Kenchi Iwamoto

[TKBowman@aol.com]

I was looking over some old film catalogs this evening and had a question:

Whatever happened to Kenchi Iwamoto?

I've seen and enjoyed both his "Kikuchi" (aka Tokyo Cleaning Man, 1991) and 
"Korako zaru" (aka Monkeys in Paradise, 1993). I believe these were the first 
two parts in a projected trilogy. Also, if I remember correctly, during the 
Q&A after "Korako zaru" he said he was now based out of New York. He really 
seemed like a filmmaker to watch. Is he still working in the industry?

Also I wanted to give a small plug for Mark Schilling's "Contemporary 
Japanese Cinema." I'm up to "T" in the reviews section and I've been enjoying 
the book immensely. My biggest complaint is that it's depressing to read 
about so many films that I'll have little chance of ever seeing - although I 
have been able to find a good number of otherwise unknown films available as 
import VCDs from Hong Kong. 

Aside for a couple mistakes I've found it also appears to be factually 
correct - a quality other book in the genre ave lacked. I can't throw away my 
"Japanese Cinema: The Essential Handbook" yet but thankfully I won't need to 
refer to it nearly as often.

Todd Bowman
tkbowman at aol.com