Onmyoji/recent japanese cinema

[Christine Marran]

Hi Peter,

It seems that there aren't a lot of fans of Iwai Shunji films amongst 
the Kinejapanners but I thought that Iwai Shunji's All About Lily Chou 
Chou was a very interesting film.  His film UNDO is one of my all-time 
favorites but Lily Chou Chou fascinatingly combines text and music and 
the unembodied psychology of the youth that finds solace in the 
similarly unembodied icon of singer Lily Chou Chou (until the end of the 
film at least).  Just like with Swallowtail, the film has one violent 
scene that rather sticks out and doesn't seem to belong (or is rather 
overdone I guess).  In Swallowtail  the blow-up scene at the end adds 
only a kind of sensationalist conclusion and in Lily the rape scene in 
the school shed is too much -- it could have used more subtlety.  Iwai 
gets accused of being MTV-ish but I found in Lily a nicely sustained 
feeling of angst and sense of homelessness.

Christine Marran



Peter Larson wrote:

>Will someone please explain to me why such a clich?d, uninspiring movie
>like Onmyoji did so well in Japan? After all the hype and good things I
>had heard about it, I was sorely disappointed that I spent 2 hours of my
>life on it. I'm usually not one to complain, but it seems that everytime
>I take the time to investigate recent Japanese cinmema, I am left
>nothing but disappointment and bewilderment. Will someone please point
>me to something worthwhile? I know it's out there, I'm just at a loss to
>find it... What's been seriously good and worth watching in the past 2
>or 3 years?
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