Izutsu vs. Ishihara

[Aaron Gerow]

I am only gleaning this from sports papers like the Daily Sports, but 
it looks like there's a little battle brewing in the movie world in 
Japan over depicting WWII. Izutsu Kazuyuki, whose new film Pacchigi! 
Love and Peace will be opening next month (I have not seen it), 
apparently included a "movie-within-the-movie" scene which reminds one 
of the recent films glorifying WWII in Japan, and then in PR events 
specifically criticized Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku 
(roughly translated: I Will Especially Die for You), a film about 
kamikaze fighters penned and produced by right-wing Tokyo governor 
Ishihara Shintaro (who recently got re-elected), for beautifying war. 
Kubozuka Yosuke, the lead actor in Go who has gotten a bit of notoriety 
for his right-wing views, then criticized Izutsu for panning a film he 
had not seen, adding that "a bird cannot fly without right and left 
wings."

It would be nice if this could develop into a real discussion about how 
to depict the war, but I doubt it.

Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu