Recent Japanese Cinema

[mark schilling]

When I started reviewing Japanese films for The Japan Times in 1989, the
"Japanese films are crap" meme was dominant throughout the foreign community
here, with even fluent Japanese speakers making it a point of pride to never
see a new Japanese movie, save for the occasional Itami or Kurosawa. At the
Mainichi James Bailey was gleefully seeking out mainstream trash to
eviscerate. In his last review for the Asahi Allan Booth famously proclaimed
that, after seeing hundreds of Japanese movies in the past decade, he'd
found only about a dozen worth praising.

I found this attitude patronizing and wrong-headed. Despite all the
over-blown Kadokawa Haruki epics and films about dogs and cats, plenty of
under-fifty directors were doing interesting work -- Obayashi Nobuhiko,
Ishii Sogo, Somai Shinji, Morita Yoshimitsu, Takita Tojiro, Yanagimachi
Mitsuo, Tsukamoto Shinya and Ishikawa Jun, to name a few. Little news about
their films was getting out to the world at large, however, and I thought
that, through The Japan Times, I could open the channel of communication a
bit wider.

Now the situation would seem to have radically changed, with festivals
around the world competing for the latest Kurosawa, Kitano or Miike. Or has
it? Critical fashion has shifted from Japan and its now old "New Wave" to
Korea, Thailand and elsewhere in Asia. Even members of this list are
lamenting about the lack of good new Japanese films.

The much-hyped New Wave leaders are still going strong, however, while both
newcomers and veterans still little known outside Japan are churning out new
work at a breakneck pace. Inundated by the sheer numbers, I've taken to
reviewing two films a week -- and I still can't keep up. This renaissance
may be "mini" compared with the glories of the now distant Golden Age, but
it is real nonetheless.

As Stephen mentioned, Japanese distributors and even sales agents often
inept at or uninterested in marketing their films abroad. The Koreans do a
much better job -- and have for years.

Also, the fashionistas have a point. Fewer Japanese films today are worthy
of the of buzz that greeted Sonatine, Cure or Audition. Perhaps influenced
by the success of the Koreans, with their audience-friendly concepts and
stories, as well as by Japan's own immensely profitable (and now exportable)
pop culture, younger Japanese directors such as Yukisada Isao and Kitamura
Ryuhei are taking a more commercial direction from early in their careers -- 
and being rewarded with bigger budgets and projects. Older directors who
once numbered among the indies, such as Shinohara Tetsuo and Isaka Satoshi,
are also going this route.

But though the edgy little films of yesteryear may be fewer on the ground,
there's still plenty out there worth watching. The problem is, first,
getting the information and, second, getting the films themselves. Someday,
maybe, the Japanese film industry will make these tasks easier, but for
now -- the struggle continues.

Mark Schilling
schill at gol.com








----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Suchenski" <rsuchens at Princeton.EDU>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2004 5:38 PM
Subject: Recent Japanese Cinema


> Japanese cinema is actually doing quite well, and the fact that it's hard
to
> see that sometimes is more a testament to current distribution patterns
than
> to the quality of Japanese films.  And, I should point out, this a problem
> that's not specific only to Japan, but is endemic to world cinema as a
> whole.  French cinema, for example, has entered one of its strongest
periods
> in the past decade or so, but most of that work is coming from brilliant
> directors both young (Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, Andre Techine), and
old
> (Jean-luc Godard, Agnes Varda, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais) who, despite
> recognition by the international film community, are largely marginalized
by
> a distribution system that would rather release mediocre crowd-pleasers
like
> "8 Women," "Swimming Pool," or "Amelie."  The same holds true for
Japanese,
> British (Terence Davies is arguably the greatest British director since
> Michael Powell, but masterpieces like "Distant Voices, Still Lives," and
> "The Long Day Closes" remain obscure in the US), Iranian, German, and
> especially Chinese-language cinema.
>
> I'm firmly of the belief that we are in the midst of a mini-Renaissance in
> world cinema, but the international distribution system has become so
staid
> and audience tastes so ossified that you'd hardly know it if you didn't
know
> where to look.  There are plenty of high-profile directors like David
Lynch,
> David Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, and Wes Anderson who continue to
produce
> masterpieces, or at least very interesting films, that get decent
theatrical
> releases and a nominal amount of media attention, but there is another
tier
> of even more talented filmmakers whose works need to be actively
sought-out.
> Directors like Hou-Hsiao Hsien and Tsai Ming-liang (both from Taiwan),
Wong
> Kar-Wai (Hong Kong), Bela Tarr (Hungary), Manoel d'Oliviera (Portugal),
> Alexander Sokurov (Russia), Jia Zhang-ke (China), and, to get closer to
the
> original topic, Nagisa Oshima (Japan) are generally regarded as among the
> greatest living narrative filmmakers by the international film community
> (take a look at the end-of-the-year polls in Film Comment, Positif, or,
for
> that matter, the Village Voice, and you'll see what I'm talking about),
but
> few, if any, of their films have received even limited commercial
releases.
> It gets even worse when you look at the fascinating, and often
> breathtakingly beautiful, films released by directors in even more
> marginalized countries like Darzhan Omirbaev in Kazakhstan, Nuri Ceyland
in
> Turkey, or Ousmane Sembene in Senegal.  There are dozens of masterpieces
> released each year, but both audiences and distributors have become
> complacent, and it's becoming harder and harder to see really great world
> cinema, especially because distributors have decided that audiences
> everwhere would rather watch easy-to-market tripe like "Tomb Raider 2" (a
> hit all throughout east Asia) than "Mulholland Drive."
>
> So, back to the matter at hand, what about contemporary Japanese cinema?
As
> Tom Mes, J. Sharp, Mark Schilling, and others have so consistently
> documented, Japanese cinema has been stronger in the past decade than at
any
> point since the 70's.  Established directors, now in their 70s and even
80s,
> such as Nagisa Oshima, Seijun Suzuki, and Shohei Imamura continue to turn
> out fascinating, elliptical films and they've each released a great film
> since the turn of the millenium.  All three -"Taboo," "Pistol Opera" and
> "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge" respectively - received commercial
releases
> in the US and are available on region 1 DVDs.  Even more exciting is the
> surge of new directors, most of whom have already been mentioned in this
> thread, who have really come into their own recently.
>
> Kiyoshi Kurosawa is probably the single most interesting filmmaker in
Japan
> right now, but the two best Japanese films I've seen in the past 5 years
or
> so have been Shinji Aoyama's 2000 "Eureka" and Hirokazu Kore-Eda's 2002
> "Distance."  Both played at Cannes and are available on excellent Region 2
> DVDs with English subtitles.  As for Kurosawa, I would start with 1997's
> "Cure" (recently released on DVD in the US by Home Vision Entertainment)
and
> 1999's "Charisma" (region 2 DVD) and then move on to "Pulse," "Bright
> Future," "Doppelganger," and "License to Live."  All of those films,
except
> the recent "Doppelganger" are readily available either on Region 2 DVD
(try
> Amazon Japan or CDJapan) or on legal region-free releases produced in Hong
> Kong or Korea (try HKflix.com, Pokerindustries.com, or the usually
reliable
> ebay).  Kurosawa's films are always formally brilliant and, while
continuing
> to produce "genre films," he is expanding the boundaries of cinema in
fresh
> and challenging ways.  For that matter, both of Kore-eda's other films,
> especially the chronically underrated "Maborosi" are excellent, and
they're
> readily available on DVD and VHS to boot.
>
> Other directors that are worth taking a look at:
>
> Mamoru Oshii - To my sensibility, Oshii is the most talented director of
> animation in Japan, and I highly recommend 1987's "Angel's Egg," 1993's
> "Patlabor 2" (easily the most moody and politically sophisticated anime
film
> ever made) and 2001's "Avalon" (Oshii's flawed, but fascinating,
live-action
> response to "The Matrix") in addition to the more readily available "Ghost
> in the Shell."
>
> Takeshi Kitano - I'm really surprised that nobody else has mentioned
Kitano
> in this thread.  Yes, "Brother" and "Dolls" have serious problems, but am
I
> the only one who found "Zatoichi" an interesting, if somewhat slight,
> experiment?  And what about "Kikujiro," a film whose surface
sentimentality
> masks an almost-palpable loneliness and deliriously weird sensibility (at
> its best, it's like a slightly more downbeat Tati film).  None of these
> films reach the heights of "Sonatine" or "Hana-bi" but they're well worth
> checking out.
>
> Isao Takahata - "Little Nols, Prince Valiant" (which just had a thread on
> here) made his reputation, but I also recommend the more recent "Pom Poko"
> and "My Neighbors the Yamadas."
>
> Naomi Kawase - Unfortunately, it's hard to find her works on video, but,
if
> you can, check out "Hotaru," "Shara," and "Blue."
>
> Makoto Shinozaki - I've only had the chance to see 2000's "Not Forgotten,"
> but it was a fascinating film and if you can see it, you should.
>
> Finally, there's another tier of filmmakers whose works vary wildly in
> quality, but each of them has at least one real gem, and at least some of
> their works get distributed.   Mark Schilling's book  "Contemporary
Japanese
> Film" and, more recently, Midnight Eye are wonderful resources, but here
are
> a few more recommendations that I know are available on DVD:  "Angel Dust"
> (Sogo Ishii), "Rainy Dog" (Takashi Miike), "A Snake of June" (Shinya
> Tsukamoto), "Postman Blues" (Sabu), and "All About Lily Chou-Chou" (Shunji
> Iwai).
>
> Richard Suchenski
> Princeton University
>