Self-introduction, and a request for suggestions

[Lorenzo Javier Torres]

Dear Irene:

 

Your novel sound quite wonderful! Please, tell us when it'll be finally
published.

 

The only thing I can help you is with an Ozu's film, Late Spring. In this
movie there is a representation of the perfect modern woman in Japan (moga).
The only problem is that the story happens in 1949. Anyway, it?s is a
marvellous experience to watch an Ozu film, if you didn?t happen to do that
yet. Besides, some of his films of the twenties are focused in students
life.

 

Hope it helps you.

 

Best Regards and luck!

 

Lorenzo J. Torres

Madrid, Espa?a.

 

 

 

 

 

-----Mensaje original-----
De: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] En nombre de Irene Hahn
Enviado el: mi?rcoles, 16 de marzo de 2005 5:57
Para: kinejapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Asunto: Self-introduction, and a request for suggestions

 

Dear everyone,

 

My name is Irene Hahn, and I'm a Lecturer in English at the University 

of Michigan, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am also a fiction writer 

at work on my first novel, a historical novel that takes place mostly in 

Korea during the Japanese Occupation and the Korean War, but which also 

includes a segment that takes place in Japan between the years 1922 and 

1924. The first portion of the novel won several literary awards while I 

was a Master's student, and with luck I will finish it in the next year. 

As part of my research, I am trying to find films that try to re-create 

the early 1920s in Japan (or as close to that time period as possible), 

and was hoping to enlist your suggestions regarding films that might be 

helpful.

 

By way of plot summary, the portion of my novel that takes place in 

Japan follows the travels of a young Korean man named Juho, who is a 

member of the landowning aristocracy in Korea. He wants desperately to 

be a painter and goes to Japan to study at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts 

and paint 100 views of Mount Fuji, following the model of Hokusai. I 

suppose if I had to itemize the main areas that I am interested in, they 

would fall along these lines:

 

1. Most of this portion of the novel takes place in Tokyo, and I would 

like to learn more about student life (preferably among student 

painters, although I imagine it'll be tough to find films on that 

specifically), particularly student radicalism in the universities--I've 

read that quite a few student intellectuals advocated Communism, and I 

am trying to get a sense of what their lives might have been like on a 

day to day basis, the conversations they might have had, and whether 

they actually acted upon their ideas and demonstrated or just talked 

about them.

2. I am trying to find out what the interactions between Koreans and 

Japanese were like in Japan, especially Korean and Japanese students.

3. While in Tokyo, Juho falls in love with a "modern" woman. I've read 

about the westernized Japanese girl of the 20s and 30s but would like to 

see a moving representation of her, and so I am interested in any film 

that illuminates gender relations and the opportunities that were 

available to young women.

4. I am trying to learn more about the lives of Japanese painters in 

this time period, particularly those who went to Paris and came back 

wanting to incorporate Impressionism and Post-Impressionism into their 

work.

5. Because Juho also travels throughout Japan to see Mount Fuji from 

different parts of the country, I am very interested in the scenery of 

the time, modes of transportation, places a traveler might have stayed 

and things they might have done, any sorts of visual details that might 

help me re-create the atmosphere of the early 1920s.

6. One of Juho's childhood friends spends a year as a miner in Kyushu. 

I'd like to know more about the conditions there.

7. Juho's plans are interrupted by the Great Kanto Earthquake. In the 

aftermath of the massacre of Koreans that took place after the 

earthquake, he goes home. With this in mind, I was wondering whether any 

films have tried to recreate the experience of the earthquake.

 

As you can see, the areas I am researching are unfortunately quite 

varied. All of my research has been literary thus far, and while books 

are helpful I would like to try and see and hear the times via film, 

even if only fictive. In case anyone had suggestions based on the above 

I would be deeply grateful. Thank you very much for your time and 

consideration--

 

Sincerely,

Irene Hahn

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