Sen Nen no Koi/Genji Monogatari

[mark schilling]

John Doughill asked for reviews of Sennen no Koi and other films based on
Genji Monogatari. Here is a link to my Japan Times review of Sennen no Koi:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ff20011226a2.htm

All of my JT reviews and articles, going back to mid-1999, are on the JT
Web site. To call them up, go to the main page
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/start.htm and run a search on "Mark Schilling."

Mark Schilling


----- Original Message -----
From: "John Dougill" <dougill at mbox.kyoto-inet.or.jp>
To: "kinejapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 10:06 AM
Subject: Sen Nen no Koi/Genji Monogatari


> Sen Nen no Koi has hit the video stores and is proving a great hit.  I
> managed to get a hold of a copy and had very mixed feelings about it.
While
> I enjoyed seeing the Heian court brought to life and found the main lead
> (played by Amami Yuki of Takarazuka fame) surprisingly credible - though
her
> sex certainly became an issue in the love scenes! - the film was
> horrendously marred by terrible fantasy episodes which did nothing but
look
> embarrassing.  Having Seiko Matsuda come swamming by singing a modern
style
> song did nothing for the film except to make one wonder what on earth the
> director had been smoking that day....  at 140 minutes I felt there was
the
> making of a goodish 105 minute film buried in there somewhere.
>
> Anyway, I'm interested in movie versions of Genji Monogatari in general
and
> have been searching the internet for reviews of the above film and earlier
> ones - all I've come up with so far is an interesting view by someone of a
> recent manga version, comparing it with the original book.  Does anyone
know
> of any articles or reviews comparing the film versions at all??
>
> Thanks
> JD
> Kyoto
>
>