japanese religions in film

[J.sharp]

I came into this topic fairly late, having spent last week at the excellent
Nippon Connection festival in Frankfurt (thanks guys!), but I notice there?s
a couple of relevant films that have been left out here.

As Aaron points out, there?s a world of difference between Japanese films
that cross-reference religion or use its iconography to those that contain
any sort of religious conviction within them.

The films which I wish to mention come from the field of animation, and it
is fair to say that their religious aspects are their raison d?etre.

The first is a feature-length stop-animated heritage piece from Kihachiro
Kawamoto entitled Rennyo and his Mother/ Rennyo to Sono Haha, about a
Rennyo, a pivotal figure in the history of Buddhism in Japan.
Buddhist teaching has motivated much of Kamamoto?s work, from short films
such as Travel/Tabi and To Shoot Without Shooting to his most recent feature
length project, which I hear has just completed, Book of a Dead Person/
Shisha no Sho.
You can find some more details on these at:
www.midnighteye.com/reviews/round-up_007.shtml#rennyo-and-his-mother
www.midnighteye.com/interviews/kihachiro_kawamoto.shtml
www.midnighteye.com/features/beyond_anime.shtml

Secondly, there was some mention of these in passing, but two films funded
by the religious group Koufuku no kagaku (Science of Happiness) - The Law of
the Sun (Taiyo no Hou, 2000) and The Golden Laws / Ougon no Hou (2003).

http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/2003/ea003480.htm
http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/2000/dx002920.htm

Christian mentioned that the religious group ? advertises anime based on
Ogawa?s books in its monthly magazine, claiming them to be blockbusters? ?
actually they are quite high profile releases in Japan in that they are
distributed by Toei, and I remember seeing the first one of them in Toei?s
flagship cinema in Ginza. Certainly they were both prominently advertised.
There were adverts on train or subway hoardings all over Tokyo.

Now, these two films have received little or no attention from the usual
network of anime writers and fans and in fact I only found a few reviews on
the net. However, I did speak to someone from Unijapan about them a year ago
out of curiosity. I saw a bit of one of them, and its clear to see that the
quality of animation is actually rather high. Looking at the credits, you
can see they were made by people with some experience in the anime world
with Toei in works such as Macross and Lupin III. They were obviously hired
by the Koufuku no kagaku group.

The other point is that the films were obviously presented in the theatres
using the same block booking system that Mark Schilling refers to in his
Contemporary Japanese Film book as being rife in the 80s and early 90s. That
is, the production company buys tickets for all the seats in advance in
order to secure a prominent venue for the film, and somehow distribute the
tickets through other networks. I actually got mine for the first one in
2000 when I was actually handed one on the street by an unusually
serene-looking old man.

Following the link for the director of these two films, Ryuho Okawa, I also
note two other major works funded by the organisation, presumably in the
same way ? Hermes (1997) and one about Nostradamus (1994).

Interesting that there?s not so much info about these works, but they are
not intended for overseas sales ? not presented to festivals nor do they
have entries in the Unijapan catalogues. So fairly big budget, major works
whose role is solely as propaganda for this strange religious organisation
about which I know very little.

One review: http://amr.nextstudio.net/html/golden_laws.html

Can anyone spread any more light on this?

Jasper

--
Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema
www.midnighteye.com

===

Out Now from Stone Bridge Press:
The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp
Foreword by Hideo Nakata
http://www.stonebridge.com/MIDNIGHTEYE/midnight_eye.html



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