DIJ Forum: Keiko McDonald on Eldercare in Film

[Jonathan M. Hall]

                                    H-JAPAN
                                  June 1, 2007
From: Marga Dinkel <dinkel at dijtokyo.org>

In its series of public lectures, the German Institute for Japanese  
Studies will present on

*Thursday, 21 June 2007, 18.30 h

Keiko McDonald
Professor, University of Pittsburgh

The Agony of Eldercare:
Two Japanese Women Directors Study an Age-Old Problem*


Alzheimer's Disease and senile dementia have become household words  
East and West in recent years. Cinema's close ties with contemporary  
life should make it the ideal venue for depicting this social  
phenomenon. In Japan, two women directors in particular responded to  
the problem of an aging population with thought-provoking studies of  
the problems of eldercare and dementia, Haneda Sumiko (b. 1929) and  
Matsui Hisako (b. 1946).

Haneda's The World of the Senile (1984) and Matsui's Oriume (2002)  
stand out as the most dynamic explorations to date of old age in  
crisis. Both skillfully conjoin the pity and the horror of the  
victim's plight with the equally troubling and complex consequences  
for the family.

Questions to be addressed in this lecture include: What is the  
salient feature of each director's treatment? How does each resolve  
the ageless moral issue of filial obligation (giri) in conflict with  
personal inclination (ninjo-)? How do you account for each director's  
mode of representation? And how does she generate the desired  
audience response?

Keiko McDonald is Professor of Japanese Cinema and Literature at the  
University of Pittsburgh. Her publications include Cinema East: A  
Critical Study of Major Japanese Films (1983), Mizoguchi (1984),  
Japanese Classical Theatre in Film (1994), From Book to Screen:  
Modern Japanese Literature in Films (1999) and Reading a Japanese  
Film: Cinema in Context (2006).

The lecture will be given in English. It will take place on  
*Thursday, 21 June 2007 at 6.30 p.m. at the DIJ. Admission is free.  
Space is limited, so please register with Ms. Dinkel at the DIJ.*

Deutsches Institut f$B|(Br Japanstudien
Jochi Kioizaka Bld. 2F, 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0094
Tel: 03 - 3222 5198, Fax: 03 - 3222 5420, e-mail: dinkel at dijtokyo.org

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