Rotterdam, Sento and Hotaru

[Tom Mes]

Though it does seem to be generally true that the Japanese at film festivals 
tend to huddle in groups (Sento-san's group, including Furumaya-san, stuck 
to their own table for most of Rotterdam's closing party and left early - 
though this might have more to do with the fact that most of them had to 
catch a plane home to Japan the next morning), however, both Sento-san and 
Furumaya-san seemed to be very open to speaking to filmmakers, journalists, 
distributors, etc after the awards ceremony. Also, Furumaya-san has a fairly 
decent understanding of English.

Personally, I can only congratulate and admire Sento-san for combining a 
shrewd business mind with an understanding of great cinema. He's the kind of 
producer that any American director would give his right arm to work with. I 
don't see the Joe Roths and Joel Silvers of this world putting money into a 
55-minute, black and white, non-narrative experimental film like Electric 
Dragon 80,000 V.

As for Naomi Kawase's HOTARU, the director herself, at one of the screenings 
of her film in Rotterdam, explained that the title does indeed relate to 
'firefly', but in a more metaphoric sense - she said that in modern Japanese 
cities, fireflies are unable to find a mate, since all the urban neon lights 
makes it impossible for them to recognise each other.

Tom
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