Eiga geijutsu best ten (E+J)

[M Arnold]

While we're at it, has anyone on the list seen Utsukushii natsu Kirishima?
I've been hearing snippets of info on this for a couple of years now, and
I'm very curious about how it turned out. (I'm also desperate to see Harada
Yoshio in something new to wash the taste of Azumi out of my mouth.) There's
a trailer on the film website. http://www.pan-dora.co.jp/kirishima/top.html

As an afterward to the discussion on the three "Japan" movies, are there any
recent Japanese films that merit similar or related questions about
representation and empire? What did people think about Battle Royale II
(other than that it was really bad)? The story left me with mixed feelings.
The idea of rejecting western oppression and acting on behalf of the "third
world" (even dressing up for the part in the last scene) was played out in a
way that I thought felt very different from the ideological thrust of the
first film. The (mostly) irrational and disturbingly violent student deaths
of the first movie became more like romantic battlefield sacrifices in this
"Requiem."

For those of you interested in Pink, there's an essay by William Johnson on
Kumashiro Tatsumi in the Fall 2003 issue of Film Quarterly. "A New View of
Porn: The Films of Tatsumi Kumashiro." It seems to make some interesting
claims. . . I'm still reading it so I'll withhold my comments for now.

Michael Arnold