new "youth film'?

[Michael Kerpan]

I think the sort of sadness (or potential of sadness) 
one finds in Take Care of My Cat actually underlies
_most_ of the gentle youth films I can think of. 
Sometimes, the sadness is simply a background element
-- as in "Tennen kokekko / Gentle Breeze" where we in
the audience know the local school is sure to be
mothballed (probably sooner, rather than later) -- and
can see that our heroine clearly is bothered by this
prospect. In "Linda x 3", the bass player anticipates
the future nostalgia of the group (in one of her few
utterances).  "Ganbatte ikimasshoi" also acknowledges
the little community formed to be a fleeting one.

I can't think of any other similar Korean films --
except Jeong's second film (the Aggressives) -- which
deals with young men who are skating fanatics and is
(consequently) not quite as gentle.  LEE Yoon-ki's
wonderful "Ad Lib Night" depicts an ad hoc community
that comes together for a limited purpose and brief
time (from one late afternoon to early the next
morning).  It has some similarities in tone to the
Japanese works at issue, but isn't precisely the same.


MEK

--- David Desser <desser at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> Thanks to all who have replied so far.  Very
> interesting and helpful!
> 
> I think Aaron has added to what I had in mind with
> the notion of a kind of
> youth collective.  That is why I hadn't included the
> youth films of Iwai --
> though he is certainly an auteur of youth -- gentle
> (April Story, Love
> Letter) and not-so-gentle (All About Lily
> Chou-chou).  And Aaron is also
> right to think that I imagine this as a kind of
> generic film "cycle" since,
> of course, children's films and youth films date
> back quite a ways in
> Japanese film history - Shimizu Hiroshi made quite a
> few and a number of
> films of Ozu also come to mind.  And the Naruse film
> mentioned by Michael
> Kerpan sounds intriguing. 
> 
> I also appreciate Rob Smith's idea that the genre is
> not confined to Japan,
> as in the Taiwanese films he mentioned.  Youth films
> of a certain kind
> predominate in the cinemas of Yang, Hou and Tsai,
> but hardly are in the
> "gentle" category I have in mind, so it's good to
> know there are more recent
> films that seem to fit the notion I'm developing.
> 
> As for Take Care of My Cat:  wonderful film, but not
> quite in the category
> I'm thinking of.  This is a bit more bittersweet
> than sweet, about the
> (inevitable) breakup of what once was a kind of
> collective.  I also can't
> think of other Korean youth films that work quite
> the same way as the
> Japanese films I started out with.
> 
> David
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> [mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On
> Behalf Of Aaron Gerow
> Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 8:53 PM
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Re: new "youth film'?
> 
> As with any genre or film cycle, there is the
> problem of definition.  
> David cites films that I consider quite similar
> narratively: they  
> featured not just gentle youth, but youth getting
> together in a  
> collective to succeed at some unusual task in an
> atmosphere that is  
> rather light, comedic, and positive. In this more
> exclusive  
> definition, many of the films mentioned by others
> would not fit.  
> Sekachu and other melodramatic works seem to me to
> have different  
> world views. But some, like Nana would probably
> work. It definitely  
> overlaps with some sports narratives like Touch or
> Ganbatte ikimassho.
> 
> Yaguchi seemed to be making this a cottage industry,
> but note that  
> Suo did it much earlier with Shiko funjatta. It also
> doesn't quite  
> work as an auteurist trait, given that Yaguchi's
> first two features  
> are a bit more satirical if not cynical, and don't
> really feature  
> collectives.
> 
> Note also that Waterboys was turned into a TV drama
> as well. And  
> there are manga like Nodame no kantabire that could
> fit in this  
> phenomenon as well.
> 
> David posits the interesting hypothesis that some
> youth films could  
> be considered as working as alternatives to more
> horrific tales of  
> youth. Perhaps in that formula, the definition based
> on narrative  
> structure that I propose above is not necessary, but
> I do feel that  
> if we accept this hypothesis, we should consider
> that different kinds  
> of youth films offer different alternatives.
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
>