Various film news

[John Dougill]

I have three points for the list....

1) on 30/5/02 11:44 AM, Aaron Gerow at gerow at ynu.ac.jp wrote:

> Hikari Genji Monogatari

I wonder if anyone knows when this will hit the video stores?


2) On a different track, I recently saw the new Masato Harada film.  A fair
film I thought, but overlong and completely lacking the kind of bite that
made Bounce Kogals so exciting.  I don't fully understand what Harada was up
to in this new film.  I presume he was criticising the bureaucratic mind-set
that led to the cock-ups and infighting in the police assault on the
left-wing radicals, but if that is the case why choose a situation in which
the police emerge as heroes and why make the radicals completely faceless
and their cause unknown?  The thing that impressed me most was the bravery
of the police in such a horrendous situation, which I guess is not Harada's
point at all.  In the terms of the film, I think he shot himself in the foot
with this one, though Yakusho Koji as always is wonderful...


3) I was waiting for a long time for Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy to come to
Japanese cinemas.  It seems it never did.  Then I waited for it to arrive in
the video stores.  It seems it never has.  How come this significant film by
a major director (Oscar for costume, I believe) never made it here, when
Leigh has quite a following among Japanese following Secrets and Lies and
Naked....   is this purely a commercial decision, or is it some kind of
censorship to do with the 'japonisme' shown in the film?  I'd be really
grateful for any feedback on this...