Recent Japanese Cinema

[Peter Larson]

WOW, see now this is what I was looking for. Thank you.

Yes, my original complaint was not that "Japanese cinema is dying" but
that what's being released, publicized and talked about here has been
drivel. With the ever expanding anime market here in the states and the
poor economy here, distributors are going to market that which will
guarantee a sale. I don't doubt that there are talkented filmmakers in
Japan or anywhere else, but it seems that films of quality are getting
less and less attention here and movies like Amelie get pushed like
domestic releases. It's sad because 10 years ago or so, there seemed to
be a real push in releasing quality international films here in the
states, but that attitude has all but seemingly dried up. Perhaps it is
just my memory failing me, but it really seems that audiences are
demanding less and less.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Richard
Suchenski
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 11:39 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
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