MOVIE : Ichigensan: Love is blind

[Don Brown]

MOVIE : Ichigensan: Love is blind

By KIMIE ITAKURA

Asahi Evening News

A beautiful Japanese woman, who can't see, attentively listens to her 
visitor reading aloud from an erotic piece of classical
literature.

Except for his warm, sometimes hesitant voice, and the embracing sound of a 
sudden rain, there is little noise. After some
time, she rests her head on his knees, then touches his face, exploring his 
Western features.

``Ichigensan'' (The First Timers), opening later this month in Tokyo, is a 
sensual love story set in Kyoto, centering around a
Swiss student of Japanese literature and a blind native woman who hires him 
to read to her.

On another level, it is also a portrayal of the frustration of forever being 
an outsider in this notoriously exclusive old
city, despite fluency in the language and depth of cultural understanding.

The movie, a debut feature by director Isao Morimoto, is adapted from the 
1996 award-winning novel by David Zoppetti of the
same title-in Kyoto, a first-time customer is called an ichigensan, often 
with the implication of a being unwelcome.

``I read the book quickly, a copy the producer (Toshi) Shioya had sent me 
(from Japan), and didn't wait to call him,'' said the
Sydney-based filmmaker recently in Tokyo. ``I said, `I would definitely want 
to film it, and I must do both-writing the script
myself and directing it.'''

Morimoto had much in common with the story the novel tells.

``I myself have immigrated to a foreign country and sought to establish my 
identity there,'' he said. ``So I could naturally
feel empathy with the novel.

``It renders the East-West differences very naturally, and I also liked the 
author's stance,'' he continued. ``David-san,
without getting swept away in pursuit of style, tries to capture the 
protagonist's feelings and what he sees as faithfully as
possible, whenever he encounters something unexpected.''

In this, his first novel (also his first literary attempt in Japanese), the 
Geneva-born author projected his own experience of
living in the old Japanese capital. He was a student of Japanese literature 
at Doshisha University in Kyoto between 1988 and
1990. He then joined TV Asahi, one of the company's first full-fledged 
foreign employees, where he worked as a reporter until
1998.

Again, Morimoto shares with Zoppetti the experience of not only living in a 
different culture, but of spending his youthful
days in Kyoto. Born in Osaka in 1961, he studied oil painting at a high 
school for the arts in the city. Eventually becoming
more interested in video art, he moved to Australia in 1981 to become 
enrolled in the video art course at the City Art
Institute in Sydney.

``Around that time, there were few Japanese schools that offered a video art 
course,'' Morimoto said. ``So I looked for
somewhere else and simply chose Australia because I happened to like its 
vast landscapes when I had traveled there.''

As his interest shifted to filmmaking, Morimoto turned to the study of 
directing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio
School.

He first met actor-turned producer Shioya through the 1991 Australian film, 
``Blood Oath,'' a project he worked on as an
assistant director and in which Shioya was a cast member.

In ``Ichigensan,'' Edward Atterton, an English actor who also has lived in 
Japan-he spent two years here in the early '80s-does
his best with his Japanese in his portrayal of the Swiss student.

Honami Suzuki, a popular TV actress who has recently announced she is going 
into retirement, is unexpectedly convincing as
heroine Kyoko, a woman of independent spirit and unbiased mind, who is 
honest with her own desires.

Beautifully captured

In a way, however, the movie's real ``heroine'' could be the city of Kyoto 
itself, whose townscapes in the changing seasons are
beautifully captured by Australian cinematographer Peter Borosh.

Morimoto says he owes a lot to this old city for developing his aesthetic 
sense.

``Kyoto (people) may appear exclusive, but the people know they need to be 
constantly injected with a new blood from outside
for survival,'' he said.

``The city is constantly challenged by new values and therefore is always 
making efforts to preserve its traditions. That
struggle itself keeps the city alive,'' says Morimoto.

``At the same time, Kyoto is making the most of those `outsiders' to promote 
itself to the external world,'' he said. ``After
all David would never have written the novel if he had never lived there. 
And here am I, who has ended up showing the best of
the city.''

``Ichigensan'' in Japanese and some English opens Jan. 29 at Cinema Square 
Tokyu in Shinjuku. Running time is 122 minutes.
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