Hikikomori

Rob Smith robixsmash
Fri Mar 23 22:38:59 EDT 2007


Speaking of Iwai, it's also suggested in Hana and Alice that Hana used to be
withdrawn as well (when Fu tells the story of The Flower House. It's either
Hana or a bad translation on the Korean DVD).

On 3/23/07, Jonathan M. Hall <jmhall at uci.edu> wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
> Anne's commentary here captures tremendously well the critical work of a
> very necessary film.  I'd suggest starting with Tsuchiya's work, too.  If
> one looks more broadly at the phenomenon of youth isolation and its relation
> to technology, I think popular films such as Iwai Shunji's ALL ABOUT LILY
> CHOU-CHOU and Kurosawa Kiyoshi's PULSE also become relevant.
> Jonathan
>
>
> -----
>
> Jonathan M. Hall
>
> Japanese Film, Media, and Modern Literature
>
> Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature / Film & Media Studies
>
>
> 320 Humanities Instructional Building
>
> UC Irvine, Irvine CA 92697-2651 USA
>
> office: 1-949-824-9778
>
> fax: 1-949-824-1992
>
>
> Co-Chair, Queer Caucus, Society for Cinema and Media Studies
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 23, 2007, at 5:38 PM, anne mcknight wrote:
>
> Tsuchiya Y?taku's film/video _Peep "TV" Show_ has an interesting
> hikikomori character.
>
> The character is featured in one of the film's "cin?ma verit?"
> sequences, when the character, a college age-ish boy, directly faces
> the camera and speaks, a bit emotionally, in defense of himself,
> responding to what he sees as unfair typing by pop sociology writers
> and academics. These are writers who typically see hikikomori as a
> kind of sad-sack failure to engage with reality in more conventional,
> less mediated ways. This character is skeptical of the glee with which
> the term is often applied, and treats it quite clinically himself.
>
> While the advocates of "sociologising" are not named in the film, the
> very judgemental tone and their quick typing of hikikomori as a
> "social problem" resonate with writers such as sociologist Miyadai
> Shinji, who has many publications speaking and diagnosing the
> unconscious of hikikomori. Other such sequences in _P"TV"S_ include a
> female sex worker of a similar age, who also speaks her mind in the
> face of sociologising stereotype, and a salaryman who is about to
> explode out of anger at the sentimental rituals devoted to nationalist
> war memory as August 15 approaches, in the film.
>
> I think the three are linked because each snaps at a certain point,
> and has an outburst directed, in cin?ma verit? form. The roles that
> antagonise them are different--the boy who "doesn't want to grow up,"
> the girl who "sells her body" yet makes more money as a "health
> worker" than in a respectable job, the salaryman who "takes things too
> seriously."
>
> I use all these scare quotes just to indicate how critical the film
> is, in general, of social typing, and how the mysteries of social
> types fuel media hysteria about various crises in the film--from 9/11
> and its relation to Tokyo, to the crisis of boys who stay in their
> rooms.
>
> Amazon now carries the film, so you can get your hands on it pretty
> easily.
>
> Anne
>
> On 23/03/07, Rob Smith <robixsmash at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I apologize if this has been brought up before I joined the list, but I
> was
> wondering if anyone could offer a list of Japanese films about hikikomori
> (that have English subtitles, of course), whether as the main plot or as a
> subplot.
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> -rob
> http://www.robixsmash.com/
>
>
>
>


-- 
-rob
http://www.robixsmash.com/
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