Ikui Eiko's "Letters from Iwo Jima: Japanese Perspectives"

[Rob Smith]

I'm pretty sure she wrote it in English originally, as it was co-plotted
with Paul Haggis (and Clint to an extent) and he (they) had to be able to
read it before any actors were hired.

Here is a copy of the English script, if anyone else is interested:
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Letters_From_Iwo_Jima_2006.pdf

On 5/17/07, Howard Katz <howardk at fatdog.com> wrote:
>
>  Hi all,
> I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks. This seems like a good time
> to leap in and say hello. I spent five years in Japan in the early 70's and
> am just now, after a 30-year hiatus, getting back into the language and
> culture again. I'm having a great time using the fabulous resources
> available on the web to resurrect old language skills.
>
> I have a question. I enjoyed Letters from Iwo Jima and would love to see
> the screenplay. I have found several suppliers on the web, but it's not
> clear whether the screenplays they're selling are in English or Japanese. I
> had heard that Iris Yamashita wrote the original script in English and then
> had it translated. Does anybody know which language the commercially
> available screenplay is in? (I don't have much interest in an English
> version.)
>
> Thanks,
> Howard
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu [mailto:
> owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] *On Behalf Of *Mark Nornes
> *Sent:* May 14, 2007 7:59 AM
> *To:* KineJapan
> *Subject:* Ikui Eiko's "Letters from Iwo Jima: Japanese Perspectives"
>
>  Aaron has translated Ikui-san's revision of an Asahi Shinbun article for
> Japan Forum. Here are a couple nuggets:
>
>
> What is intriguing is that a hero like Saigo is exceptional less in
> Japanese history than in the history of Japanese film. It is well known that
> not all Japanese during the war were fascists and that it was not rare for
> common soldiers at the front to privately express discontent like Saigo. But
> the depiction of low-ranking grunts complaining in Japanese film up until
> now has been significantly different. One basically did not see a soldier
> who clearly looks as weak and as insignificant as Saigo baring his
> grievances so openly and incessantly in films by Japan's major studios (the
> producers' casting of the idol singer Ninomiya Kazuya in this role was
> astute). That's why, as the narrative progresses, Saigo gradually approaches
> the image of the common man one occasionally sees in American cinema. Yet
> the great majority of Japanese spectators were not conscious of this.
>
> Viewed from this perspective, one realizes that the peculiar praise of
> Letters as "a movie a Japanese should have made" bore a simple meaning for
> most Japanese viewers that was not at all unnatural. To put it a different
> way, it suggests how much the manners of American cinema have become close
> and familiar to today's Japanese audiences. In most cases, the history that
> cinema depicts belongs not to the past but to the present, and in an
> interesting fashion Letters foregrounds "which present" contemporary
> Japanese viewers are living in.
>
> ...
>
> In Flags of Our Fathers, there is not a single high-ranking officer or
> politician worthy of respect, while in Letters from Iwo Jima, the most
> esteemed figure is the enemy who dies. It is for this reason that this
> combination of films bears a great political significance in American
> society that is not found in Japan.
>
> Find out what it is by directing your browser to:
>
> http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2417
>
> Markus
>
>
>


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