Missing Adachi

A.M. Nornes amnornes
Fri Mar 17 19:44:29 EST 2000


Last night I caught what was supposed to be the final showing of _Wan_
---one of the early experimental films from Nichidai's eiken---at the Adachi
Masao retrospective. The retrospective was such a success that they are
extending it into next week. Indeed, the theater was packed. Of course,
we're talking about Suzunari in Shimokitazawa, so it only takes some thirty
people to fill the place. From another perspective, however, this may be an
impressive crowd. Just after that I hopped over to Shinjuku to catch
Kurosawa Kiyoshi's _Charisma_, and while the theater was far more impressive
there were about the same number of oshiri warming the seats. As an
unintended double feature, _Wan_ and _Charisma_ worked together in curious
ways, the latter attempting to use many of the surrealistic tools of the
1960s 16mm experimental film in a slick, 35mm commercial context.

This is all just a segue to mention the top story on NHK's news this
morning. There has been a surprising development in the case of the five Red
Army members in Lebanon, one of whom is Adachi Masao. Lebanon announced
yesterday that they would grant asylum to Okamoto Kozo, who was sure to be
lynched if returned to Japan. However, the other four were to be kicked out
of the country. They put them on a plane to Jordan, but it seems they didn't
actually ask the Jordanian government for permission. Upon arrival, they
were refused asylum and sent back to the airport to catch a flight back to
Beirut. The thing is, when that plane arrived back in the Lebanese airport
the 4 Japanese were not on it. The lawyer for the Red Army, not
surprisingly, suspects they were nabbed by the Japanese government. Tsuzuki
wa mata ashita....

Markus




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