that his film had no _poli_ (policy) because he was third
generation. What he really meant is that he did not perceive his film as
political (!), and thus reveals a second layer of generational difference:
that of today's youth vs. the generation of the New Left. Like most people
his age Matsue wants to avoid politics at all costs, which is why he and
other young documentarists consistently turn inward to the self, family and
friends. Hara Kazuo, who was at Yamagata for another event, was telling me
it's like an allergic reaction. Of course, Matsue's film is profoundly
political, ranging across subjects like generations gaps, North vs. South
Korea, WWII, forced labor, racial discrimination, imperialism, national and
racial identity, immigration and exile. That he cannot acknowledge the
politicality of his own doing points to the biggest problem with today's
documentary in Japan, an idea I'd like to play around with in a few other
messages about films at this year's Yamagata.

Markus