ZAZIE (1989)

[Roland Domenig]

"ZAZIE" is the first feature film of Riju Go, an independent filmmaker who
is also known as an actor in films like "My Secret Cache" or "Eureka". Riju
started to make films when still at high school and in 1980 he won the price
of the PIA film festival with the comedy "Kyokun 1". He worked as assistant
director, scriptwriter, actor and journalist before making his debut feature
film. "ZAZIE" was followed by "Elephant Song", which won him the
Netpac-Price of the Berlin Film Festival 1995, and "BeRLiN" (1996). Riju Go
is currently working on a new film, "Kuroe", which will be the fourth film
of the new J WORK series in cooperation with French Canal Plus.
  
Despite similar names "ZAZIE" has anothing to do with Louis Malle's "Zazie
dans le Metro". "ZAZIE" is a story about a former rock-musician with the
name Zazie who after 5 years of absence returns to the Tokyo bay area where
he had grown up. He is unsatisfied with his life and returns in order to
start it over again and find a new meaning for life. He wanders through the
streets using a video camera that documents the encounters with his former
band musicians who dream of a comeback, with former fans and the women he
had loved. ZAZIE is a film about transitions and was made at a time of
transition (it was released shortly before the Heisei era was proclaimed).


Roland Domenig
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Institute for Japanese Studies
University of Vienna