Ri Ko Ran sympo, etc.

[David Hopkins]

I was there and enjoyed the presentations very much. I'm a little confused 
by Aaron's comment about Ri Ko Ran's "culpability." Exactly what is she 
supposed to be culpable of? It hardly seems fair to blame an actress under 
contract for the quality and nature of the scripts she is assigned, and also 
seems unfair to blame any person for having patriotic feelings during 
wartime. As for her postwar work as "conquered by American males," is that 
the only possible reading? I haven't seen Navy Wife, but I think there is 
more dignity in J. War Bride than that one phrase allows.

I do agree about the self-congratulatory reinterpretation of Manshu's 
history, and think that I'll go back and re-read Louise Young's Japan's 
Total Empire (which I remember as doing some serious reinterpreting) before 
I decide.

On the way home I stopped off in Kyoto and saw Sono Zenya(1939), a 
shinsengumi story dedicated to Yamanaka Sadao. Really great performance by 
Yamada Isuzu! Very interesting (especially for 1939) refusal to put the 
focus on the historical events swirling around behind the "people next 
door."

Also picked up a record (another one!) of movie summary in the benshi style, 
this time for what is apparently a proselytizing movie for the Tenrikyo 
religion, called Tenrikyo Kyosoden (The story of the foundress of Tenrikyo). 
It's by Izumi Shiro, and emphasizes several tropes of silent-movie era 
suffering of the foundress. Can anybody date this for me? (I'll be asking 
around at the Oyasato Research Center this week.)

David Hopkins
Tenri University