On the subject of Rotterdam...

[Aaron Gerow]

>The trailer for Hotaru is currently playing before Inugami and Otogirisou 
>(at Virgin Cinemas at least).  I was almost tricked into thinking it was a 
>sequel to "Poppoya", with its wintery landscapes and grizzled old Takakura 
>Ken to the fore.  The actual content of the film remains a mystery though, 
>as all the viewer had to go on was some very trite generic tag-line copy. 

This is a different movie and the fact it is called Hotaru is 
infuriating.  Toei, after the success of Poppoya, decided to make another 
film with Takakura, but for some reason they decided to call it Hotaru, 
even though Kawase's film had already been completed and had shown at 
festivals.  OK, the Japanese characters are different, Ken's film is ホタル
 while Kawase's is 火垂る, and they refer to different things, Ken's to 
the firefly and Kawase to the ceremony of letting fire embers fall at a 
temple.  But this is only going to spark confusion.  Who will benefit 
from this I don't know--maybe some middle agers will go to Kawase's film 
expecting to see Ken-chan.  But it is a disservice to customers and to 
Kawase.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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