new "youth film'?

[Michael Kerpan]

I should have thought of "Ganbatte ikimasshoi"!

It is hard to draw boundaries.  "Who's Camus Anyway?"
comes close in a number of respects to "Linda x3", and
yet has a very different feel for much of the film --
at least until Ai Maeda moves to center stage and
tries to pull things spinning out of control back
together.

And then you have Naoko Ogigami.  While her haiku club
film (as yet unseen) sounds like it could fit neatly
into the "gentle youth" class -- her "Seagull Cafe"
and "Megane" are also very much the same sort of film,
albeit featuring women rather than girls (or _young_
women).

Turning to animated series, there is "Azumangah
Daioh", which might a bit more comic than the average,
but otherwise fits nicely.  And there is "Haibane
Renmei", which uses the same core motif of a group of
girls working together, and is generally quite gentle
in tone (but has some darker elements lurking).

I wonder if Nodame Cantabile fits fully into this type
(though it certainly overlaps) as it is more focused
on a couple often working at cross purposes, than a
group working amiably together. More in the tradition
of shoujo romances like Boys Over Flowers. Yoko
Kamio's follow-up manga, Cat Street (as introverted as
BOF was extroverted), comes very close to the "gentle
youth" category, however.

I'really would like to credit Naruse's "Haru no
mezame" with being an influence/inspiration  -- as it
really does seem like a prototype. (It is much more
"minimalist" and gentler than Imai's slightly later,
"busier" "Blue Mountains"). But, as far as I can tell,
this seems to have languished unseen from the time it
ended its initial release in 1947-8 -- until it was
broadcast on TV (and shown once or twice as part of
the comprehensive Naruse retrospective in Tokyo). 
There is nothing I could find that suggests it was
ever included in any earlier (smaller) retrospectives.

MEK

--- Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu> wrote:

> 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.
> 
> 
> Aaron Gerow
> Director of Undergraduate Studies, Film Studies
> Program
> Assistant Professor
> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and
> Literatures
> Yale University
> 53 Wall Street, Room 316
> PO Box 208363
> New Haven, CT 06520-8363
> USA
> Phone: 1-203-432-7082
> Fax: 1-203-432-6764
> e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
> site: www.aarongerow.com
> 
> 
>