Nippon Connection film festival

[Mark Nornes]

This has long been on my do-list. Now that the university is razing  
my office-building down, I'm cleaning things up. The Nippon  
Connection catalog has been sitting next to my computer reminding me  
that I must jot down some thoughts so that I can pack it away.

This was my first time at Nippon Connection. I'd heard so many great  
things about it, I wanted to check it out for myself. The rep is well- 
deserved, I must say. It's really quite amazing for a number of  
reasons. First of all, this outfit is fan-driven, and I mean that in  
the broadest and most complementary way. It's built around a cultural  
festival, usually the domain of university centers, embassies, and  
diasporic communities. But NC is run by mostly youngish people, from  
otaku to graduate students to who knows who else. They had the  
gumption to go out and do some serious fundraising; the list of  
sponsors in the back of the catalog compares in numbers and logos to  
international film festivals. And because it's run by fans, the  
implicit definition of "Japanese culture" is wonderfully  
heterogeneous, deeply inflected with popular culture objects, and  
plain fun. There's a whole room (always crowded) with the latest  
video games. There were tea ceremonies. Sushi at the opening. The  
festival goods table was selling a crazy assortment of trinkets from  
daily life in Japan. Great.

This variety informed the spirit of the film selection, another thing  
I found really great. There were forehead-slappers like Ashura, fun  
melodramas like Train Man and Always---Sunset on Third Street,  
comedies like Unversity of Laughs, auteurish festival favorites like  
Loft and Cycling Chronicle--Landscapes the Boy Saw, pink films like  
The Strange Saga of Hiroshi the Freeloading Sex Machine, and digital  
shorts ranging through every mode and genre of moving image media you  
can imagine. I really can't think of another event that has this kind  
of encyclopedic approach, and pitched at such an impressive scale (150 
+ films!). And most people would be jealous of the turnouts they  
produced; forget getting into the main theater if you didn't have a  
ticket----film after film.

There were also a big slate of filmmaker-oriented fora, starting with  
a series of discussions between filmmakers and critics/historians  
like Tom Mes, Luk Van Haute, and Jasper Sharp. These were about what  
you would expect----Sato Hisayasu talking about Ranpo and cinema,  
Toyoda about life. Wakamatsu Koji was around for a retrospective of  
some of his pink films at the Film Museum (and Cycling Chronicle).  
Roland gave extended introductions and was interloper for the Q &  
A's. I was only able to go to half of Kabe no naka no himegoto. It  
was a rather strange experience because it was dubbed in German and  
they replaced the sex scenes with Tokyo landscapes----kinda took the  
fun out of it all, not knowing German and all. I heard that the  
discussions went very well, that according to both German audience  
members and Wakamatsu himself.

Wakamatsu also appeared on a panel with Sato, Tajiri Yuji and  
myself----Roland moderating and doing a bang-up job of it. I guess I  
was the token historian and gave my schtick on the foreign reception  
of the films since they were made, especially in the US. It was the  
choice of filmmakers that was fascinating. It reminded me very much  
of a panel at Yamagata some years back with Iizuka Toshio, Kanai  
Katsu, Ise Shin'ichi and Kawase Naomi. What came out in both of these  
panels was the generational difference vis a vis the politics of  
representation. The NC panel make-up made it even more interesting.  
As you can imagine, Wakamatsu came on strong and made looking  
political look so easy. He talked about how he films from a place of  
anger; one of the most striking proclamations was something like,  
"When filmmaking, if you're not political you're not human."  Then  
there was Sato Hisayasu, who is driven to think politically but is of  
the post-Zenkyoto generation. Because of this, he had trouble  
articulating his politics; they were outward-thinking, a concern  
about the world, but it was as if there was no steady ground from  
which to think about the world and his place (and his art's place) in  
relation to it. Ironically, he was quite articulate about his  
inability to articulate. Then came the young Tajiri, who looked like  
a deer in headlights (from a Hummer driven by Wakamatsu Koji). Tajiri  
didn't care about politics and was wondering what he was doing there.  
Roland tried to draw him out, but Tajiri basically took a wishy-washy  
humanist position: if we could only hold hands and love each other,  
everything would be lovely. Actually, Hiroshi the Sex Machine is one  
of the few pink films I've seen with a sense of female subjectivity  
(unbridled, of course, but still), so Tajiri was an interesting  
choice. But like most young directors, he's hobbled by a definition  
of "the political" that's wholly identified with the movements of the  
late 1960s and early 1970s. This panel was one of the most  
interesting I've seen in years for the sense it gave for generational  
difference over issues like politics, sexuality, and aesthetics.

On the other end of the spectrum was the speech by Arai Haruhiko,  
screenwriter and editor of Eiga Geijutsu. Arai deserves brownie  
points for attempting the speech in English, but many batsu's for  
giggling onstage like a junior high-school student at an English  
speech contest. This language issue is a little more complex, though,  
and the event revealed a lot about film culture in Japan. Hirai  
decided to make this his opportunity to critique the discrimination  
suffered by screenwriters. This was a great move, especially  
considering that all the other events (as described above) were  
director-centric. He took the organizers of the Ozu centenary  
symposium for not deigning to mention Noda Kogo's name. He gave some  
examples of the sorry place of the screenwriter from his own career,  
and then launched into a critique of auteur theory. This is where it  
really went downhill. It quickly became evident that the only thing  
Hirai knew about auteur theory came from Yamada Koichi's introduction  
of "A Certain Tendency in the French Cinema." Obviously, he hasn't  
read a thing about authorship in cinema since then. It was like  
experiencing a theory frozen in time---like a bug in amber, as Bazin  
might have put it. This is where the language issue made itself felt.  
Hirai's speech in painfully broken English (if he hadn't handed out  
the text we wouldn't have understood much) was symptomatic of  
Japanese filmmakers and critics' inability to use English, German,  
French or whatever. No one can read any of the voluminous discourse  
on authorship from the last 45 years; no one can talk to their  
colleagues unless they speak Japanese. So an idea gets injected into  
the Japanese film world by someone like Yamada and then circulates in  
its own time warp. That this is the editor of one of the most  
impressive film journals of the postwar era was pretty depressing.

Hirai topped it off with an offensive metaphor, worth mentioning  
since NC was partially devoted to the politics of sex and cinema. He  
noted the new movie made by the director's guild in Japan. Here's the  
quote: "The prologue of thi smovie is set in Samurai days, where the  
main characters are a Ronin...named Kantoku Emon, which refers to a  
director, and Oiran---a high quality prostitute---named Kakuhon  
Daiyu, which refers to a screenplay writer. They lived in a tenement  
house called Copyright 29. Their landlord tried to take their baby  
because it had been born on his property.  I believe this type of  
characterzation, with the director as a man and father, the  
screenwriter as a woman and mother, portrays that the movie belongs  
to the director. However, another screenplay writer named Chiho  
Katsura comments that 'the father of a move is not the director. The  
person that wrote the screenplay is the father. The screenplay is the  
sperm. The director is the mother who raises the sperm during  
shooting on location or in a studio and then carries the baby that  
was created by the two of them.' I believe this is absolutely  
correct." Again, the editor of Eiga Geijutsu.

'nuf said. I hate to end on a sour, sexist note like that, but I must  
go. Nippon Connection was fantastic, clearly one of the most  
important events for Japanese film in the world. I can't wait to go  
again!

Markus









On May 9, 2006, at 3:19 AM, Alex Zahlten wrote:

>
> Since Jasper and Stefan said some kind word about Nippon Connection  
> (many
> thanks), I thought I'd give a short resumee from the organizational  
> point
> of view-
>
> NC showed about 150 films (including shorts) in three sections,  
> Cinema (22
> 35mm films), Digital and Retro (this years retrospective focused on
> "subversive" genre film, and was shown at the German Film Museum).
> Audience attendance was good, and though the first sunny weather in  
> months
> provided a slow start the final count was the same as last year,  
> just over
> 16.000.
>
> Over 40 guests from Japan attended to introduce their films, among  
> them
> Koji Wakamatsu (with his newest film Cycling Chronicles as well as two
> more films that were shown in the retrospective), Toshiaki Toyoda,
> Hisayasu Sato, Yuji Tajiri, Haruhiko Arai, Kunihiko Tomioka of  
> Planet, the
> Animation Soup collective, Yuki Tanada, Noriko Shibutani and many  
> more.
> The festival attempted to increase interaction between audience and
> filmmakers, and to the usual lectures, Q&A's and Podium Discussions  
> added
> some late night interview events, headed by Luk Van Haute and Midnight
> Eye's Tom Mes, Jasper Sharp respectively. Haruhiko Arai held a  
> lecture on
> the (low) status of the scriptwriter, and the podium discussion was on
> "Sex and Politics in Japanese Film", with Wakamatsu, Sato, Tajiri  
> and Mark
> Nornes participating and Roland Domenig heading the discussion.  
> Happily,
> these events were all well visited and were recieved quite well (at  
> least
> that was my impression).
>
> The audience award (and 2000 Euro) went to an absent Mamoru Hoshi for
> University of Laughs, so Takashi Nishimura of Unijapan took the  
> prize in
> exchange.
>
> The Nippon Connection On Tour program is currently touring through  
> Europe
> (the Barcelona screenings have just ended).
>
> Anyone interested in the exact program can check out the (English)  
> website
> at
> www.nipponconnection.de
>
> And for anyone thinking about attending next year: All the  
> screenings have
> English subtitles, and the discussions and lectures have English
> translation.
>
> My deepest gratitude to all the members of the list that attended and
> participated in Nippon Connection 2006. Especially the lectures,
> discussions and interview events could not have been pulled off  
> without
> your participation.
> Due to being involved in the logistics of the festival, I couldn't  
> attend
> all of events, and could sometimes only partially attend. I would be
> interested in opinions about some of those discussions/lectures by  
> those
> present- also of course comments on the structure of the program etc..
> Also, a film festival focusing on a "national" cinema is somewhat
> problematic in itself, and it being a festival for Japanese film  
> brings
> some specific issues into play- I feel there is always an  
> interaction of
> images (i.e. stereotypes) and quite varied ideas that creates a pretty
> volatile tension. I would be very interested in what some of those  
> that
> attended thought.
>
> Nippon Connection 2007 will be held from the 18th-22nd of April.
>
> Best,
>
> Alex Zahlten
>
>
>
> -- 
> alex at nipponconnection.de
>
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