the eerie silence on KineJapan is maddening!
ReelDrew at aol.com
ReelDrew at aol.com
Thu Mar 17 23:26:02 EDT 2011
I have been a member of KineJapan for the last ten years. I joined
originally out of a need to obtain translations of the intertitles of Japanese
silents on VHS in my collection. I am very grateful to those members on
KineJapan who aided me and made it possible for me to, among other things, write
an article on Hiroshi Shimizu that is published on Midnight Eye.
Since then, I have regularly received almost daily the messages that have
been posted here. In all honesty, a large number--perhaps the majority, in
fact--have been of limited interest to me inasmuch as they tend to deal with
contemporary Japanese films. Consistent with my enthusiasm for films in
other countries, including my own, produced in earlier decades, it is my
interest in the Japanese cinema of the past, especially the films of the 1920s
and 1930s, that has been of consuming interest to me. Nevertheless, from
time to time issues involving those golden years do come up here.
However, whether or not the topic has been of particular interest to me, I
have always valued the fact that KineJapan has always been there, an
extremely valuable resource to be consulted when needed. Never before since I've
been here did this group shut down. Certainly, it was very active right
through the events of 9/11 as were other film discussion groups in which I
participated.
Since the tragic events that began a week ago, though, this place has
suddenly turned into a ghost town. Aside from a very limited amount of posts
specifically on the topic of the tsunami, there has been absolutely nothing
here. No one has even bothered to post how things are going on in Tokyo,
while all sorts of wild, apocalyptic rumors circulate unchecked in the US that
Tokyo is about to become irradiated, that it may be doomed. I believe a few
welcome posts here from knowledgeable people in the Japanese capital might
help to clarify the situation and perhaps alleviate some of these fears.
I have had a consuming obsession with early Japanese cinema for the last 36
years. In trying to interest people in the West in this topic and to
recognize the value of Japanese films from those years, I have long had to
confront an enormous amount of indifference and insensitivity to these
achievements by too many in America and elsewhere in the outside world. It has taken
so long to bring attention to these films here. Indeed, it was only this
January that the premier venue for classic cinema in the United States,
Turner Classic Movies, after being on the air for 17 years, finally presented
three Japanese silents--Ozu's famous masterpieces, "Tokyo Chorus," "I Was
Born, But. . .," and "Passing Fancy." So it is only very recently that this
neglected period of Japanese film is just starting to receive some
recognition here.
Given this obession of mine, I would very much like to know how the
archives and other collections of Japanese cinema are coping with the current
crisis in Tokyo. Are they able to function normally in their work of
preservation considering the power blackouts etc.? If there really should be an
evacuation of the capital, has there been discussion of removing films and other
cultural treasures from Tokyo to Kyoto, a much safer city and which I
personally feel should be restored to the position of Japan's capital?
As to whether now is the proper time to discuss the preservation of culture
in view of the terrible loss of life and the continuing threat, I believe
that, far from being at odds or incompatible, the preservation of human
life and humanity's cultural heritage are inseparable. The heroic people of
Egypt have shown all of us the way recently in this area. During a time of
turmoil in which a corrupt, discredited dictatorship was attempting to hang
on to power by employing ruthless methods against the protestors,
demonstrators courageously appeared to form human chains around the Library in
Alexandria and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to protect these treasures of our
history. I would hope that, should it ever become necessary, a similar sense
of cultural responsibility will be demonstrated in other countries,
including Japan. The heritage of Japan, including its film history, is the common
property not just of one country but indeed, the legacy of all the people of
the earth.
In all those non-Western countries that the West chose to lump together as
"Oriental," for much of the 20th century the four most significant in terms
of creating outstanding cinemas in the first half of the last century were
Japan, China, India, and Egypt. This preeminence in the new art of film
was emblematic of these nations' continuing cultural leadership in the modern
world. In terms of documenting and preserving the national film heritage,
however, Egypt under the Mubarak regime was scandalous. The Egyptian film
archive was by far the worst run in the entire world, mismanaged by members
of Mubarak's family. So neglected was the state of the archive that it was
a common sight to see rats crawling out of cans of film in the vaults. The
situation with the Egyptian archive was thus symptomatic of the larger ills
afflicting the society under the corrupt regime that ruled Egypt for
thirty years. Needless to say, with the present rebirth of Egypt through
revolution there is a far greater hope that the glories of Egyptian cinema from
its bright beginnings in the silent era to the achievements of later decades
will be at last properly preserved.
While the infrastructure of Japan including its archives can hardly compare
to its counterparts in Egypt in the Mubarak years, there has nevertheless
been a steady decline in Japan in the two decades since the economic bubble
burst in the early 1990s. Egypt is now trying to recover from a social
disaster, Japan from a natural one exacerbated, it seems, by a variant of the
same corruption and cronyism that long afflicted Egypt. I think Japan, like
Egypt, will need to transform itself anew, but as with Egypt, that
transformation must be solidly based on the preservation and dissemination of
past achievements including a glorious legacy of early cinema. Consequently,
in addition to my general concern at the eerie silence that has suddenly
taken over KineJapan, as though all its members have been struck dumb, I would
in particular like to know how the film archives and other institutions
consecrated to cinema history in Japan are faring during the present crisis.
William M. Drew
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20110317/f79a9f4c/attachment.html
More information about the KineJapan
mailing list