more TIFF

[Stephanie DeBoer]

************
Has somebody something to say about
Nakae's" Bloody snake under the sun"? I couldn't watch it and Im
curious to hear some critic's opinion.
Best Regards, hoping to have
more luck at TOKYO FILM EX.

Cecilia Collaoni
************

Hi all. I was able to see “Bloody Snake Under the Sun” at the TIFF this past week.  What I was particularly interested in was the production context.  The film is set in Okinawa, but it was co-produced and largely shot in Thailand.  Interesting things to think about in terms of location there.  And I found a few things that the director, as well as producer, said at the Q & A afterwards to be interesting in this regard.  That one motivation behind the production of the film was to depict the kinds of “scars” that are often hidden beneath entertainment culture.  And that, for them, while this story was specific to Okinawa, its issues and problems are not necessarily unique to it, but rather shared by locations across the globe.  

The film itself was set in 1970s Okinawa.  And though occasionally uneven, worked hard to portray the conflicts of identity (mainly masculine identity) that construct the place and people who live there – Okinawa vs. Japan vs. America.  Some really beautiful, even poetic visual moments in it as well, working to support the violence and difficulties that these men/Okinawa faced in relation to all these interests.  Definitely worth a watch.  It was still looking for distributors, and if I’m remembering correctly, it will be shown at Tokyo’s Eurospace next summer.

…But back to the question of co-productions – and on to my own question for the list.  I’ve spent most of my time at the TIFF in the “Winds of Asia/Middle East” screenings.  It is it my imagination, or does the regional line-up show any bias toward films co-produced with Japanese capital or staff?  On the one hand, this could simply reflect the state of production these days, with producers in Japan (always) increasingly interested in the potential of (here, especially Chinese) film production in the region.  But I’m interested to hear if anyone on the list has noticed a similar trend in previous TIFF’s.  Or has any insight/thoughts on this. 

Many thanks.

Stephanie DeBoer




----- Original Message -----
From: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Date: Thursday, October 25, 2007 9:10 pm
Subject: KINEJAPAN digest 2241
To: To leave <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>

> 
>                            KINEJAPAN Digest 2241
> 
> Topics covered in this issue include:
> 
>  1) Re: more TIFF
> 	by <rwdavisjr at ca.rr.com>
>  2) Re: Richie on Gerow
> 	by Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
>  3) Re: Richie on Gerow
> 	by Michael Kerpan <mekerpan at verizon.net>
>  4) Tokyo Filmex note
> 	by Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu>
>  5) RE: eisenstein & montage in prole cinema
> 	by "Michael Raine" <mjraine at uchicago.edu>
>  6) R: Re: more TIFF
> 	by "cecilia.collaoni3 at tin.it" <cecilia.collaoni3 at tin.it>
>  7) TIFF highlights
> 	by batgirl at tkb.att.ne.jp
>