Naomi Kawase - impressions

[Rodica-Livia Monnet]

Thanks to Aaron,Pier Maria,Roberta,and Giacomo for comments on the Kawase 
retrospective in Alba.Can any of you indicate again where the invaluable 
catalogue with Aaron's and Roberta's articles can be purchased?I deleted 
Roberta's earlier info on the website for the catalogue by mistake. I have seen 
much of Kawase's short films,and Suzaku and Hotaru,though i haven't been able 
to  see Kyakarabaa and Tsuioku no dansu.(Any sugestions for getting videos of 
these films?I know they will be shown in various places,but one cannot travel 
so easily to Paris, Nyon etc)I think she does stunning things with the close-up 
in Katatsumori,The Weald and other shorts,and the two feature films are moving 
in many ways.Though very talented,Kawase is not very strong on the plot 
side,and I must confess that I am rather disturbed by her rejection,or 
bracketing of history and politics in most of the shorts.Somaudo udo 
monogatari,for instance,shows absolutely no interest in the reasons for the 
decline of the village,in the economic,and social background of  the 
unhappiness and solitude of some of the characters.Saying that The Weald is a 
non-fiction sequel9prequel) to Suzaku will not do.of course there is some 
implicit critique of the engagé documentary a la Ogawa and 
Tsuchimoto,but..Mangekyou is fairly flawed,in my view,and Kono sekai,the film 
correspondence with Koreeda in 8mm,is a complete failure(Koreeda's response is 
fairly goofy,and his touristic filming of Amsterdam is uncharacteristically 
bad. Kawase's close-ups of her tearful friends in this film are really silly. 
E.g. "Kawase Naomi san!Naomi chan wa yakusoku itsumo mamoranai ga,demo hontou 
suki,daisuki"). At the same time,Kawase's nature frames--the swaying,supple 
bamboo trees,the sound of the wind,contorted cloud banks,clear rivers and 
streams--are lovely,the trees,flowers,insects,are so alive and expressive,they 
become real actors,along with,or more than the human actors.She has a very 
poetic way of capturing things,even the most insignificant,which is  less 
controlled and less a vehicle for expressing a "Japanese sensibility" than in 
other contemporary filmmakers(see for instance the naturescapes in Eureka).I 
think the enthusiastic reception of her films in Europe(which doesn't have a 
counterpart in the US and Canada)has a lot to do with gender--her being the 
first woman director to be awarded so many international awards, women 
directors still being an anomaly in the Japanese film industry,inspite of the 
younger generation of women filmmakers that emerged in the 1990s-- as well as 
with the European,especially French,fascination with Japanese cinema in 
general.Kawase's own gender politics is subversive and interesting in the short 
films,and fairly conventional (romance )in Suzaku and Hotaru.I do 
think,though,that on the whole her work is very interesting and has tremendous 
ptential.Livia     En réponse à Aaron Gerow <gerow at ynu.ac.jp>:

> Thanks to Pier Maria and Giacomo for continuing the discussion (and
> don't 
> worry about your English! This is an international list with many 
> languages--and many Englishes--permissible.)
> 
> I must agree with Pier Maria on the need to be a bit more critical in
> our 
> discussion of Kawase. This is not because of particular problems with 
> Kawase, but rather because a good critical perception is necessary when
> 
> looking at any filmmaker. While I like Naomi's work a lot, I do have
> some 
> problems with some films and I have told her so directly. My article for
> 
> the catalog also notes some of the criticisms of her work in Japan.
> 
> In fact, the criticism of her work is one worthy topic of discussion.
> For 
> instance, even Kawase herself at the festival, when talking with Roberta
> 
> and myself, emphasized two points that should not be forgotten. First,
> 
> that she herself is not satisfied with some of her films. Suzaku, for 
> instance, rates only a "20" out of 100 on her own scale, and it was in
> 
> part her dissatisfaction with that work which lead to the making of the
> 
> Weald. Second, she feels there are basically two kinds of audiences for
> 
> her films, who look at them quite differently. One are those people, 
> mostly in Japan, who saw her 8mm work before Suzaku. The other is the 
> audience which was introduced to her work through Suzaku. The former can
> 
> tend to be critical of her later work (I have one film colleague who 
> loves her 8mm work, thinks White Moon/Shiroi tsuki is her masterpiece,
> 
> and dislikes everything after that). Timewise, I obviously fit in the 
> former camp, though I am much more open to--though sometimes critical 
> of--her later work. (But still I think White Moon deserves much more 
> attention.)
> 
> I don't want to pull rank and argue either one of these positions are 
> more correct. But it would be interesting sometime to get together and
> 
> discuss these differences. As I have noted before, there have been 
> differences in reception to her work--particularly between Japan and 
> Europe--that I find curious and worthy of discussion.
> 
> Aaron Gerow
> Associate Professor
> International Student Center
> Yokohama National University
> 79-1 Tokiwadai
> Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
> JAPAN
> E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
> Phone: 81-45-339-3170
> Fax: 81-45-339-3171
> 



Rodica-Livia Monnet,Associate Professor
Département de littérature comparée/Dept.of Comparative Literature
University of Montreal,Pav.Lionel Groulx,8th floor,C-8116
3150 Jean Brillant,Montreal,Quebec, H3T 1N8,Canada
Tel.514-343-6340,Fax 514-343-2211
Email: rodica-livia.monnet at umontreal.ca