Kinema Club V impressions

[david henry]

Hi, I've been a longtime lurker on this list but really enjoyed the  
recent Kinema Club V and since no one else has written on it I  
thought I'd forward some impressions. Since this is my first post I  
should probably introduce myself: David Henry, ABD at the University  
of Michigan working on Folktales, Textuality, and National Identity  
in modern Japan.


The first day, Wednesday, at Sagamihara/Kyobashi was great if  
somewhat rushed. At Sagamihara we divided into 2 groups of 10 or so  
each for separate 25 minute tours of the film vaults. There were 2  
basement levels, each with 9 large rooms, for a total capacity of  
200,000 cans of film (they're now at 60% capacity, so I guess roughly  
120,00 cans right now?) The main storage rooms were set at either 10  
or 15 degree celsius (why the difference? hmm) with a special room  
for films that had 'caught' vinegar disease(?) set at 5 degrees.  
There were jackets provided at the entrance for us, but they were one  
short, and as I was the last one in the door it made for a rather  
chilly tour!

Seemed like excellent facilities. Nice landscaping up top to keep  
things cool down below, a special air filtration system for the  
vinegar diseased film that pulled air out through the floor and was  
separate from the general air flow. They're also storing a fair  
number of films for the major studios in return for reduced fees if  
they want to strike copies, etc. For better or worse most of their  
collection (at least almost all of the film canisters I passed by)  
was porn. As the staff person was extolling the excellent facilities,  
I noticed the film next to me was 'Shinjuku mesu nikki.' (something  
like that) Later, there was an awkward pause, but he mentioned that  
film center employees simply preserve everything they can get their  
hands on without making any artistic judgements about value; hearing  
this seemed to put everybody back into a good mood.

Aaron did a good job herding us around, although it was raining and  
we decided the (train) route as we were going (meaning we had to keep  
on our toes hopping on and off trains). I heard they watched some  
clips of very early Japanese films at Kyobashi, but I missed the  
afternoon segment.

I thought quality and variety of the panel presentations was really  
good and I'd be interested in hearing other people's observations in  
this area.

I missed Rey Chow on Sunday, but Saturday's Avalon screening and talk  
were great. Lamarre and Ueno were a little worried at first as Oshii  
was maybe 10-15 minutes late, mentioning he got lost walking the  
local streets. A Japanese woman (from Japan Foundation?) with a  
British accent provided excellent translation for Oshii; opinion was  
mixed on how Lamarre/Ueno decided not to translate each other's  
comments but try to roughly recap each other in J/E. I really liked  
it; thought it made for a dynamic interplay; J or E speakers  
obviously didn't notice, and some J/E speakers I talked with found it  
mildly irritating. Ueno questioned Oshii about criticism of fascism  
in his works; which lead to a 15 minute criticism of Miyazaki and  
Isao, comparing them to yakuza, dictators or Stalin for their  
humanistic vision but dictatorial production methods. Lamarre  
forwarded the question of dogs/wolf/wolfman in Oshii, Oshii responded  
with mostly platitudes although mentioned that he's given up  
collecting wolf T-shirts and is now collecting dog T-shirts. Hmm.  
Well, he also mentioned wolves may seem like noble natural creatures,  
but dogs are really the more developed, especially after living with  
humans. He did have an interesting comment on close-ups; how they  
lead us to expect truth in what they're expanding in on and their  
dictatorial power; specifically he mentioned you can't do close-ups  
in cel animation, but you can with CG, so he really enjoyed playing  
with that in Innocence.

As to military images in his works, he confessed to loving war  
machines, buying those glossy Naval Warship or Aviation magazines in  
Ochanomizu and lamenting how the old woman at the register always  
looked at him like a criminal. He hazarded the opinion that if you  
can't tell the difference between an armored personnel character and  
a main battle tank then maybe you really shouldn't be commenting on  
war/peace issues. Also that Japanese always assume the role of  
higaisha, but maybe they should try to assume the perspective of  
kagaisha sometimes. Ueno broke in at this point to suggest that of  
course Oshii wasn't suggesting aggressive war, but the need to stop  
hiding behind a victim mentality, which is probably what Oshii meant.

Anyway, this is getting long, but I'd really be interested in hearing  
other people's impressions of the conference.

Best,
David Henry