Li Ying interview

[starsweeper Cathy]

Re: Where is Yasukuni's 'documentary voice'?

Markus, that's a very complicated question.  The film has no voice-over
narration but it does uses title-cards (a la silent films) to fill in
historical information.  One feels the filmmakers presence in the scenes
with the swordsman and in his visit to the home of a man whose father was a
conscripted pacifist Bhuddist priest who was conscripted (he wants his
father 's ashes removed from Yasukuni) - we hear the filmmaker asking
questions and giving suggestions from off-camera.

I have the impression (during the film & it was confirmed by the Japan Times
interview) that Li Ying is also the one holding the hand-held camera
following the action of events taking place at the shrine, so you do get the
impression of seeing things from his POV quite a bit.  Although it is not
hammered home by narration (like it would in a Michael Moore film), it's a
bit more like Ishikawa's Tokyo Olympiad in giving us the impression that we
are watching 'real' event, but then the framing choices, especially in the
non-spontaneous scenes, are so deliberate that I became aware of Li Ying
trying to show us certain relationships between people and space (ie the
space of the Shrine as place of worship, place of tourism, and place of
protest).  I would have to watch it again (with English subtitles - German
and Japanese together was a bit of sensory overload for me) to really make
my mind up about Li Ying's partiality or lack thereof.

My instinctive response is that he gives us a feeling of impartiality, that
we are watching a series of events and hearing the points of view of a wide
range of people, but we are meant to side more with those who want to change
Yasukuni.  The the pro-Yasukuni contingent come off as either extremely old
(there are some sweet elderly moderates), or in positions of political power
(Mayor of Tokyo, Koizumi), or crazy and prone to violence.

The most interesting things in terms of interpretation of the director's
voice is the ending.  The film ends with a prolonged montage of historical
footage related to the shrine (mostly at the shrine, or war-related/
political incidents).  The interpretation of this sequence requires
historical knowledge to a certain extent.  It begins with aerial footage of
the shrine with an operatic score accompanying it.  There is a lot of
archival footage of Hirohito, beginning with him as a young man all the way
up to showing him as an old man.  I was starting to feel as if  the montage,
combined with the music seemed to be romanticizing the shrine and Japanese
militarism too much, but then the director throws in images of Japanese
war-time brutality - a couple of which the audience would recognize from
earlier in the film.  It's an odd little montage, and I would have to watch
it again a couple of times to really interpret it. (Much of the footage was
clearly labeled with the NFC logo)

As you can probably tell, I am still mulling over the film.  The framing
device of the story of the swordsmith adds a lot of nuance to the film.  The
film starts with him and keeps going back to him.  He is at first reluctant
to say anything, but as he gets used to the camera and the director's
insistent prodding he starts to talk more and more about his thoughts about
the war and about Yasukuni.  It reminded me of my German grandparents'
reluctance to talk about the war, and how in recent years my grandmother has
become more willing to talk about what happened to her family during those
dreadful times.

I hope this helps answer your question a bit.

Best Wishes,
Cathy Munroe Hotes
http://nishikataeiga.blogspot.com/

On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 9:00 PM, Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu> wrote:

> John Junkerman, one of the best documentary filmmakers in Japan,
> interviews the director of *Yasukuni.*
>
> http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2712
>
> It would be interesting to hear from those who have seen this, or are
> seeing it at Nippon Connection. I'm very curious what sort of ideological
> stance is built into the film itself. The defensive rhetoric around the film
> is that it looks at a multitude of positions vis a vis the shrine, but this
> sounds a bit like journalism's "balance" canard. Where exactly is the film
> coming from (bracketing the intentions expressed in this interview). Where
> is it's "documentary voice?"
>
> Markus
>
>
>
> A. M. Nornes
> Professor
> Department of Screen Arts & Cultures
> Department of Asian Languages & Cultures
> University of Michigan
> Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
> Suite 6111, 202 South Thayer Street
> Ann Arbor, MI  48104-1608
> Phone:  (734) 647-2094; FAX: x0157
> Homepage: www.umich.edu/~amnornes <http://www.umich.edu/%7Eamnornes>
>
>
>
>
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