Various film news--Asama-sanso

[Aaron Gerow]

>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...

This might be just my take on Harada, but I think this is nothing new in 
his work. In fact, I think this kind of ambiguity or contradiction is 
evident in most of his films. On the one hand, there is a clear effort to 
engage in some kind of "Japan critique," but on the other, he often uses 
terms which undermine or contradict that very critique. Asama-sanso is 
basicaly very much like Jubaku: it uses the good little man to critique 
hierarchical authorities, but in doing so only revitalizes myths of the 
Japanese everyman (or salaryman). Part of the problem is that Harada has 
a tendency to use easy-to-understand images to present his ideas, ones 
which perhaps unwittingly end up reinforcing conventional perspectives. 
(Some have criticized Asama-sanso for basically depicting the Nagano cops 
as country bumpkins. Project X, the NHK show that also celebrates the 
little guy's contributions to JAPAN, actually presented their version of 
the event calling them the real heroes of the incident. The contents 
differ, but the stereotypical structure remains.)

Here, by the way, is my review of the film:

Title: Totsunyuseyo! Asama Sanso Jiken/The Choice of Hercules
Directed by Masato Harada
Starring:  Koji Yakusho, Ryodo Uzaki, Masato Ibu, Yuki Amami
Rating: ***

	The more infamous an event is, the more difficult, if not impossible it 
is to narrate it.
	This is certainly the case with the "Asama Sanso Incident" of February 
1972, one of the most famous happenings in postwar Japanese history. Five 
members of the revolutionary Japanese Red Army, armed and on the run from 
the law, barricaded themselves in a cottage on Mt. Asama in Nagano 
Prefecture, taking the caretaker's wife hostage. They held out for ten 
days in an almost impenetrable "fort" until the police made a final 
attack that rescued the hostage and captured all five defendants, but not 
without suffering three deaths (including one civilian) and dozens of 
injuries. 
	It would not be an exaggeration to say that the incident changed 
contemporary Japan. Not only was this the first true media event, as the 
nation stayed glued to their TV sets for hours of live coverage, it 
marked the end of the 1960s and the hopes of many for social change. The 
fact the Red Army, in the months before Asama Sanso, murdered 14 of its 
own members for ideological impurities drove many to become disillusioned 
not only with the left, but with politics as a whole. This bolstered 
young people's profound allergy towards politics and prompted the search 
for alternatives ranging from hedonistic consumerism to Aum Supreme Truth.
	Asama Sanso created such a trauma that no one could really film it for 
30 years. Finally Banmei Takahashi came out with Hikari no Ame (Rain of 
Light) last fall, and Masato Harada's Totsunyuseyo! Asama Sanso Jiken 
opened last weekend.
	What is interesting is that both movies in effect acknowledge the 
impossibility of narrating the incident by deciding to present only a 
limited perspective--as if multiple perspectives are inconceivable. 
Takahashi's film focused on the radicals, especially during their bloody 
period of ideological "self-critique," while Harada's  is so tied to the 
point of view of the police that the hostage takers are visible for only 
a few seconds in this 2 hour 13 minute film.
	The choice is curious given Harada's own left-leaning politics, but it 
is his spoken intention to turn Totsunyuseyo! into an investigation of 
institutions like the police and the Japanese mentality within them. 
	As such, the police in the movie can often seem as confusing--or 
confused--as the entire event, as Harada focuses as much on their 
internal squabbling as on the efforts to rescue the hostage.
	The movie is based on the account of the incident by Atsuyuki Sassa, the 
head of police operations during the incident, with Harada regular Koji 
Yakusho playing Sassa. While a veteran of dealing with student radicals, 
Sassa, an official of the National Police Agency, is portrayed as a 
reluctant leader, worried not only about the limits of his authority. The 
head of the Agency, for instance, will not give him on-the-spot power to 
decide whether to use guns or not.
	This sets up one of several institutional conflicts in the film. While a 
representative of the national police, Sassa is repeatedly hampered by 
Tokyo officials who are too cautious and don't understand the 
difficulties faced on the ground.
	At the same time, Sassa has to struggle against the Nagano Police, who 
resent and resist the intrusion of the big city cops even though it is 
painfully clear that they, in their low tech provinciality, are not 
prepared to handle such a complex crisis. 
	Add to this the rivalries between Tokyo Metropolitan Police riot squads, 
a hostile press corps, and the blistering cold of mountainous Nagano, 
and, as one character utters in the film, it becomes unclear who the 
enemy is in this mess. Such confusion is rendered visual in the first 
hours of the final attack, as literally all hell breaks loose.
	Sassa becomes the eye of this hurricane, suffering pressure from all 
sides, and thus, in one of the film's more powerful moments, it is no 
surprise he goes a bit crazy just releasing pent up frustrations when 
alone. This is not an envious job and it is no surprise he hints of 
wanting to quit.
	Totsunyuseyo! never really becomes a significant critique of the police, 
however. Just as Harada's Jubaku defended the lowly salaryman as heroes 
in the effort to clean up corporate corruption, Totsunyuseyo! becomes a 
kind of stereotypical Project X for the police, celebrating the little 
guys who still get the job done despite institutional ineptitude. 
	Totsunyuseyo! is certainly a more than competent action film, but its 
use of old, somewhat tired narratives only reconfirms what we probably 
new from the start: infamous stories are hellish to tell.

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
International Student Center
Yokohama National University
79-1 Tokiwadai
Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
JAPAN
E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
Phone: 81-45-339-3170
Fax: 81-45-339-3171