Somai Shinji

[nuzumaki at gmx.net]

if your are looking for more information about somai shinji, there was along
with the retrospective in germany, also a small catalouge published (i think
the text was by olaf möller). i have to look up first, but what i can
remeber it is in german only. 

best regards,

stefan nutz


> Somai's Typhoon Club won the Grand Prix at the first Tokyo Film Festival
> in
> 1985. Moving (Ohikkoshi) was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at
> Cannes in 1993. And Wait and See (Ah, Haru) was awarded the FIPRESCI
> (International critics prize) at Berlin in 1999.
> 
> So Somai didn't totally strike out on the festival circuit. Why didn't he
> gain more traction? He often worked in a genre, seishun eiga, that got
> little critical respect. His timing wasn't great, but he could have better
> ridden the Japanese New Wave of the 1990s. Moving had a more visible
> platform at Cannes in 1993 than did Kitano's Sonatine, which only screened
> in the market -- but we know which film the Western critics whooped up,
> don't we?
> 
> Why didn't they also whoop up Moving, a coming-of-age masterpiece? I did
> my
> little bit in The Japan Times and elsewhere -- but Somai didn't much help
> his own cause. When I interviewed him at Cannes, he struck me as smart,
> sensitive and very, very shy.As in no eye contact and voice just above a
> whisper. Not the type to dazzle the foreign press with his witty repartee.
> (I believe he spent as much of the festival as possible in his hotel
> room.)Then there was the matter of the film itself, which did not fit any
> of
> the then trendy categories (extremely violent, cleverly subversive action
> pic, etc.) So it quietly sank out of sight, as did its director.
> 
> I compliment the Jeonju festival for raising up him and his criminally
> under-appreciated films.
> 
> Mark Schilling
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "tanaka taro" <tarouttt at hotmail.com>
> To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 7:13 PM
> Subject: Somai Shinji
> 
> 
> >
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > I am writing a piece on Somai Shinji for the catalogue of the upcoming
> > Jeonju International Film Festival (April 28-May 6), which will show 8
> > Somai films in a retrospective.
> > One of the things I'm looking into is Somai's reception (or rather lack
> > thereof) outside of Japan, which already came up on this list a few days
> > ago.
> > Video and dvd-releases are one thing, but I was wondering if any of you
> > know of other festivals (or events) which have paid attention (gave
> prizes)
> > to Somai's work in the past, or places where his films got a theatrical
> > release. I've only heard of one retrospective organised by the Japan
> > Foundation in Germany a few years ago.
> >
> > I wonder how much the reason why so little has been written about him in
> > the West has to do with the age to which the main part of his work
> belongs,
> > as the eighties in general are largely overlooked (or dismissed as the
> > decade when Japanese cinema was as good as dead).
> >
> > Many thanks for any suggestions you may have,
> > Luk Van Haute
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > $B%&%#%k%96n=|%5!<%S%9$bL5NA(B $B!V(BMSN Hotmail$B!W(B
> http://www.hotmail.com/
> >
> 

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