Ogawa / Hammer

[M Arnold]

Thank you Sarah and Markus for your information and comments.  I'm looking 
forward to the discussion on "Devotion."  By the way I re-read the 1995 
Documentary Box interview with Tsuchimoto yesterday and in it the director 
had several interesting remarks on the issue of violence as it was presented 
in "Partisan zenshi."

Markus wrote:
>Ultimately, the reason a person decided to cooperate or not reflected (I 
>think) the degree to which they've dealt with their past relationship to 
>Ogawa and to their political idealism.

Speaking of reflections, it's interesting to see the kinds of reflections on 
the student movement that are starting to coming out of the Japanese film 
world now.  Takahashi Banmei's "Hikari no Ame" for instance was criticized 
by some for a rather nostalgic look at Asama Sanso.  I believe Tsuchiya 
Yutaka wrote in his critique that the idea(l), "they were all just good, 
regular kids" carries some pretty strong implications when put in the 
context of other "wars".

I'm curious to see how Harada's film will turn out in May.  I heard that 
there were some schedule problems in filming and that this may affect the 
quality of the story... ?

>You can't underestimate what a powerful experience being around Ogawa and 
>Ogawa Pro was.

Several of the interviewees in "Devotion" did make very interesting comments 
on what a moving experience and influence it (he) was.

I didn't know that A.F., Eurospace and Eiga Bigakko actually *bought* the 
Ogawa Pro films.  A few of the films showing at Athenee Francais now are 
"new prints".

In the midst of all this student movement-related film watching I've been 
doing, I checked out Shinoda's "Kawaita Mizuumi" yesterday.  I thought it 
was excellent.

Michael Arnold

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