Pearl Harbour and Japanese war films

[Tani Miki]

Gavin,

In case you were not aware, Kon Ichikawa made two films (but prior to the
last 20 years), Fires on the Plain (1959) and Harp of Burma (1956), both of
which are set in the last days of the war.  A Cinematheque Ontario-organised
retrospective of Kon Ichikawa's work will tour North America this coming
year, starting in Toronto this July.

Tani

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Gavin Rees
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 1:52 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Pearl Harbour and Japanese war films



Hello,

I was wondering if anybody had been following the debate about Pearl Harbour
in Tokyo. Has the film's reported re-versioning for a Japanese audience
caused any stirs in the press? Have the right-wingers come out to attack or
perhaps to defend the film?

There was an interesting article in the Guardian in the UK written by the
writer Ian Buruma. In it he notes how the film's indifference to the enemy
echoes strangely the way that most of Japan's Second World War propaganda
films had very little to say about the enemy, but rather concentrated on
finding soldiers who could be lauded as role models.

Buruma's article is at:

 http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,497998,00.html

I was also wondering if anybody knew of Japanese film made in the last 20
years, apart from Oshima's "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" that dealt with
the war. I am assuming that it is a no go area, and that it is almost
impossible to deal with the subject  in Japanese fictional film. (Germany of
course has done much better. Das Boot, Heimat etc...)

Gavin