AW: AW: Pordenone

[Roland Domenig]

I'm not sure whether it was a precedent-setting film, but it is surely one of only few films that had that much access to the emperor. 
What I found most intersting is the discrepancy between the different images of Hirohito in the film. on the one hand there is the young emperor visiting the several stations of his official visiting tour, looking rather awkward in his movements and often as if he were at a loss what to do, always surrounded by officials from the Imperial Agency and older politicials (who arguably were more powerful than him). These images show the private person Hirohito (if something like that existed at all). On the other hand there are images of the Tenno, the deified head and symbol of the nation. When the old and frail interior minister, who a few shots ago was leisurely walking beside Hirohito when they visited one of the rebuilt sites in Tokyo, presents a document to the emperor at the offical ceremony celebrating the end of Tokyo's reconstruction he almost falls down the stairs because - in order to pay respect to the emperor - he has to walk backwards while deeply bowing. Unintentionally this scene looks funny and reveals the gap between the person and the function.  
It would be interesting to know more about how the film was released at the time, whether each part was released seperately showing the progress of the reconstruction work or whether it was released only as full length documentary feature. I'd also like to know how people reacted to the images of the emperor in the final two parts. Was it released publicly at all or was it only shown in special screenings to a specific audience (after all it was a commissioned film by the Bureau of Capital Recovery). Does anyone know? 

Roland Domenig
Institute of East Asian Studies
Vienna University   



-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu im Auftrag von Jason Gray
Gesendet: Mi 19.10.2005 05:39
An: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Betreff: Re: AW: Pordenone 
 
Roland,

Thank you very much for the recap -- I really appreciate
it. I had a feeling "Bakudan Hanayome" would go down well
-- it's a comedic gem. Was it accompanied by music?

As far as Emperor Hirohito's appearance in "Teito Fukko,"
when I first saw the film, I was surprised at how much
access the crew were given to shoot his image (the obscure
term 
????being used to reflect this privilege). Would this
have been a precedent-setting film in that way, do you
know? The shot choices certainly didn't lend His Majesty
an air of greatness -- he looked like a regular person, a
little guy in fact, surrounded by more powerful men.

And yes, it's hard to believe that after all of that,
Tokyo was decimated once again...What a town. 

Best,
Jason Gray


> "Bakudan hanayome" was indeed a crowd pleaser. It's
> a hilariously funny short piece and its originality
> contrasted very favorably with the following "Ogon
> no dangan" which closely followed (if not slavishly
> copied) Western models. 
> "Koshu saho Tokyo kenbutsu" also was received very
> well and certainly deserves more attention. 
> "Teito fukko" fared less well and I've heard many
> people saying it was boring. I found the film quite
> intersting, however, especially because of the image
> of emperor Hirohito in the last part and the fact
> that the film spares out the people that inhibit the
> newly rebuilt imperial capital (that was doomed to
> be destroyed again only a decade later). It became
> even more interesting in relation to "Koshu saho
> Tokyo kenbutsu" that visits the same places, but
> presents them in a quite different way. 
> Of the other Japanese films I liked Nomura Hotei's
> "Chikyodai" and Shimizu Hiroshi's "Fue no shiratama"
> very much that I had the chance to see for the first
> time. The last was a little spoiled by the dark blue
> tinting that unnecessarily obscured several scenes.
> With some Japanese films I also strongly missed the
> accompaniment of a benshi. 
> My personal favorite of the festival was not a
> Japanese film, however, but the Australian film "The
> sentimental bloke" by Raymond Longford that was
> presented with a congenial music score by Jen
> Anderson. 
> 
> Roland Domenig
> Institute of East Asian Studies
> Vienna University  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --- Alexander Jacoby <a_p_jacoby at yahoo.co.uk> ?????
> ???:
> > Dear All,
> > Sorry not to have encountered people on this
> website
> > at Pordenone, I was too distracted by the awful
> loss
> > of my film notebook, which I am now painstakingly
> > striving to reconstruct...
> > Anyway, I wondered if anyone knew if there was
> > anywhere in English where one could read in detail
> > about the Lady Ejima scandal of 1714 (Shotoku
> 4nen);
> > the histories seem to have very sketchy accounts.
> If
> > there's a detailed account in Japanese somewhere,
> > that might also be useful since I can no doubt
> > enlist someone Japanese who will help me puzzle
> the
> > meaning out...
> > Best,
> > 
> > ALEX
> > 
> > 
> > 		
> > ---------------------------------
> > To help you stay safe and secure online, we've
> > developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

> ATTACHMENT part 2 application/ms-tnef name=winmail.dat








-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 5503 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20051019/ed81e996/attachment.bin