Li Ying interview

[Eija Niskanen]

Li Ying was interviewed briefly for the NHK morning news a couple of
days back, and he said he did not mean to make a political statement
with his film, but to use Yasukuni as something that brings together
multiple political, historical and cultural meanings.

Eija

On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 7:20 AM, starsweeper Cathy
<nishikataeiga at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>