The New God

[GavinRees@aol.com]

Aaron wrote:

<<Tsuchiya is experiencing a generation which feels 
an emptiness that, while often forgotten in the mad rush of consumption, 
comes to the fore whenever the train of consumer desire derails.  At such 
(frequent) moments, it becomes clear to many that they have no identity 
primarily because they have nothing certain outside them (family, school, 
society, nation) with which to define themselves.  >>

I have to admit that I am bit rusty on the politics and philosphy of 
identity. It has been something like 7 years since I graduated from 
University, and I am sure the better ways of expressing things than in the 
way I am going to try to. Several things struck me about your post. First of 
all it seems to the key issue that Japanese film makers themselves bring up 
again and again. It is felt very deeply, and seems to be much more of a 
problem in  Japan than elsewhere. And I think it is maybe more a problem of 
being able to articulate the self rather than a search for some political or 
social entity to connect to. 

I am a UK citizen, who has lived and worked abroad in France, Africa and 
Japan. If you asked me what unit I connected my identity to,  then I think I 
too would have trouble answering. The only thing I really like about the UK 
is the fact that people are coming less and less conscious of national 
identity there. My friends in the UK more and more define themselves by the 
quality of the personal relationships they have, their work, and maybe some 
abstract notion of their shared humanity with others. It is certainly not, 
nation, or school, (perhaps family in some cases). 

The interesting thing about Japan, and this is evident in Tsuchiya's film, is 
that just about everybody right or left, thinks that it would be good if the 
national unit had some kind of coherence; there needs to be something special 
about one's Japanese identity, that is solid and tangible. I wonder, though, 
whether the loneliness and alienation some people complain of is more to deal 
with the conventions which separate them. I have never been anywhere in the 
world where the interaction between strangers in public space is more 
distant. Even between friends the discourses about sharing feelings seem a 
little different. People are often very good at talking about how they feel 
to friends, but less good,  perhaps,  at explaining why they feel that way. 
Obviously the "system" in Japan hardly values emotional autonomy either. (I 
would love to hear from some of the Japanese members on the list. I could be 
hopelessly mistaken about all of this.)

The exciting thing about the New God is that kind of dialogue, in which 
people use others as a problem resolving resource, starts to open up. In one 
moment  Amamiya confides that she was a Nationalist, because she felt safe 
and supported by the leader, and that she needed the emperor, because he was 
also fatherlike. From that moment onwards I began to wonder whether Tsuchiya 
was about to become her "New God" himself. 

Like Aaron, I too would have wanted to hear more about how Tsuchitaya felt abo
ut Amiya's politics. Right from the beginning it is obvious that he takes her 
and Ito seriously, but I was left with the impression that he won the 
argument without having to divulge too much of himself. 

Anyway, it is a must see film!

It would be great if some of the Japanese list members would like to comment 
on the film after seeing it. 

Gavin Rees