Roji e cinematography

[M Arnold]

From: "Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow" <onogerow at angel.ne.jp>

> Are you referring to the footage Nakagami shot himself?

Actually I'm thinking of Tamura's footage.  In a few of the shots of roads,
beaches and buildings, the colors are light and nearly washed out in areas.
During some of the car scenes it almost looks like Tamura has the aperture
opened up to photograph Izuchi driving, but doesn't adjust it when he points
the camera out the window.  Overall the movie, or at least Tamura's part of
it, seems just a little bit light.  (And I think it's beautiful.)  It does
look different from the Nakagami film, which seems to have fewer moving
shots and is much darker (sometimes too dark) with more contrast.  The DVD
is neat because it also has a menu function where you can watch Nakagami's
footage all together in one long chunk, separate from Aoyama's film.

Despite all the negative comments I read, I enjoyed Roji e.  What's the
status on Aoyama's more recent films?  Did Desert Moon ever get a proper
release in Tokyo?

I just checked boid.net and it looks like there's going to be another "Kyofu
no eigashi" presentation (part 3) with Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Shinozaki Makoto
and Higuchi Yasuhito on October 25th at Athenee Francais
(http://boid.pobox.ne.jp/info/1025.htm).  This time the theme is Mario Bava
and European horror films.  I sure wish I could go!  They're also releasing
another CD-ROM on the subject of horror movies
(http://boid.pobox.ne.jp/info/kyofu_part2.htm).

Michael Arnold