Japanese Films at Berlin Film Festival (2)

[MiriamRohde@aol.com]

Hi everyone,

I would like to share some of my impressions from this year?s Berlin Film 
Festival. I have seen ?Last Scene" (Nakata Hideo), ?Ogawa Pro Homon ki" 
(Oshige Junichiro), ?Tasogare Seibei" (Yamada Yoji), ?Aji" (Ying Li), 
?Bokun?chi" (Sakamoto Junji), and ?Koufuku no kane" (Sabu) (probably all 
Japanese movies except for ?Borderline" (Lee Sang-il)). I think, that 
?Koufuku no kane" was the only innovative Japanese Fiction Film of the 
Festival, less in terms of the film?s style than its narrative structure. So 
it comes as little surprise that it is also the only one receiving an award 
for the best contribution from Asia. This doesn?t mean that I was impressed 
by the movie. The acting was fine and the idea for the narrative was 
intelligent and funny, but it didn?t touch me emotionally, and I would like a 
good movie to appeal to me intellectually and emotionally as well.

To my impression, the audience liked ?Tasogare Seibei" very much, and so did 
I (although I must agree that the last song did destroy the whole impression 
quite a bit). Some comments I grabbed up right after the screening found 
?Tasogare Seibei" a very thoughtful and beautiful picture. One of Berlin?s 
major newspapers ?Tagesspiegel" had a very favourable review, drawing on the 
films comments on modern life: single father with ?Alzheimer? mother, and 
the question, if childcare and homekeeping is a means to pacify/domesticate 
men and thus prevent war...But ?Tasogare Seibei" started in the competition 
for the major award - the only Japanese film in this section - and this 
year?s competition was obviously very much concerned with social and 
political commitments of the movies. So I think, ?Tasogare Seibei" just 
wasn?t political enough to be considered for an award. 

As for the other feature films, they were all nice to watch but not really 
thrilling. The documentary ?Aji" provided a lesson in Japanese-Chinese 
history, cooking and modern Chinese culture, but as for the narrative and 
film stile it didn?t really appeal to me. Other commentaries were divers, 
from ?one of the most interesting films of the Festival" to ?narrative 
structure too constructed" and ?bad camera style". ?Ogawa Pro Homon ki" is 
over 20 years old, but doesn?t seem to have lost actuality. Questions focused 
on the living conditions of the Ogawa team, on what has happened since to 
rural life in Japan, and on specifics of the production (how the idea for the 
movie came up, how many cameras were used etc.). The Festival bureau plans to 
make the dialogue between Ogawa and Oshima available as text in English, 
because many in the audience regretted that they couldn?t follow the 
subtitles well.

Did anyone see ?Borderline"?
Miriam Rohde