Between War and Media / video notes

[drainer at mpinet.net]

----- Original Message -----
From: "M Arnold" <ma_iku at hotmail.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 3:46 AM
Subject: Between War and Media / video notes


> Am I correct in assuming the symposium at Maison Franco-Japonaise is open
to
> the public?  On the website the English schedule says entrance is free and
> the Japanese schedule says entrance is free but limited to the first 150
> guests.
>
> Last night I got in a Jack Nicholson mood and went searching for "The
> Terror" at Tsutaya in Shibuya, but I couldn't find it.  To my surprise
they
> didn't even have a Jack Nicholson row in the "actors" section.  Later I
went
> looking at the Shinjuku branch.  They had a section for him and they even
> had the tape I was looking for.  While I was searching at the Shinjuku
store
> I stumbled through the cult corner and was surprised to see that they also
> had four copies of Schrader's Mishima, which is banned in Japan as Aaron
> Gerow mentioned in a recent post.  All four copies were the American
version
> of the video, and there was a little sticker on the side of the box that
> said, "If you want to rent this video please bring the case up to the
front
> counter."  The rest of the videos at Tsutaya are left in the cases, and
you
> just take the tape itself up to the cashier for checkout, so I guess
> somebody's worried about something happening to the Mishima videos.  I
don't
> know much about the films Mishima the person starred in, but you can still
> easily find the video for Karakkaze Yaro in Tokyo rental shops -- I rented
> it about 2 months ago -- and it will even be screened in an all-night
> showing on March 30th as part of a (another) Masumura Yasuzo
retrospective,
> at Cine Saison Shibuya.  Actually I've been searching for a video of
Yukoku
> for years, and now I have an idea of why I haven't had any luck.
>
> Before renting videos I had a little time to kill in Shinjuku yesterday
> afternoon, so I sat down for some coffee and thumbed through the movie
> section of this week's Pia magazine.  In the "special screenings" page
there
> was a listing for an all night pink eiga movie festival to be held that
> night featuring films from the four 'tenou' (not sure how to translate
that)
> of the genre, Zeze Takahisa, Sato Toshiki, et al.  I wanted to go because
> they were going to show Zeze's "Haneda ni ittemiro..." and a few other
films
> I was sure I wouldn't be able to track down on video.  There was even a
> panel discussion scheduled featuring all four directors themselves and a
few
> other guests.  HOWEVER, it turns out that this was another one of those
> sneaky "women only" pink movie festivals so I didn' t even have a chance
of
> getting in.  "Minors and men prohibited" says the ad.  So aside from the
> fact that most of the guests were men (all of the directors were), last
> night's showing was separate but equal.  After coffee I went to Tsutaya
and
> discovered that not all was lost; I looked in the new DVD section and
> discovered that all four of the films scheduled to be shown at last
night's
> all-nigher have recently been released in Japan.  Haneda..., Don't Let it
> Bring You Down, Tanjun na hanashi and Himitsu no hanazono are all now for
> sale at 3800 yen.  If I find any more information about them I'll post it
> here.
>
> Michael Arnold
>
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