Between War and Media / video notes

[Miles Wood]

M Arnold wrote:

> 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.

The "women only" restriction seems absurd, but with the films accessible on DVD
and with most/all of the directors I think being present at screenings earlier
in the month I guess no harm could said to be done.

Did you attend any of the screenings in the P-1 Grand Champion Carnival, based
around the films of Zeze Takahisa? Although I was in town for the final night I
was unable to get there due to conflicting events. I'm still a little unsure
about Takahisa having only viewed 2 ofhis films, KOKKURI which I really liked
even in unsubtitled form, and HYSTERIC which I thought was dreadful. He's in HK
for the HKIFF screening of TOKYO X EROTICA tomorrow.

I picked up ones of the DVD, SECRET GARDEN. Would anyone recommend any of the
others released or any othose scheduled for next month, bearing in mind my lack
of understanding of thr language? I'll probably pick them up anyway but...

Miles