Hikari no Ame and Tampen comments
Stephen Cremin
asianfilmlibrary at mac.com
Tue Dec 18 00:02:43 EST 2001
On Saturday, December 8, 2001, at 02:14 pm, M Arnold wrote:
> I've seen a few of Takahashi's movies--"Ai no Shinsekai" left hardly
> any impression on me, and "Door 2" (Kurosawa Kiyoshi directed part 3)
> was positively bad. I think I also watched "Tattoo Ari" but I can't
> remember a thing about it. Checking the JMDB, it seems Takahashi has
> been a prolific director of what look like porno movies, but can anyone
> explain to me (briefly) what his claim to fame is? Why did he end up
> with a project like "Hikari no Ame"?
Takahashi's claim to fame? You mean apart from marrying Sekine Keiko?
Well, I guess his original 1988 DOOR, co-scripted by Oikawa Ataru, was a
landmark horror film. Hearsay, since I haven't seen it myself.
> I also went to the opening of "Tampen" last Saturday at Box Higashi
> Nakano. ?http://www.bitters.co.jp/tampen/index.html? This is a
> one-hour film made up of four short stories directed... or I guess not
> directed by 3 cinematographers and 1 lighting director who have
> recently been working with directors like Aoyama, Suwa, and Kawase.
> There was a discussion afterwards with lighting man Sato (part 2,
> "kyoko"), cameraman Yamazaki (part 4, "share"), the producer (whose
> name I forgot) and the two main actresses. Cameraman Imoto (part 1,
> "short film") showed up before the movie for a few minutes, but Tamura
> (part 3, "koo-ghe") wasn't able to come. Overall it was an interesting
> experiment. The shorts were very much in the documentary-like style of
> the recent younger filmmakers, but without a director or solid story
> per se they were left with a strange sense of vagueness. In some parts
> it wasn't really clear if the actors knew what they were doing either.
> The print was subtitled in English. Does anyone know if they only have
> a subbed print for this film, or were they trying to accommodate the
> one foreign-looking fellow in the audience?
I saw this in Pusan where of course it also played with subtitles. I
wouldn't be surprised if that is the only print. Cameraman Yamazaki and
actress Watanabe Makiko attended but didn't talk after the screening I
attended. Latter also did the English subtitles. Yes, interesting but
the experiment largely proved that, yes, one does need a director. Deal
was that anybody on the set could call CUT at any time. But then I
guess some would argue that films like TIMELESS MELODY are also in need
of a director too.
Speaking of Watanabe Makiko, Miles asked about Hiroki Ryuichi's FETISH
on this list months ago. Anybody see it and come away with a favourable
impression?
Stephen
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