Harada's new film

[mark schilling]

Markus and Michael mention the new Harada Masato film about the Asama Sanso
incident, "Totsunyu Seyo! Asama Sanso Jiken The Choice of Hercules." I went
to the set last December, about two weeks before they were scheduled to
wrap. They had fallen a few days behind because of unseasonably warm
weather, but when I was there, on top of a mountain near the Arai ski
resort, it was blowing up a photogenic blizzard and Harada was a happy man.

The film is based on book about the incident by former elite police
bureaucrat Atsuyuki Sassa, who was placed in charge of the siege by his
Keisatsu-cho superior, even though he was relatively young and low-ranking.
Needless to say, the local cops resented his presence and fought him every
step of the way. The film is really about the sort of organizational
intrigue and infighting that Harada dealt with so ably in "Jubaku"
(Spellbound) -- his 1999 film about corruption in a major Japanese bank,
again based on a true story.

I don't what Marcus means by Harada using leftist imagery in a "cavalier
manner." The radicals don't even have speaking roles in this film.

Mark Schilling
schill at gol.com





----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark H Nornes" <amnornes at umich.edu>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: Ogawa / Hammer


> The Harada film might be interesting. Harada is smart and political in the
> left sense, but he was basically a movie otaku (especially Hollywood) when
> others were invested in the student movement. Thus, he has few ghosts
> haunting him, which probably helps explain both his films' use of leftist
> imagery in a cavalier manner and the fact that he can do Asama Sanso from
> the pov of a cop!
>
> Markus
>
>