From Charles.Inouye at tufts.edu Tue Dec 31 21:29:56 2013 From: Charles.Inouye at tufts.edu (Inouye, Charles Shiro) Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2014 02:29:56 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Endowed Chair in Film Studies In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear All, Here is a job listing for a newly created, richly endowed chair in film and media studies at Tufts University. http://careers.insidehighered.com/tufts-university/sol-gittleman-professorship-film-and-media-studies/jobs/534289 Needless to say, we?re looking for someone really good. Area is unspecified?could be Japan, or anywhere?but interests beyond American film are necessary. This would be a good job for an established scholar who has ambitions to do something original. Susan Napier, Lee Edelman, Laurence Senelick, and I are on the search committee. Respectfully, Charles Inouye _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Tue Dec 31 07:38:33 2013 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2013 12:38:33 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Festival reports of benshi Message-ID: <1388493513.30217.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Dear KineJapaners, Looking at the recent?festival reports at ?Senses of Cinema??, I read Daniel Fairfax?s report from Pordenone, as I was only there for two days this year, going on to cover Yamagata.? In the penultimate paragraph, Fairfax reports on ?the emotional climax of the festival?, a benshi performance by Ichiro Kataoka.? Needless to say,?I was very sad to miss it. Fairfax duly records that the performance was in untranslated Japanese but enthuses rapturously, ?guided as I was by the benshi?s mellifluous vocal intonations. In the end, I could only weep for this lost art,?. For me, that calls up the point that a major driver of demand for benshi in Japan was to translate foreign language into an understandable language.? There have been a number of benshi performances outside Japan in recent years but, with the honourable exception of a performance at the Barbican by Tomoko Komura, in London, these seem to have been in Japanese.? Clearly, there are Japanese-speakers abroad who could appreciate a Japanese benshi performance just as they might, say, appreciate a performance of rakugo.? But at Pordenone, the Japanese-speaking audience would have been, I think, singular.? So the rest of them were assuredly appreciating art but were they really hearing the art that was lost? There?s no definitive answer to this, of course, but I would be interested to hear some other opinions or reports.? I think it?s worth, at the minimum, keeping in focus? the target-language function of benshi performance.? This need not prevent a benshi performance being appreciated as art.? The Barbican performance was sold out ?and a repeat was scheduled.? This run into problems with the rights for the Matsuda material that was being used, and had to be cancelled. Incidentally, there?s my own report from Yamagata in the same issue, although this only glances at Japanese film through Hara-san.? I?d be interested in hearing of other reports from there, also. Roger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From jimharper666 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Dec 28 07:11:08 2013 From: jimharper666 at yahoo.co.uk (Jim Harper) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2013 12:11:08 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Nakata Documetary In-Reply-To: <5719F1F4-C92E-49D6-97DC-C67960D1C326@lit.nagoya-u.ac.jp> Message-ID: <1388232668.93074.YahooMailBasic@web173102.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Hello! I hope you all had a pleasant holiday. I worked through most of it, which actually made it one of my better Christmasses ;) Anyway, I was wondering whether Hideo Nakata's recent Fukushima documentary, Life After 3/11, has been released in many territories yet, and whether anyone here has seen it? Jim. NOW AVAILABLE: Flowers From Hell: The Modern Japanese Horror Film, by Jim Harper (Noir Publishing). "Fascinating overview of the Japanese horror boom... Comprehensive, in-depth and slickly presented."- DVD Monthly. Available from Noir Publishing, Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones and all good bookstores. -------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi Fri Dec 27 01:42:17 2013 From: eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi (Eija Niskanen) Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2013 08:42:17 +0200 Subject: [KineJapan] AU REVOIR L'ETE sneak preview at FCCJ Message-ID: The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Yurakucho is screening the new film by Fukada Koji ("Hospitali?"), which premiered at TIFF and has been winning awards in Europe, on Thursday, January 9. Since FCCJ is a private club, you must reserve a seat through Karen Severns: kjs30 at gol.com. *SNEAK PREVIEW SCREENING* Followed by a Q&A session with director Koji Fukada, producer-actor Kiki Sugino and star Fumi Nikaido *THURSDAY, JANUARY 9 at 6:45 pm** *Please note early start time. *AU REVOIR L'ETE (Hotori no Sakuko)* Japan, 2013 125 min. In Japanese with English subtitles Three years after their blackly humorous "Hospitalit?" scooped up awards and wowed international audiences, director Koji Fukada and producer Kiki Sugino return with a charming homage to the French New Wave starring the sensational Fumi Nikaido ("Himizu," "Why Don't You Play in Hell?") as a young girl from the city who's spending August in the country. The film has just won the Grand Prix for Best Film at the Nantes Film Festival in France, and the Best Director Award for Fukada at the Tallinn Black Nights Festival. For more info, see: http://www.fccj.or.jp/events-calendar/film-screenings/icalrepeat.detail/2014/01/09/602/33/sneak-preview-screening-au-revoir-l-ete-hotori-no-sakuko.html?filter_reset=1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From jasper_sharp at hotmail.com Thu Dec 26 06:21:58 2013 From: jasper_sharp at hotmail.com (Jasper Sharp) Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2013 11:21:58 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Pink director Mamoru Watana be RIP (1931-2013) Message-ID: Some very sad news just came in that the pink director Mamoru Watanabe has passed away. Watanabe was the last surviving member of the pioneering generation of pinku eiga filmmakers that also included Koji Wakamatsu, Satoru Kobayashi, Kan Mukai and Kinya Ogawa. Born 19 March 1931, Watanabe made his debut with the no-longer-extant Hussy (Abazure) in 1965, and his best known work in the West is probably Slave Widow (Dorei mib?jin, 1967), which Synapse Films released on DVD in the US about 5 years ago ? I think this actually might be his only film which has received a legit DVD release outside of Japan, and it?s also notable for containing an early appearance by Naomi Tani. Watanabe worked with Naomi Tani a number of times, and the image of her that appears on the cover of Behind the Pink Curtain is in fact from his 1977 vehicle for her, Naomi Tani: Tied Up! (Tani Naomi: shibaru!) My own personal recollections of him was interviewing him for my book in Starbucks in Yotsuya, probably around 2004. He said it was the first time he?d ever been interviewed by a foreign film critic. I met him again some 5 years later when Nippon Connection in Frankfurt played his last film as a director, Bed Partner (2009) and a newly subtitled copy of his Secret Hot Spring Resort: Starfish at Night (Maruhi yu no machi: yoru no hitode, 1970), a wonderful comic homage to the silent age focusing on a group of pornographers who make and screen 8mm blue films in a onsen tourist town. It was one of his best films, alongside Women Hell Song: Shakuhachi Benten (Onna jigoku uta: shakuhachi benten), made the same year, a sort of sexy Lady Snowblood variant. I remember Watanabe saying it was the very first time he?d been to a foreign film festival, and he found the whole experience of presenting his films to a new generation of filmgoers who had no knowledge or preconceptions of what a pink film was totally energizing. I was very touched that he singled out both Alex Zahlten and me for gratitude, for helping to introduce his work outside of Japan. I later programmed Secret Hot Spring Resort as part of the pink retrospective I put together for Fantasia in Montreal. I know a documentary on his work has recently been produced, which Japanese readers can find out more about if they follow this link: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/inazuma2006/20121215/p1 Personally he was one of my favourite pink directors from its first few decades. His films were made with a style quite in excess of genre requirements, paralleling Noboru Tanaka?s work in the 1970s for Nikkatsu. It would be wonderful if more people both in and outside of Japan could see them. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/inazuma2006/20121215/p1 The Creeping Garden - A Real-Life Science-Fiction Story about Slime Moulds and the People Who Work With them. Currently in production, directed by Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp. The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema (2011) is out now from Scarecrow Press Midnight Eye - Visions of Japanese cinema http://www.midnighteye.com Jasper Sharp, writer & film curatorhttp://jaspersharp.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Wed Dec 25 04:24:04 2013 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2013 09:24:04 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Oshima book In-Reply-To: References: <1387930582.86342.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1387963444.32151.YahooMailNeo@web171405.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Thanks, Fred, for that. If I search on Amazon.com, I get the one, but it doesn't appear on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.co.jp.? But one 'invisible hand' is all we need. By the way, the other San Sebastian book, this year, Animatopia, mentions some Japanese films, but I wouldn't put it in the same league as the Oshima book. Happy Christmas, Roger From: Frederick Veith >To: Roger Macy ; Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum >Sent: Wednesday, 25 December 2013, 0:55 >Subject: [KineJapan] Oshima book > >Roger, > > >There are several marketplace sellers offering this on US?Amazon for around $35, plus $3.99 shipping (to the US). They seem to be shipping from Spain or the UK, so they may be cross-listing on other Amazon sites as well.? > > >Fred.? >On Tuesday, December 24, 2013, Roger Macy wrote: >Dear KineJapaners, >>I see that the bilingual book on Oshima, published in connection with the retrospective at San Sebastian, and edited by Quim Casas and Ana Cristina Iriarte, is now available from their online store. >>http://tienda.sansebastianfestival.com/ >>However,although the book, bilingual and well illustrated, is only 25 euros, it?turns out that delivery charges range from 6 euros?within Spain, to 75 euros?outside of Europe.? If I had known that I would have taken a large case of them back on?a train.? Their publications office is closed for the holidays, but if I hear anything practical, I'll let interested people know. >> >>Below are my notes on the content made nearer the time of the festival, in case it helps anyone.? The filmography is inclusive of a wide range of media. >>Roger >>? >>Nagisa Oshima >>Edici?n biling?e castellano / ingl?s >>CASAS, Quim >>IRIARTE, Ana Cristina, coordinators >>Donostia Zinemaldia - Festival de San Sebasti?n, 2013 >>Preface KOYAMA Akiko p13 Viewing ?shima through their marriage. >>Nagisa Oshima THOMAS, Jeremy 17 Viewing ?shima as one of his producers. >>Rebelliousness as a lifestyle SANTAMARINA, Antonio 23 A survey of a transgressive career by the director of Dor? Cinema (Spanish Film Archive) >>Killing the father, Nagisa Oshima and tradition in Japanese cinema S?NCHEZ, Sergi 43 A parallel survey to the above by the Barcelona professor and film critic. Focus on Nihon no yoru to kiri and Gishiki. >>Oshima?s 1960 DESSER, David 53 A lucid take on how ?shima crafted his films of this period (Desser doesn?t use the word ?craft?) >>First, the revolution KOVACSICS, Violeta 67 Places ?shima in a wide range of western film-referenced writing, in relation to the body, and spaces; also mentioning Wakamatsu. >>The phase of the Shochiku Ofuna studios SAT? Tadao >>as SATO, Tadao 77 Another biographical survey but of a limited period.? Has translator?s notes, presumably of the uncredited Daniel Aguilar.? Makes the specific claim that Nihon no yoru to kiri was made to influence an election in the post-Anpo period. >>The collective movement called Nagisa Oshima GO Hirasawa 85 Starts? I doubt if anyone will challenge me if I say that Nagisa Oshima is the most important Japanese filmmaker since the Second World War.? Banish your doubts >>Oshima?s Aesthetic Treatises on Eroticism and Violence TURIM, Maureen 101 Extensive essay on said subject focussing on Ai no korida, Ai no borei, Taiyo no hakaba, Muri shinku: Nihon no natsu, Etsuraku, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Gishiki. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From pslarson2 at gmail.com Tue Dec 24 22:35:06 2013 From: pslarson2 at gmail.com (Peter Larson) Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2013 22:35:06 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow" Retrospective @ New York and Berlin In-Reply-To: <1387931541.50611.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> References: <1387931541.50611.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: And Himatsuri (in 35mm) is playing on the 24th at the Japan Society as a part of a Donald Richie tribute series... http://www.japansociety.org/event/himatsuri-3 On Tue, Dec 24, 2013 at 7:32 PM, Roger Macy wrote: > Dear KineJapaners, > I see that part 1 of *The Aesthetics of Shadow, Part 1: Japan* is up the > MoMA website and, contrary to my guess, is largely *before* KinemaClub > XIII on January 7th to 19th. > http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1449 > It dooesn't seem that you can book tickets more than a week before the > screening which, even though that's a week more than at Tokyo NFC, is > tricky for booking flights ahead. > > It's also tricky for KineClub - papers > on Fri 17th and Sat 18th but there was talk of screening(s). Yes, I know > we'll always have Berlin ... > Roger > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Daisuke Miyao" > To: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" < > kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu> > Sent: Friday, November 08, 2013 6:11 PM > Subject: Re: [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow" Retrospective @ Berlin > International Film Festival > > > Dear all, > > > > Thank you very much for your interests in the retrospective. Answering > > Alex's question, here is the tentative list of films (not only > > Japanese). In addition to Berlin International Film Festival, I am > > collaborating with MoMA of New York, and they will have its own "The > > Aesthetics of Shadow" series in January. More information to come.... > > > > Best, > > Daisuke > > > > A) LIGHTING STYLES FOR GENRES: > > 1) Street films: ?City as protagonist? > > JUJIRO (Crossways/Im Schatten des Yoshiwara), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1928 > > (silent, engl. subt.) > > SONO YO NO TSUMA (That Night?s Wife), Yasujiro Ozu, 1930 (silent, engl. > > subt.) > > NINJO KAMIFUSEN (Humanity and Paper Balloon), Yamanaka Sadao, 1937 > > (engl. subt.) > > SUNRISE, F.W. Murnau, 1927 (silent) > > QUAI DES BRUMES, Marcel Carn?, F 1938 (Eugen Sch?fftan) > > UNTER DER LATERNE, Gerhard Lamprecht, G 1926 (silent, digital > > restoration, Deutsche Kinemathek) > > DIRNENTRAG?DIE, Bruno Rahn, 1927 (Guido Seeber) or > > MINATO NO NIHON MUSUME (Japanese Girls at the Harbor), Hiroshi Shimizu, > > 1933 > > > > 2) jidaigeki: ?Flash of the sword? > > YUKINOJO HENGE (An Actor?s Revenge), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1935/1952 > > (engl. subt.) > > THE MARK OF ZORRO, Fred Niblo, 1920 (silent) > > RASHOMON, Akira Kurosawa, 1950 > > THE IRON MASK, Allan Dwan, 1929 (silent)or > > SCARAMOUCHE, Rex Ingram, 1924 (silent) > > > > 3) ?War films? > > GONIN NO SEKKOHEI (Five Scouts), Tomotaka Tasaka, 1938 (live subt. > > engl.) > > HAWAI MARE OKI KAISEN (The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya), Kajiro > > Yamamoto, 1944 (live subt. engl.) > > DAWN PATROL, Howard Hawks, 1930 > > AIR FORCE, Howard Hawks, 1943 > > > > B) LIGHTING STYLES FOR STARS: > > Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Kazuo Hasegawa/Hayashi Chojiro, Sessue > > Hayakawa etc. > > 4) Lighting styles for stars > > TSURUHACHI TSURUJIRO (Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro), Mikio Naruse, 1938 > > (engl. subt.) > > THE TYPHOON, Reginald Barker, (withHenry Kotani), 1914 (silent) > > THE CHEAT, Cecil B. DeMille, 1915 (silent) > > SHANGHAI EXPRESS, Josef von Sternberg, 1932 (Lee Garmes) and/or > > FLESH AND THE DEVIL, Clarence Brown, 1926 (William Daniels) and/or > > > > C) THEMES: > > 5) Light and Rhythm > > KURUTTA IPPEJI (A Page of Madness), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926 (silent, > > engl. subt.) > > OSHIDORI UTAGASSEN (Singing Lovebirds), Makino Masahiro, 1939 (engl. > > subt.) > > BERLIN. DIE SINFONIE DER GRO?STADT (Berlin. Symphony of a Great City), > > Walther Ruttmann, 1927 > > 1 Short film program: > > OPUS I-IV, Walther Ruttmann, 1921-25 > > Lichtspiel Schwarz Weiss Grau, L?szl? Moholy-Nagy, 1930 > > Grossstadtzigeuner, L?szl? Moholy-Nagy, 1932 > > > > 6) Painting with shadows > > UGETSU (Tales of the Rain and Moon), Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953 (engl. > > subt.) > > FAUST, F.W. Murnau, 1926 (silent) > > LA BELLE ET LA BETE, Jean Cocteau, F 1945 (Henri Alekan) > > STAGECOACH, John Ford, 1939 (Bert Glennon) > > and possibly F?HRMANN MARIA, Frank Wysbar, G 1936 > > > > 7) Towards Realism (6 films) > > DOCKS OF NEW YORK, Josef von Sternberg, 1926 (engl. subt.) > > NASAKE NO HIKARI (Light of Compassion), Henri Kotani, 1926 (silent, > > engl. live subt.) > > TOKYO NO EIYU (A Hero of Tokyo), Hiroshi Shimizu, 1935 (engl. subt.) > > THE GRAPES OF WRATH, John Ford, 1940 > > CITIZEN KANE, Orson Welles, 1941 > > NAKED CITY Jules Dassin, 1948 (restoration LoC) or > > BERLIN EXPRESS, Jacques Tourneur, 1948 (restoration LoC) > > > > Additional title: > > Benjamin Christensen: H?VNENS NAT or HEMMELIGHEDSFULDE X (or less known > > title ? Thomas Christensen) (silent) > > > > > > > > On 2013/11/08 06:52, Alex Zahlten wrote: > >> This looks amazing, Daisuke. In the press release no specific films > >> seem to be mentioned- are you allowed to give us an idea of which > >> Japanese films will be playing there? > >> > >> Best > >> > >> Alex > >> > >> GESENDET: Donnerstag, 07. November 2013 um 22:50 Uhr > >> VON: "Daisuke Miyao" > >> AN: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" > >> > >> BETREFF: [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow" Retrospective @ > >> Berlin International Film Festival > >> Dear All, > >> > >> I would like to let you know that my book, The Aesthetics of Shadow: > >> Lighting and Japanese Cinema (Duke University Press, 2013), is > >> invited > >> to the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. There will be a > >> retrospective based on the book and beyond. Here is the link to the > >> festival website. > >> > >> > >> > http://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/alle/Alle-Detail_19796.html > >> [1] > >> > >> I am going to introduce some films. If you are in Berlin in February, > >> see you there! > >> > >> Best, > >> Daisuke > >> > >> Daisuke Miyao > >> Associate Professor of Japanese Film and Cinema Studies > >> University of Oregon > > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From notreconciled at gmail.com Tue Dec 24 19:55:17 2013 From: notreconciled at gmail.com (Frederick Veith) Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:55:17 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Oshima book In-Reply-To: References: <1387930582.86342.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Roger, There are several marketplace sellers offering this on US Amazon for around $35, plus $3.99 shipping (to the US). They seem to be shipping from Spain or the UK, so they may be cross-listing on other Amazon sites as well. Fred. On Tuesday, December 24, 2013, Roger Macy wrote: > Dear KineJapaners, > I see that the bilingual book on Oshima, published in connection with the > retrospective at San Sebastian, and edited by Quim Casas and Ana Cristina > Iriarte, is now available from their online store. > http://tienda.sansebastianfestival.com/ > However,although the book, bilingual and well illustrated, is only 25 > euros, it turns out that delivery charges range from 6 euros within Spain, > to 75 euros outside of Europe. If I had known that I would have taken a > large case of them back on a train. Their publications office is closed > for the holidays, but if I hear anything practical, I'll let interested > people know. > > Below are my notes on the content made nearer the time of the festival, in > case it helps anyone. The filmography is inclusive of a wide range of > media. > Roger > > Nagisa Oshima > Edici?n biling?e castellano / ingl?s > CASAS, Quim > IRIARTE, Ana Cristina, coordinators > Donostia Zinemaldia - Festival de San Sebasti?n, 2013 > Preface > KOYAMA Akiko > p13 > Viewing ?shima through their marriage. > Nagisa Oshima > THOMAS, Jeremy > 17 > Viewing ?shima as one of his producers. > Rebelliousness as a lifestyle > SANTAMARINA, Antonio > 23 > A survey of a transgressive career by the director of Dor? Cinema > (Spanish Film Archive) > Killing the father, Nagisa Oshima and tradition in Japanese cinema > S?NCHEZ, Sergi > 43 > A parallel survey to the above by the Barcelona professor and film > critic. Focus on *Nihon no yoru to kiri* and *Gishiki*. > Oshima?s 1960 > DESSER, David > 53 > A lucid take on how ?shima crafted his films of this period (Desser doesn?t > use the word ?craft?) > First, the revolution > KOVACSICS, Violeta > 67 > Places ?shima in a wide range of western film-referenced writing, in > relation to the body, and spaces; also mentioning Wakamatsu. > The phase of the Shochiku Ofuna studios > SAT? Tadao > as SATO, Tadao > 77 > Another biographical survey but of a limited period. Has translator?s > notes, presumably of the uncredited Daniel Aguilar. Makes the specific > claim that *Nihon no yoru to kiri* was made to influence an election in > the post-Anpo period. > The collective movement called Nagisa Oshima > GO Hirasawa > 85 > Starts? I doubt if anyone will challenge me if I say that Nagisa Oshimais the most important Japanese filmmaker since the Second World War.? > Banish your doubts > Oshima?s Aesthetic Treatises on Eroticism and Violence > TURIM, Maureen > 101 > Extensive essay on said subject focussing on *Ai no korida*, *Ai no > borei*, *Taiyo no hakaba*, *Muri shinku:* *Nihon no natsu*, *Etsuraku*, *Merry > Christmas, Mr. Lawrence* and *Gishiki*. > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From matteo.boscarol at gmail.com Tue Dec 24 19:47:18 2013 From: matteo.boscarol at gmail.com (matteo.boscarol at gmail.com) Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2013 09:47:18 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Oshima book In-Reply-To: <1387930582.86342.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> References: <1387930582.86342.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: on ?shima, Adachi, fukeir?n, actualities, Matsumoto Toshio and much much more, there's this marvellous volume from Furuhata Yuriko (includes lots of original translations from criticism and theory of the 60s and 70s): https://www.dukeupress.edu/Cinema-of-Actuality/ mb ????? ???? ??????????? > On 2013/12/25, at 9:16, Roger Macy wrote: > > Dear KineJapaners, > I see that the bilingual book on Oshima, published in connection with the retrospective at San Sebastian, and edited by Quim Casas and Ana Cristina Iriarte, is now available from their online store. > http://tienda.sansebastianfestival.com/ > However,although the book, bilingual and well illustrated, is only 25 euros, it turns out that delivery charges range from 6 euros within Spain, to 75 euros outside of Europe. If I had known that I would have taken a large case of them back on a train. Their publications office is closed for the holidays, but if I hear anything practical, I'll let interested people know. > > Below are my notes on the content made nearer the time of the festival, in case it helps anyone. The filmography is inclusive of a wide range of media. > Roger > > Nagisa Oshima > Edici?n biling?e castellano / ingl?s > CASAS, Quim > IRIARTE, Ana Cristina, coordinators > Donostia Zinemaldia - Festival de San Sebasti?n, 2013 > Preface > KOYAMA Akiko > p13 > Viewing ?shima through their marriage. > Nagisa Oshima > THOMAS, Jeremy > 17 > Viewing ?shima as one of his producers. > Rebelliousness as a lifestyle > SANTAMARINA, Antonio > 23 > A survey of a transgressive career by the director of Dor? Cinema (Spanish Film Archive) > Killing the father, Nagisa Oshima and tradition in Japanese cinema > S?NCHEZ, Sergi > 43 > A parallel survey to the above by the Barcelona professor and film critic. Focus on Nihon no yoru to kiri and Gishiki. > Oshima?s 1960 > DESSER, David > 53 > A lucid take on how ?shima crafted his films of this period (Desser doesn?t use the word ?craft?) > First, the revolution > KOVACSICS, Violeta > 67 > Places ?shima in a wide range of western film-referenced writing, in relation to the body, and spaces; also mentioning Wakamatsu. > The phase of the Shochiku Ofuna studios > SAT? Tadao > as SATO, Tadao > 77 > Another biographical survey but of a limited period. Has translator?s notes, presumably of the uncredited Daniel Aguilar. Makes the specific claim that Nihon no yoru to kiri was made to influence an election in the post-Anpo period. > The collective movement called Nagisa Oshima > GO Hirasawa > 85 > Starts? I doubt if anyone will challenge me if I say that Nagisa Oshima is the most important Japanese filmmaker since the Second World War.? Banish your doubts > Oshima?s Aesthetic Treatises on Eroticism and Violence > TURIM, Maureen > 101 > Extensive essay on said subject focussing on Ai no korida, Ai no borei, Taiyo no hakaba, Muri shinku: Nihon no natsu, Etsuraku, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Gishiki. > The body politic and the theatres of the flesh in Oshima?s films > PAREDES BADIA, Israel > 123 > The feature films of ?shima, the ?good Marxist?. > Eros and Civilization: Shohei Imamura?s Akai satsui and Nagisa Oshima?s Hakuchu no torima > QUANDT, James > 133 > A detailed and instructive comparison of the two films. > ?They speak of the height of the Revolution: who will establish that height?? Nagisa Oshima, Masao Adachi and the revolutionary dimension of the cinema > BRENEZ, Nicole > 145 > Extensive quotes of Adachi on ?shima, through the French. Examines 100 Years of Japanese Cinema. > In the mountains of cruelty: Shiku (The Catch) > LATORRE, Jos? Mari? > 157 > see title > Beheaded images, Ninja bugei-cho > PINTOR IRANZO, Ivan > 165 > see title > The documentary that devours its offspring. Oshima and the redefinition of Japanese non-fictional cinema > MAGUIRO, Carlos > 173 > Particularly valuable [to me] for its descriptions of unseen documentary films, including Wasurareta kogun, Daitoa sens?, Guam to 28 nen no nazo o on as well as Yunbogi no nikki. > Broken scenarios . Traces of the theatre in Oshima?s cinema > ESTRADA, Javier H. > 185 > ?Oshima conceives the institutional structure and the masses as actors in an extremely conservative theatre called Japan. > Oshima?s texts. Cinema, censorship and the State. Dissolution and eruption: selection > CASA, Quim > 193 > With an introduction on sources. > Notes on the critical fate of Nagisa Oshima > MONTERDE, Jos? Enrique > 205 > That is, the European critical fate. Ends, ?Then, after a long absence and a number of failed projects, Gohatto/Taboo, 1999) [sic] went almost unnoticed; apparently Nagisa Oshima?s time had passed, a symbol, after all, of modernist radicality and ?new cinema?.? > Post history: Tokyo senso sengo hiwa (The Man Who Left His Will on Film) > FUJIWARA, Chris > 213 > See title. > The obscenity of censorship. An immoral trial > AGUILAR, Daniel > 227 > > The empires of invisible happiness > BOU, N?ria > P?REZ, Xavier > 241 > Ai no korida > Oshima, the 70s and the apocalypse > LOSILLA, Carlos > 255 > Starts: ?This text is dated November 1998 and it was never published. However it is not by chance that it starts and ends with Ai no korida.? > Forbidden Loves, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and Max, mon amour > RIAMBAU, Esteve > 267 > See title. > Honour and desire > CASASA, Quim > 279 > Gohatto. > Filmography > Feature Films > Short Films > Assistant Director > Scripts for Films not directed by Oshima > Actor > Television > Documentaries > Scripts for documentaries > Fiction films > Scripts > IRIARTE, Ana Cristina > 288 > 288 > 312 > 313 > 315 > 316 > 317 > 317 > 327 > 328 > 330 > > Selected Bibliography > POTES, Alicia > 337 > Includes, from p 341, a ?Cr?ticas y an?lisis de pel?culas? which would have been better translated as ?Critiques of individual films? rather than ?Film critique?. > ?The Authors? > > 349 > > Index > > 361 > > > 2013/9/26 Dear Quim Casas, > ? I am particularly interested if all the contributions to the book - apart from your extracts of Oshima's writings - are original for the book. Also I would like to know about the translations. > 2013/9/26 Yes, all the texts were originally written for the book, except: > Fujiwara text is a new version of one published on a website. The James Quandt wrote some time ago but was unpublished. > The texts of Japanese authors have been translated from Japanese to Spanish by Daniel Aguilar, also the book contributor. Turim, Desser, Fujiwara, Quandt and Jeremy Thomas have written their texts in English and Brenez in french. > > best! > quim > http://tienda.sansebastianfestival.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > Kinemaclub mailing list > Kinemaclub at mailman.yale.edu > http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinemaclub > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Tue Dec 24 19:32:21 2013 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2013 00:32:21 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow" Retrospective @ New York and Berlin Message-ID: <1387931541.50611.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Dear KineJapaners, I see that part 1 of?The Aesthetics of Shadow, Part 1: Japan is up the MoMA website and, contrary to my guess, is largely before KinemaClub XIII on January?7th to 19th.http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1449 It dooesn't seem that you can book tickets more than a week before the screening which, even though that's a week more than at?Tokyo NFC, is tricky for booking flights ahead. It's also tricky for KineClub - papers Roger > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Daisuke Miyao" >To: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" >Sent: Friday, November 08, 2013 6:11 PM >Subject: Re: [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow" Retrospective @ Berlin International Film Festival > >> Dear all, >> >> Thank you very much for your interests in the retrospective.? Answering >> Alex's question, here is the tentative list of films (not only >> Japanese).? In addition to Berlin International Film Festival, I am >> collaborating with MoMA of New York, and they will have its own "The >> Aesthetics of Shadow" series in January.? More information to come.... >> >> Best, >> Daisuke >> >> A) LIGHTING STYLES FOR GENRES: >> 1) Street films: ?City as protagonist? >> JUJIRO (Crossways/Im Schatten des Yoshiwara), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1928 >> (silent, engl. subt.) >> SONO YO NO TSUMA (That Night?s Wife), Yasujiro Ozu, 1930 (silent, engl. >> subt.) >> NINJO KAMIFUSEN (Humanity and Paper Balloon), Yamanaka Sadao, 1937 >> (engl. subt.) >> SUNRISE, F.W. Murnau, 1927 (silent) >> QUAI DES BRUMES, Marcel Carn?, F 1938 (Eugen Sch?fftan) >> UNTER DER LATERNE, Gerhard Lamprecht, G 1926 (silent, digital >> restoration, Deutsche Kinemathek) >> DIRNENTRAG?DIE, Bruno Rahn, 1927 (Guido Seeber) or >> MINATO NO NIHON MUSUME (Japanese Girls at the Harbor), Hiroshi Shimizu, >> 1933 >> >> 2) jidaigeki: ?Flash of the sword? >> YUKINOJO HENGE (An Actor?s Revenge), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1935/1952 >> (engl. subt.) >> THE MARK OF ZORRO, Fred Niblo, 1920 (silent) >> RASHOMON, Akira Kurosawa, 1950 >> THE IRON MASK, Allan Dwan, 1929 (silent)or >> SCARAMOUCHE, Rex Ingram, 1924 (silent) >> >> 3) ?War films? >> GONIN NO SEKKOHEI (Five Scouts), Tomotaka Tasaka, 1938 (live subt. >> engl.) >> HAWAI MARE OKI KAISEN (The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya), Kajiro >> Yamamoto, 1944 (live subt. engl.) >> DAWN PATROL, Howard Hawks, 1930 >> AIR FORCE, Howard Hawks, 1943 >> >> B) LIGHTING STYLES FOR STARS: >> Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Kazuo Hasegawa/Hayashi Chojiro, Sessue >> Hayakawa etc. >> 4) Lighting styles for stars >> TSURUHACHI TSURUJIRO (Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro), Mikio Naruse, 1938 >> (engl. subt.) >> THE TYPHOON, Reginald Barker, (withHenry Kotani), 1914 (silent) >> THE CHEAT, Cecil B. DeMille, 1915 (silent) >> SHANGHAI EXPRESS, Josef von Sternberg, 1932 (Lee Garmes) and/or >> FLESH AND THE DEVIL, Clarence Brown, 1926 (William Daniels) and/or >> >> C) THEMES: >> 5) Light and Rhythm >> KURUTTA IPPEJI (A Page of Madness), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926 (silent, >> engl. subt.) >> OSHIDORI UTAGASSEN (Singing Lovebirds), Makino Masahiro, 1939 (engl. >> subt.) >> BERLIN. DIE SINFONIE DER GRO?STADT (Berlin. Symphony of a Great City), >> Walther Ruttmann, 1927 >> 1 Short film program: >> OPUS I-IV, Walther Ruttmann, 1921-25 >> Lichtspiel Schwarz Weiss Grau, L?szl? Moholy-Nagy, 1930 >> Grossstadtzigeuner, L?szl? Moholy-Nagy, 1932 >> >> 6) Painting with shadows >> UGETSU (Tales of the Rain and Moon), Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953 (engl. >> subt.) >> FAUST, F.W. Murnau, 1926 (silent) >> LA BELLE ET LA BETE, Jean Cocteau, F 1945 (Henri Alekan) >> STAGECOACH, John Ford, 1939 (Bert Glennon) >> and possibly F?HRMANN MARIA, Frank Wysbar, G 1936 >> >> 7) Towards Realism (6 films) >> DOCKS OF NEW YORK, Josef von Sternberg, 1926 (engl. subt.) >> NASAKE NO HIKARI (Light of Compassion), Henri Kotani, 1926 (silent, >> engl. live subt.) >> TOKYO NO EIYU (A Hero of Tokyo), Hiroshi Shimizu, 1935 (engl. subt.) >> THE GRAPES OF WRATH, John Ford, 1940 >> CITIZEN KANE, Orson Welles, 1941 >> NAKED CITY Jules Dassin, 1948 (restoration LoC) or >> BERLIN EXPRESS, Jacques Tourneur, 1948 (restoration LoC) >> >> Additional title: >> Benjamin Christensen: H?VNENS NAT or HEMMELIGHEDSFULDE X (or less known >> title ? Thomas Christensen) (silent) >> >> >> >> On 2013/11/08 06:52, Alex Zahlten wrote: >>> This looks amazing, Daisuke. In the press release no specific films >>> seem to be mentioned- are you allowed to give us an idea of which >>> Japanese films will be playing there? >>> >>> Best >>> >>> Alex >>> >>> GESENDET: Donnerstag, 07. November 2013 um 22:50 Uhr >>>? VON: "Daisuke Miyao" >>>? AN: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" >>> >>>? BETREFF: [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow" Retrospective @ >>> Berlin International Film Festival >>> Dear All, >>> >>>? I would like to let you know that my book, The Aesthetics of Shadow: >>>? Lighting and Japanese Cinema (Duke University Press, 2013), is >>> invited >>>? to the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. There will be a >>>? retrospective based on the book and beyond. Here is the link to the >>>? festival website. >>> >>> >>> http://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/alle/Alle-Detail_19796.html >>> [1] >>> >>>? I am going to introduce some films. If you are in Berlin in February, >>>? see you there! >>> >>>? Best, >>>? Daisuke >>> >>>? Daisuke Miyao >>>? Associate Professor of Japanese Film and Cinema Studies >>>? University of Oregon >on Fri 17th and Sat 18th but there was talk of screening(s).??Yes, I know we'll always have Berlin ... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Tue Dec 24 19:22:12 2013 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2013 00:22:12 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan Message-ID: <1387930932.54262.YahooMailNeo@web171403.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Dear KineJapaners, ? Although not specifically addressing films, the following new book has a two-page filmography : ? Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan, Sharon Kinsella, Nissan Institute / Routledge, 2013 1. Introduction: The Age of the Girl 2. Gathering and Interpreting the Statistical Evidence 3. Compensated Dating as a Salaryman Subculture 4.Kogyaru Chic and Dressing Up as a Delinquent 5. The Surveillance of Financial Deviancy 6. Girls as a Race 7. Ganguro, Yamanba, and Transracial Style 8. Minstrelized Girls 9. SchoolgirlRevolt in Male Cultural Imagination 10. Problems Compensating Women ? Roger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Tue Dec 24 19:16:22 2013 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2013 00:16:22 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Oshima book Message-ID: <1387930582.86342.YahooMailNeo@web171404.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Dear KineJapaners, I see that the bilingual book on Oshima, published in connection with the retrospective at San Sebastian, and edited by Quim Casas and Ana Cristina Iriarte, is now available from their online store. http://tienda.sansebastianfestival.com/ However,although the book, bilingual and well illustrated, is only 25 euros, it?turns out that delivery charges range from 6 euros?within Spain, to 75 euros?outside of Europe.? If I had known that I would have taken a large case of them back on?a train.? Their publications office is closed for the holidays, but if I hear anything practical, I'll let interested people know. Below are my notes on the content made nearer the time of the festival, in case it helps anyone.? The filmography is inclusive of a wide range of media. Roger ? Nagisa Oshima Edici?n biling?e castellano / ingl?s CASAS, Quim IRIARTE, Ana Cristina, coordinators Donostia Zinemaldia - Festival de San Sebasti?n, 2013 Preface KOYAMA Akiko p13 Viewing ?shima through their marriage. Nagisa Oshima THOMAS, Jeremy 17 Viewing ?shima as one of his producers. Rebelliousness as a lifestyle SANTAMARINA, Antonio 23 A survey of a transgressive career by the director of Dor? Cinema (Spanish Film Archive) Killing the father, Nagisa Oshima and tradition in Japanese cinema S?NCHEZ, Sergi 43 A parallel survey to the above by the Barcelona professor and film critic. Focus on Nihon no yoru to kiri and Gishiki. Oshima?s 1960 DESSER, David 53 A lucid take on how ?shima crafted his films of this period (Desser doesn?t use the word ?craft?) First, the revolution KOVACSICS, Violeta 67 Places ?shima in a wide range of western film-referenced writing, in relation to the body, and spaces; also mentioning Wakamatsu. The phase of the Shochiku Ofuna studios SAT? Tadao as SATO, Tadao 77 Another biographical survey but of a limited period.? Has translator?s notes, presumably of the uncredited Daniel Aguilar.? Makes the specific claim that Nihon no yoru to kiri was made to influence an election in the post-Anpo period. The collective movement called Nagisa Oshima GO Hirasawa 85 Starts? I doubt if anyone will challenge me if I say that Nagisa Oshima is the most important Japanese filmmaker since the Second World War.? Banish your doubts Oshima?s Aesthetic Treatises on Eroticism and Violence TURIM, Maureen 101 Extensive essay on said subject focussing on Ai no korida, Ai no borei, Taiyo no hakaba, Muri shinku: Nihon no natsu, Etsuraku, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Gishiki. The body politic and the theatres of the flesh in Oshima?s films PAREDES BADIA, Israel 123 The feature films of ?shima, the ?good Marxist?. Eros and Civilization: Shohei Imamura?s Akai satsui and Nagisa Oshima?s Hakuchu no torima QUANDT, James 133 A detailed and instructive comparison of the two films. ?They speak of the height of the Revolution: who will establish that height?? Nagisa Oshima, Masao Adachi and the revolutionary dimension of the cinema BRENEZ, Nicole 145 Extensive quotes of Adachi on ?shima, through the French.? Examines 100 Years of Japanese Cinema. In the mountains of cruelty: Shiku (The Catch) LATORRE, Jos? Mari? 157 see title Beheaded images, Ninja bugei-cho PINTOR IRANZO, Ivan 165 see title The documentary that devours its offspring. Oshima and the redefinition of Japanese non-fictional cinema MAGUIRO, Carlos 173 Particularly valuable [to me] for its descriptions of? unseen documentary films, including Wasurareta kogun, Daitoa sens?, Guam to 28 nen no nazo o on as well as Yunbogi no nikki. Broken scenarios . Traces of the theatre in Oshima?s cinema ESTRADA, Javier H. 185 ?Oshima conceives the institutional structure and the masses as actors in an extremely conservative theatre called Japan. Oshima?s texts. Cinema, censorship and the State. Dissolution and eruption: selection CASA, Quim 193 With an introduction on sources. Notes on the critical fate of Nagisa Oshima MONTERDE, Jos? Enrique 205 That is, the European critical fate.? Ends, ?Then, after a long absence and a number of failed projects, Gohatto/Taboo, 1999) [sic] went almost unnoticed; apparently Nagisa Oshima?s time had passed, a symbol, after all, of modernist radicality and ?new cinema?.? Post history: Tokyo senso sengo hiwa (The Man Who Left His Will on Film) FUJIWARA, Chris 213 See title. The obscenity of censorship. An immoral trial AGUILAR, Daniel 227 ? The empires of invisible happiness BOU, N?ria P?REZ, Xavier 241 Ai no korida Oshima, the 70s and the apocalypse LOSILLA, Carlos 255 Starts: ?This text is dated November 1998 and it was never published.? However it is not by chance that it starts and ends with Ai no korida.? Forbidden Loves, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and Max, mon amour RIAMBAU, Esteve 267 See title. Honour and desire CASASA, Quim 279 Gohatto. Filmography Feature Films Short Films Assistant Director Scripts for Films not directed by????? Oshima Actor Television Documentaries Scripts for documentaries Fiction films Scripts IRIARTE, Ana Cristina 288 288 312 313 315 316 317 317 327 328 330 ? Selected Bibliography POTES, Alicia 337 Includes, from p 341, a ?Cr?ticas y an?lisis de pel?culas? which would have been better translated as ?Critiques of individual films? rather than ?Film critique?. ?The Authors? ? 349 ? Index ? 361 ? ? 2013/9/26 Dear Quim Casas, ?? I am particularly interested if all the contributions to the book? - apart from your extracts of Oshima's writings - are original for the book.? Also I would like to know about the translations. 2013/9/26 Yes, all the texts were originally written for the book, except: Fujiwara text is a new version of one published on a website. The James Quandt wrote some time ago but was unpublished. The texts of Japanese authors have been translated from Japanese to Spanish by Daniel Aguilar, also the book contributor.?Turim, Desser, Fujiwara, Quandt and Jeremy Thomas have written their texts in English and Brenez in french. ? best! quim http://tienda.sansebastianfestival.com/ ? _______________________________________________ Kinemaclub mailing list Kinemaclub at mailman.yale.edu http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinemaclub -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From asakof at tkd.att.ne.jp Sat Dec 21 11:07:48 2013 From: asakof at tkd.att.ne.jp (fujioka asako) Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2013 01:07:48 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] THE HORSES OF FUKUSHIMA with English subs In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <019701cefe66$cb2482d0$616d8870$@att.ne.jp> A former racehorse caught in the 20-km zone of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Surviving earthquake, tsunami, evacuation, and a flourishing horse meat industry.? Documentary THE HORSES OF FUKUSHIMA will be showing with English subtitles in Tokyo from Dec 25. Once a day (at 1900) with English. 1300, 1500, 1700 without English. At Theater Image Forum. Phone 03-5766-0114 Just won Best Picture in the Asia Africa Documentary competition at Dubai Film Festival. For details on the film, see www.matsurinouma.com For directions to Theater Image Forum: http://www.imageforum.co.jp/map.html Please spread the word. Happy holidays! Asako -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From sridgely at wisc.edu Wed Dec 18 17:21:59 2013 From: sridgely at wisc.edu (Steve Ridgely) Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 16:21:59 -0600 Subject: [KineJapan] Kindle problems-->short topical e-books In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: After the revolution PDF and open source will be a lovely option. In the meantime, however, we should support avenues for translators to get paid, and Amazon direct is paying 70% royalties and keeping the fruits of precarious intellectual labor off the filesharing servers. Time to be a bit more precise with the boycotting, as well as with what we're willing to pay for. Steve Ridgely UW-Madison On Dec 18, 2013, at 12:06 AM, Mark Roberts wrote: > On Dec 18, 2013, at 8:59 AM, JORDAN ANTONY YAMAJI SMITH wrote: > >> FYI, they have Kindle for Mac and Kindle for PC available as a free download. You might want to avoid Kindle for other reasons, of course -- but if not, this is one way around the issue until better cross-platform solutions become available. > > Yes, many other reasons, one of which being that a better cross-platform solution has already been available for years. It's called PDF. It's an industrial-strength solution, supported by literally hundreds of different vendors, scholarly journals and academic publishers. It just doesn't happen to be massively profitable for Amazon ? so they launched a whole new ecosystem in a bid to grab the low end of the market. > > This may seem off topic for KineJapan, but since a lot of academic research will henceforth be conducted using e-books, and since we are hoping for more material on Japanese cinema to become available in e-book form, it is perhaps somewhat relevant. > > I would hope, also, that we are interested in sharing our research more broadly, though I'm not sure how that's going to happen smoothly if people embrace closed systems and don't question monopolistic practices of vendor lock-in. > > On the techno-economic plane, we have entered a historical period of retrogression in which companies like Amazon, Facebook, et alia. are pushing business models that undermine the original goals of the information revolution. The coins of the realm are now platforms and ecosystems, and the new business models involve creating closed or semi-open systems. The people who laid the foundation for the Internet as we know it (Berners-Lee, Cerf, et alia) have spoken out quite sharply against these models, though most netizens remain unaware of what's at stake. > > We see this in the proliferation of e-book formats and stupid little reader apps. Surfing the Internet using tablets or smart phones, we are now constantly enjoined to download these specialized reader apps, each one offering us a little walled garden of content. E.g., "You are trying to read a Boonville Times article ? don't you want to download our special Boonie-Reader app (registration required)?" Instead of using a regular browser and open standards like HTML 5, we are now expected to load up on a bunch of these different apps. Instead of seamlessly interoperating with URIs in one app, we are expected to bounce through a bunch of different crapware, with "don't you want our proprietary thing as your default?" screens. > > Now, you are probably wondering, how is this relevant to research on cinema? > > Just as blogs and social media have morselized the discussion of Japanese cinema that used to take place on this list, these new proprietary systems will have the effect of morselizing our research across various platforms and ecosystems. There are various trade-offs here, but already if we want certain books or research sources (e.g., Schilling on Shiro Kido), we'll have to buy into yet another ecosystem with its creeping vendor lock-in, "new" crappy little reader app, etc. > > Similarly, I have now see Amazon "bookmarks" appearing in my social media stream. These are URLs, but they point to something inside the Amazon silo, sort of like Facebook links that are only really legible for people who already belong to FB. Just as I never bother with FB links because they generally take me to a registration screen (I don't hand over all of my family photos and personal details to creeps like Mark Zuckerberg), I will soon recognize and ignore these Kindle links as well. > > When it comes to research tools, there is a pretty compelling consensus that the way forward is to use open systems as much as possible. E.g., PDF was originally developed at Xerox and then commercialized by Adobe, but with so many different apps and vendors that now support it, it has essentially become an open system. I don't see that the same can be said of Amazon's kit, nor will it have equivalent acceptance for years to come, if ever. > > M. > > >> >> Jordan >> >> >> On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 3:27 PM, Mark Roberts wrote: >> On Dec 17, 2013, at 5:52 AM, anne mcknight wrote: >> >>> Keep your eyes peeled for new releases (you can sign up for the mailing list via news at expandeditions.com), and if there are projects you'd like to see in print, or ones you'd like to do yourself, please get in touch. >> >> Looks great, Anne! >> >> One request: PDF. It's the industry standard, and best for those of us who plan to never buy a Kindle. >> >> M. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> KineJapan mailing list >> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan >> >> >> >> >> -- >> ?????????????????????????? >> Jordan A. Yamaji Smith, Ph.D. >> Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature >> Department of Comparative World Literature & Classics >> California State University, Long Beach >> 1250 Bellflower Blvd. >> Long Beach, CA 90840 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> KineJapan mailing list >> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From mroberts37 at mail-central.com Wed Dec 18 01:06:39 2013 From: mroberts37 at mail-central.com (Mark Roberts) Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 15:06:39 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Kindle problems-->short topical e-books In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Dec 18, 2013, at 8:59 AM, JORDAN ANTONY YAMAJI SMITH wrote: > FYI, they have Kindle for Mac and Kindle for PC available as a free download. You might want to avoid Kindle for other reasons, of course -- but if not, this is one way around the issue until better cross-platform solutions become available. Yes, many other reasons, one of which being that a better cross-platform solution has already been available for years. It's called PDF. It's an industrial-strength solution, supported by literally hundreds of different vendors, scholarly journals and academic publishers. It just doesn't happen to be massively profitable for Amazon ? so they launched a whole new ecosystem in a bid to grab the low end of the market. This may seem off topic for KineJapan, but since a lot of academic research will henceforth be conducted using e-books, and since we are hoping for more material on Japanese cinema to become available in e-book form, it is perhaps somewhat relevant. I would hope, also, that we are interested in sharing our research more broadly, though I'm not sure how that's going to happen smoothly if people embrace closed systems and don't question monopolistic practices of vendor lock-in. On the techno-economic plane, we have entered a historical period of retrogression in which companies like Amazon, Facebook, et alia. are pushing business models that undermine the original goals of the information revolution. The coins of the realm are now platforms and ecosystems, and the new business models involve creating closed or semi-open systems. The people who laid the foundation for the Internet as we know it (Berners-Lee, Cerf, et alia) have spoken out quite sharply against these models, though most netizens remain unaware of what's at stake. We see this in the proliferation of e-book formats and stupid little reader apps. Surfing the Internet using tablets or smart phones, we are now constantly enjoined to download these specialized reader apps, each one offering us a little walled garden of content. E.g., "You are trying to read a Boonville Times article ? don't you want to download our special Boonie-Reader app (registration required)?" Instead of using a regular browser and open standards like HTML 5, we are now expected to load up on a bunch of these different apps. Instead of seamlessly interoperating with URIs in one app, we are expected to bounce through a bunch of different crapware, with "don't you want our proprietary thing as your default?" screens. Now, you are probably wondering, how is this relevant to research on cinema? Just as blogs and social media have morselized the discussion of Japanese cinema that used to take place on this list, these new proprietary systems will have the effect of morselizing our research across various platforms and ecosystems. There are various trade-offs here, but already if we want certain books or research sources (e.g., Schilling on Shiro Kido), we'll have to buy into yet another ecosystem with its creeping vendor lock-in, "new" crappy little reader app, etc. Similarly, I have now see Amazon "bookmarks" appearing in my social media stream. These are URLs, but they point to something inside the Amazon silo, sort of like Facebook links that are only really legible for people who already belong to FB. Just as I never bother with FB links because they generally take me to a registration screen (I don't hand over all of my family photos and personal details to creeps like Mark Zuckerberg), I will soon recognize and ignore these Kindle links as well. When it comes to research tools, there is a pretty compelling consensus that the way forward is to use open systems as much as possible. E.g., PDF was originally developed at Xerox and then commercialized by Adobe, but with so many different apps and vendors that now support it, it has essentially become an open system. I don't see that the same can be said of Amazon's kit, nor will it have equivalent acceptance for years to come, if ever. M. > > Jordan > > > On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 3:27 PM, Mark Roberts wrote: > On Dec 17, 2013, at 5:52 AM, anne mcknight wrote: > >> Keep your eyes peeled for new releases (you can sign up for the mailing list via news at expandeditions.com), and if there are projects you'd like to see in print, or ones you'd like to do yourself, please get in touch. > > Looks great, Anne! > > One request: PDF. It's the industry standard, and best for those of us who plan to never buy a Kindle. > > M. > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > > > > -- > ?????????????????????????? > Jordan A. Yamaji Smith, Ph.D. > Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature > Department of Comparative World Literature & Classics > California State University, Long Beach > 1250 Bellflower Blvd. > Long Beach, CA 90840 > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From oyabaka at ucla.edu Tue Dec 17 18:59:47 2013 From: oyabaka at ucla.edu (JORDAN ANTONY YAMAJI SMITH) Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:59:47 -0800 Subject: [KineJapan] Kindle problems-->short topical e-books Message-ID: FYI, they have Kindle for Mac and Kindle for PC available as a free download. You might want to avoid Kindle for other reasons, of course -- but if not, this is one way around the issue until better cross-platform solutions become available. Jordan On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 3:27 PM, Mark Roberts wrote: > On Dec 17, 2013, at 5:52 AM, anne mcknight wrote: > > Keep your eyes peeled for new releases (you can sign up for the mailing > list via news at expandeditions.com), and if there are projects you'd like > to see in print, or ones you'd like to do yourself, please get in touch. > > > Looks great, Anne! > > One request: PDF. It's the industry standard, and best for those of us who > plan to never buy a Kindle. > > M. > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -- ?????????????????????????? *Jordan A. Yamaji Smith, Ph.D. * Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Department of Comparative World Literature & Classics California State University, Long Beach 1250 Bellflower Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90840 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From mroberts37 at mail-central.com Tue Dec 17 18:42:34 2013 From: mroberts37 at mail-central.com (Mark Roberts) Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 08:42:34 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Kore-eda, Miyazaki, Takahata, etc. oppose State Secrets Act In-Reply-To: <954595E3-34FE-4473-8F9C-209C52B34F5A@otsuma.ac.jp> References: <1323767701.3135197.1386885760910.JavaMail.root@kansaigaidai.ac.jp> <57785572-9BD0-4C52-B267-15C0EC33E0B6@mail-central.com> <6F5624CE8CDF4CA7BAD5F2AB0F476313@asianfilm.info> <954595E3-34FE-4473-8F9C-209C52B34F5A@otsuma.ac.jp> Message-ID: <03C68C63-6CE6-4E25-8033-5C77D412005E@mail-central.com> Addendum: last night, during a Q & A session following the screening of his new film Court of Zeus (Zeus no h?tei), director Takahashi Gen was asked for his opinion of the State Secrets Law passing on December 6th. He said: "To me, December 6th was the day that Japan was finished. Most citizens don't care about this and take no initiative to investigate what it means on their own. Coverage on TV has been limited. Personally, I want to stay out of this country as much as possible, and watch what's going to happen ten years from now on TV." Takahashi was also queried about whether he had encountered any interference while making Court of Zeus, which is highly critical of the Japanese judiciary system. He answered: no. Senba Toshiro, the well-known ex-police official turned whistleblower was also on the panel, and he added that while there would be no direct interference with the production of this type of film, there was no doubt in his mind that all of Takahashi's telephone conversations were monitored, and all activity in his bank accounts had been scanned and recorded. M. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From mroberts37 at mail-central.com Mon Dec 16 18:27:52 2013 From: mroberts37 at mail-central.com (Mark Roberts) Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 08:27:52 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Kindle problems-->short topical e-books In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Dec 17, 2013, at 5:52 AM, anne mcknight wrote: > Keep your eyes peeled for new releases (you can sign up for the mailing list via news at expandeditions.com), and if there are projects you'd like to see in print, or ones you'd like to do yourself, please get in touch. Looks great, Anne! One request: PDF. It's the industry standard, and best for those of us who plan to never buy a Kindle. M. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From annekmcknight at gmail.com Mon Dec 16 15:52:55 2013 From: annekmcknight at gmail.com (anne mcknight) Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 12:52:55 -0800 Subject: [KineJapan] Kindle problems-->short topical e-books In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Speaking of "short topical e-books," I wanted to tell the list about a new small press I started to address those very needs and uses--especially short works that connect cinema to other media and industries. The press is called Expanded Editions (www.expandeditions.com), and the first work is the translation of a 1920s robot (jinz? ningen) story by the celebrated cinema and culture critic Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke. In addition to his more sober prose, it turns out Hirabayashi wrote a lot of rip-roaring melodramas, interesting for their experiments in genre and pulp themes. These stories also represent his forays into practicing what he wrote about as a journalist and critic, and also showcase his role as something of an advocate for women's rights and the narratives that love them. Staring with Hirabayashi's "The Man-made Baby" (????), the first cluster of stories is about robots--and the more open-ended idea of the "artificial human" that travelled along with the bona fide "robot." These words both drifted over from the Czech play to kick off a robot boom around 1928, enabling nearly a century of stories about people, life, machines and the dreamworlds they may build. Some of you will know already--as I am working with you!--but upcoming releases for 2014 include Satoh Makoto's 1960s trilogy of re-purposed Greek myths, three plays transported from the Greek classical era into the heady ANPO-era context of Tokyo art and politics. Other projects include some sh?jo fiction writings and some eco-criticism. Some of these will be in dual print/e-formats, and many things for classrooms can be customized, if you radio in and let us know how to work with your student/classroom needs. About Kindle in specific, I have to say the advantage as a producer is that Kindle is pretty easy to use as an interface. The downside?there are a few, for many reasons/feelings I suspect many of you have, in terms of market and general philosophy. We are working on opening up the options in tune with many ideas about design, access, and getting people paid... Keep your eyes peeled for new releases (you can sign up for the mailing list via news at expandeditions.com), and if there are projects you'd like to see in print, or ones you'd like to do yourself, please get in touch. ~ Anne On Dec 16, 2013, at 11:42 AM, Paul Roquet wrote: > Hi Eija, > > I have a Japanese Kindle and have managed to switch back and forth between the Japanese and US stores in order to purchase content from both. It took a call to customer service to explain the situation (i.e. moving back and forth between countries a lot) and have them link my amazon.com and amazon.co.jp kindle accounts together. Your kindle can only be registered to (and can only purchase from) one country/store at a time, but all you have to do to switch is go into your kindle settings through the website, switch your address to the other country, and agree to change stores. As far as I can tell there is no limit on how many times you can switch back and forth, and everything you order from both accounts is available on the device itself. > > The Japanese kindle store is still pretty spotty but it is improving day by day. I'm hoping for more short-format topical e-books like Marc Schilling's Shiro Kido essay (in the US store) and Shimizu Ryosuke's 'Dare ga ongaku o koroshita ka?' (a critique of the Japanese music industry - adapted from a business periodical - and a minor hit in the Japanese kindle store). I haven't seen anything on film like this hit the Japanese e-book market yet, but it will be interesting to see what emerges - a 'Dare ga eiga o koroshita ka?' would be a good start! > > Paul > > > > > > On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Eija Niskanen wrote: > Sorry for a question slightly aside from pure film discussion. I thought about buying a Kindle, but as Kindle is tied to the Amazon of the country of purchase, how have you solved the problem of buying, say English-language Academic books from Amazon U.S. and Japanese-language books from Amazon Japan? Or would it be worth buying some other reading device, Kobo, Sony, other? > Eija > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From inqualia at gmail.com Mon Dec 16 14:42:53 2013 From: inqualia at gmail.com (Paul Roquet) Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 11:42:53 -0800 Subject: [KineJapan] Kindle problems In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Eija, I have a Japanese Kindle and have managed to switch back and forth between the Japanese and US stores in order to purchase content from both. It took a call to customer service to explain the situation (i.e. moving back and forth between countries a lot) and have them link my amazon.com and amazon.co.jp kindle accounts together. Your kindle can only be registered to (and can only purchase from) one country/store at a time, but all you have to do to switch is go into your kindle settings through the website, switch your address to the other country, and agree to change stores. As far as I can tell there is no limit on how many times you can switch back and forth, and everything you order from both accounts is available on the device itself. The Japanese kindle store is still pretty spotty but it is improving day by day. I'm hoping for more short-format topical e-books like Marc Schilling's Shiro Kido essay (in the US store) and Shimizu Ryosuke's 'Dare ga ongaku o koroshita ka?' (a critique of the Japanese music industry - adapted from a business periodical - and a minor hit in the Japanese kindle store). I haven't seen anything on film like this hit the Japanese e-book market yet, but it will be interesting to see what emerges - a 'Dare ga eiga o koroshita ka?' would be a good start! Paul On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Eija Niskanen wrote: > Sorry for a question slightly aside from pure film discussion. I thought > about buying a Kindle, but as Kindle is tied to the Amazon of the country > of purchase, how have you solved the problem of buying, say > English-language Academic books from Amazon U.S. and Japanese-language > books from Amazon Japan? Or would it be worth buying some other reading > device, Kobo, Sony, other? > Eija > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From pslarson2 at gmail.com Mon Dec 16 14:38:50 2013 From: pslarson2 at gmail.com (Peter Larson) Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 14:38:50 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Kindle problems In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I might take a job in Japan, so this is also of interest to me. Are there any problems with buying kindle books (for use on PC) from Amazon USA in Japan? Or do I have to do one of those odd proxy things? Pardon me if this is off topic (or wholly stupid!) Pete On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 2:16 PM, Eija Niskanen wrote: > Sorry for a question slightly aside from pure film discussion. I thought > about buying a Kindle, but as Kindle is tied to the Amazon of the country > of purchase, how have you solved the problem of buying, say > English-language Academic books from Amazon U.S. and Japanese-language > books from Amazon Japan? Or would it be worth buying some other reading > device, Kobo, Sony, other? > Eija > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi Mon Dec 16 14:16:30 2013 From: eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi (Eija Niskanen) Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 21:16:30 +0200 Subject: [KineJapan] Kindle problems Message-ID: Sorry for a question slightly aside from pure film discussion. I thought about buying a Kindle, but as Kindle is tied to the Amazon of the country of purchase, how have you solved the problem of buying, say English-language Academic books from Amazon U.S. and Japanese-language books from Amazon Japan? Or would it be worth buying some other reading device, Kobo, Sony, other? Eija -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Sun Dec 15 12:49:55 2013 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2013 17:49:55 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Kinema Club] [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow"Retrospective @ Berlin International Film Festival Message-ID: <1387129795.12763.YahooMailNeo@web171402.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> I see that part 1 of?The Aesthetics of Shadow, Part 1: Japan is up the MoMA website and, contrary to my guess, is largrey before KinemaClub XIII on January?7th to 19th. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1449It dooesn't seem that you can book tickets more than a week before the screening which, even though it's a week more than Tokyo NFC, is tricky for booking flights ahead. ? But we can have some scheduling news for KinemaClub, please ?? The papers are on Fri 17th and Sat 18th but there was talk of screening(s).? In particular, will there be anything to keep me in Boston on Sunday 19th, rather than see Hawai Mare oki kaisen?,1942 in NYC - film of which I have read much but seen nothing except a couple of stills. ? Yes, I know we'll always have Berlin ... Roger ----- Original Message ----- >From: Roger Macy >To: kinejapan >Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 12:31 PM >Subject: Re: [Kinema Club] [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow"Retrospective @ Berlin International Film Festival > > >New York in January?? That's also interesting. >Given what they seem to have in the pipeline, already, I would take it that screenings are more likely to be after Kineclub on January 17-8, rather than before ??? I'm just thinking about my plane tickets, as must others, if you have any further guidance, Daisuke. >best, >Roger >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Daisuke Miyao" >To: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" >Sent: Friday, November 08, 2013 6:11 PM >Subject: Re: [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow" Retrospective @ Berlin International Film Festival > >> Dear all, >> >> Thank you very much for your interests in the retrospective.? Answering >> Alex's question, here is the tentative list of films (not only >> Japanese).? In addition to Berlin International Film Festival, I am >> collaborating with MoMA of New York, and they will have its own "The >> Aesthetics of Shadow" series in January.? More information to come.... >> >> Best, >> Daisuke >> >> A) LIGHTING STYLES FOR GENRES: >> 1) Street films: ?City as protagonist? >> JUJIRO (Crossways/Im Schatten des Yoshiwara), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1928 >> (silent, engl. subt.) >> SONO YO NO TSUMA (That Night?s Wife), Yasujiro Ozu, 1930 (silent, engl. >> subt.) >> NINJO KAMIFUSEN (Humanity and Paper Balloon), Yamanaka Sadao, 1937 >> (engl. subt.) >> SUNRISE, F.W. Murnau, 1927 (silent) >> QUAI DES BRUMES, Marcel Carn?, F 1938 (Eugen Sch?fftan) >> UNTER DER LATERNE, Gerhard Lamprecht, G 1926 (silent, digital >> restoration, Deutsche Kinemathek) >> DIRNENTRAG?DIE, Bruno Rahn, 1927 (Guido Seeber) or >> MINATO NO NIHON MUSUME (Japanese Girls at the Harbor), Hiroshi Shimizu, >> 1933 >> >> 2) jidaigeki: ?Flash of the sword? >> YUKINOJO HENGE (An Actor?s Revenge), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1935/1952 >> (engl. subt.) >> THE MARK OF ZORRO, Fred Niblo, 1920 (silent) >> RASHOMON, Akira Kurosawa, 1950 >> THE IRON MASK, Allan Dwan, 1929 (silent)or >> SCARAMOUCHE, Rex Ingram, 1924 (silent) >> >> 3) ?War films? >> GONIN NO SEKKOHEI (Five Scouts), Tomotaka Tasaka, 1938 (live subt. >> engl.) >> HAWAI MARE OKI KAISEN (The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya), Kajiro >> Yamamoto, 1944 (live subt. engl.) >> DAWN PATROL, Howard Hawks, 1930 >> AIR FORCE, Howard Hawks, 1943 >> >> B) LIGHTING STYLES FOR STARS: >> Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Kazuo Hasegawa/Hayashi Chojiro, Sessue >> Hayakawa etc. >> 4) Lighting styles for stars >> TSURUHACHI TSURUJIRO (Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro), Mikio Naruse, 1938 >> (engl. subt.) >> THE TYPHOON, Reginald Barker, (withHenry Kotani), 1914 (silent) >> THE CHEAT, Cecil B. DeMille, 1915 (silent) >> SHANGHAI EXPRESS, Josef von Sternberg, 1932 (Lee Garmes) and/or >> FLESH AND THE DEVIL, Clarence Brown, 1926 (William Daniels) and/or >> >> C) THEMES: >> 5) Light and Rhythm >> KURUTTA IPPEJI (A Page of Madness), Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926 (silent, >> engl. subt.) >> OSHIDORI UTAGASSEN (Singing Lovebirds), Makino Masahiro, 1939 (engl. >> subt.) >> BERLIN. DIE SINFONIE DER GRO?STADT (Berlin. Symphony of a Great City), >> Walther Ruttmann, 1927 >> 1 Short film program: >> OPUS I-IV, Walther Ruttmann, 1921-25 >> Lichtspiel Schwarz Weiss Grau, L?szl? Moholy-Nagy, 1930 >> Grossstadtzigeuner, L?szl? Moholy-Nagy, 1932 >> >> 6) Painting with shadows >> UGETSU (Tales of the Rain and Moon), Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953 (engl. >> subt.) >> FAUST, F.W. Murnau, 1926 (silent) >> LA BELLE ET LA BETE, Jean Cocteau, F 1945 (Henri Alekan) >> STAGECOACH, John Ford, 1939 (Bert Glennon) >> and possibly F?HRMANN MARIA, Frank Wysbar, G 1936 >> >> 7) Towards Realism (6 films) >> DOCKS OF NEW YORK, Josef von Sternberg, 1926 (engl. subt.) >> NASAKE NO HIKARI (Light of Compassion), Henri Kotani, 1926 (silent, >> engl. live subt.) >> TOKYO NO EIYU (A Hero of Tokyo), Hiroshi Shimizu, 1935 (engl. subt.) >> THE GRAPES OF WRATH, John Ford, 1940 >> CITIZEN KANE, Orson Welles, 1941 >> NAKED CITY Jules Dassin, 1948 (restoration LoC) or >> BERLIN EXPRESS, Jacques Tourneur, 1948 (restoration LoC) >> >> Additional title: >> Benjamin Christensen: H?VNENS NAT or HEMMELIGHEDSFULDE X (or less known >> title ? Thomas Christensen) (silent) >> >> >> >> On 2013/11/08 06:52, Alex Zahlten wrote: >>> This looks amazing, Daisuke. In the press release no specific films >>> seem to be mentioned- are you allowed to give us an idea of which >>> Japanese films will be playing there? >>> >>> Best >>> >>> Alex >>> >>> GESENDET: Donnerstag, 07. November 2013 um 22:50 Uhr >>>? VON: "Daisuke Miyao" >>>? AN: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" >>> >>>? BETREFF: [KineJapan] "The Aesthetics of Shadow" Retrospective @ >>> Berlin International Film Festival >>> Dear All, >>> >>>? I would like to let you know that my book, The Aesthetics of Shadow: >>>? Lighting and Japanese Cinema (Duke University Press, 2013), is >>> invited >>>? to the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. There will be a >>>? retrospective based on the book and beyond. Here is the link to the >>>? festival website. >>> >>> >>> http://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/alle/Alle-Detail_19796.html >>> [1] >>> >>>? I am going to introduce some films. If you are in Berlin in February, >>>? see you there! >>> >>>? Best, >>>? Daisuke >>> >>>? Daisuke Miyao >>>? Associate Professor of Japanese Film and Cinema Studies >>>? University of Oregon > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Kinemaclub mailing list Kinemaclub at mailman.yale.edu http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinemaclub From gsjohnson at otsuma.ac.jp Fri Dec 13 03:33:51 2013 From: gsjohnson at otsuma.ac.jp (Gregory Johnson) Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 17:33:51 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Kore-eda, Miyazaki, Takahata, etc. oppose State Secrets Act In-Reply-To: References: <1323767701.3135197.1386885760910.JavaMail.root@kansaigaidai.ac.jp> <57785572-9BD0-4C52-B267-15C0EC33E0B6@mail-central.com> <6F5624CE8CDF4CA7BAD5F2AB0F476313@asianfilm.info> Message-ID: <954595E3-34FE-4473-8F9C-209C52B34F5A@otsuma.ac.jp> In addition to Deputy Prime Minister Aso Tar?'s expressed fondness for Nazi party methods, LDP Secretary-General Ishiba Shigeru recent repeatedly called for control of the press and equated citizens exercising their freedom of speech with terrorism. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201312130057 http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201312120043 http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131201p2g00m0dm037000c.html http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201312130031 http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201312010015 In addition, the government is reportedly conspiring to again bring up an "anticonspiracy" bill that would "would criminalize acts of conspiracy regarding more than 600 types of crimes, even if they have not been committed." I don't know which 600 crimes this involves, but last year a college professor was arrested merely for walking through Osaka train station after protesting against contaminated debris incineration on public property. This law could easily be used to attack any anti government demonstration or any act of communication regarding one. Observers of a demonstration could be arrested on their way home. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201312120063 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From mroberts37 at mail-central.com Fri Dec 13 01:15:08 2013 From: mroberts37 at mail-central.com (Mark Roberts) Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 15:15:08 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Kore-eda, Miyazaki, Takahata, etc. oppose State Secrets Act In-Reply-To: <6F5624CE8CDF4CA7BAD5F2AB0F476313@asianfilm.info> References: <1323767701.3135197.1386885760910.JavaMail.root@kansaigaidai.ac.jp> <57785572-9BD0-4C52-B267-15C0EC33E0B6@mail-central.com> <6F5624CE8CDF4CA7BAD5F2AB0F476313@asianfilm.info> Message-ID: Hi Stephen, I have seen several articles that explore the US connection with the SS law. Here is one, from foreignpolicy.com: In Japan?s State Secrets Law, Shades of Red, White and Blue BTW, thanks much for your very informative interview with Matsubayashi and Yamauchi. Indeed, the FILMeX Q & A with Matsubayashi is available on YouTube. Mark On Dec 13, 2013, at 2:36 PM, Stephen Cremin wrote: > When I wrote about the state secrets bill last week on Film Business Asia, thanks the tip off on the KineJapan list, I did try to find out if there was a US connection, since that seemed to make sense together with the TPP, etc. I could only find a quote from a German journalist in a Japanese newspaper making that accusation, which seemed a bit too speculative at the time. > > I interviewed Matsubayashi about the state secrets bill this week in Dubai, where his HORSES OF FUKUSHIMA is getting a lot of buzz, at least from the other film-makers here. The awards, which include US$85,000 in the documentary section, are announced later today: > http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/japanese-documentaries-after-fukushima > > The FILMeX Q&A may be online (with English interpretation) as I was able to find videos of other after-screening discussions online. > > Stephen > > On Friday, 13 December 2013 at 04:45, Mark Roberts wrote: > >> Paul, >> >> Thanks for gathering and forwarding these articles. This is indeed a very worrisome development. >> >> The Directors Guild of Japan has also called for repeal of the State Secrets law, as it will have direct consequences for filmmakers (see: ????????????????????). It is worth emphasizing that documentary filmmakers, in particular, will be affected. A key point is that this legislation will operate as a new form of censorship. Not only can filmmakers be criminalized for works that investigate sensitive political issues, but such films simply may not get produced in the first place. >> >> For example, Matsubayashi Yojyu's new film "The Horses of Fukushima" was made with the cooperation of regional government officials. This was just screened at FILMeX and during the Q & A, Matsubayashi raised the issue of the then-pending SS bill twice, spelling out for the audience that his film probably could not have been made had the SS law been in effect. In a nutshell, it was only possible to evacuate the horses from the Fukushima Daiichi exclusion zone by declaring them "cultural assets" used in a traditional matsuri. This meant that they were sent to a state-run compound, where all filming was forbidden. This, owing to the presence of a nearby SDF facility. Matsubayashi was nevertheless able to film because the local officials allowed him into the compound. Were the SS law in effect, they not would have given this consent. >> >> The SS law may be used to quash information concerning the nuclear industry. While the Abe administration has stated that it will not be employed to restrict knowledge about Fukushima Daiichi or the TPP, the terms of the law are so wide reaching that this amounts to little more than a vague verbal promise. Information is already being restricted, and the SS law will extend this power. For example, when the JCP recently requested a policy document on the handling of nuclear material, the regulation agency delivered a 135-page document that was entirely blacked out. Abe has stated that the SS law is also specifically designed to restrict satellite photos. >> >> As the Asahi Shimbun editorial states, the urgency to implement this law and others (e.g., SDF now allowed to carry heavy weapons on "rescue" operations) speaks to a new emphasis on the security relationship with the US, and preparation for Japan to participate in upcoming US wars. It's not so much about "self defense" as it's about drawing Japan closer to the American military and intelligence machine. During the recent revelations about NSA spying, for example, a news story surfaced that Japan was one of the few American allies to not allow the NSA unrestricted access to its fibre optic networks. The stated reasons were that (1) Japanese law would not allow it and (2) there was no budget to staff the expanded surveillance operations. It has been widely reported that the SS law comes partly in response to American pressure that Japan should be more compliant in the security partnership. >> >> While the Japanese public is largely opposed to the SS law, the LDP was able to ram it through with only a small loss of political capital. This, apparently because many Japanese are still hoping that Abenomics will somehow pan out. Here, it is important to emphasize that Abenomics is almost certain to fail on its promises. It's all about generating economic demand and there is really no way that wages are going to increase across the board, commensurate with cost of living increases. Abenomics is basically a new PR campaign for the same old monetarist smoke and mirrors, juicing the stock market and corporate profits, inflating asset bubbles, while looting the middle and working classes. >> >> With regards to cinema, the implications of the SS law are quite disturbing. While the exact ways in which it will be applied remain to be seen, the most glaciating effects will likely be on documentary production. Documentary cinema in Japan is now in a quite precarious situation, and this law only serves to stress it further. >> >> Mark Roberts >> Research Fellow, UTCP >> http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/data/mark_roberts/index_en.php >> >> >> On Dec 13, 2013, at 7:02 AM, BERRY Paul wrote: >> >>> In early December, a group of movie directors (including Miyazaki, Takahata, Kore-eda) and others who are part of the movie industry formed an association to oppose passage of the state secrets protection bill. (see article 2 below) Many other groups quickly formed as protests arose in cities around Japan in a futile attempt to stop this legislation from becoming law. These efforts failed. The law was passed on Dec. 6th and will go into effect at some point next year. Why were these directors and others such as Oe Kenzaburo, Japanese Nobel-winning scientists, Japanese Catholic Bishops, Japanese Bar Association, and many other groups so opposed to this legislation? >>> The first inklings of drastic changes to come came from Deputy Prime Minister Aso who is also the Japanese Finance Minister (former Prime Minister) when in early August he said, "Germany's Weimar Constitution was changed into the Nazi Constitution before anyone knew," he said in comments widely reported by the Japanese media. "It was changed before anyone else noticed. Why don't we learn from that method?" (see article 3 below) Although he claimed these remarks were taken out of context he did not retract the basic idea that the LDP should consider such methods. >>> Then, over a two-week period starting in late November, the LDP introduced a hitherto unannounced bill for protecting state secrets. The vague wording of the key provisions of this bill will allow for a vast expansion of the designation of government secrets for a 60-year period with provisions for police investigation of violations and prison terms from 5 to 10 years for violations. Please read the editorials inserted below from various Japanese newspapers below to get an idea of how serious these changes in Japan?s legal system are. They appear to be the opening front in implementing Prime Minister Abe?s campaign slogan, ?Nihon o torimodosu? (Bring Back Japan) which includes restoring many of the worst features of the Japanese pre-war constitution. The currently adopted state secrets act has features that resemble the notorious Peace Preservation Act that helped establish the so-called thought police during the prewar period. >>> Exactly how the law will be enforced remains to be seen, but it has already had a chilling effect on the media in Japan since its adoption. >>> ?Perhaps most important in all of this is the chilling effect that the law would have on people accessing or publishing any sort of information. With the opaque phrasing of the law persons will have no idea as to whether information they are accessing or publishing is in fact a designated secret. The Japanese Bar Association notes that, under the provisions of the bill, it is entirely plausible that people could be accused and tried without them or their lawyer being told exactly what information they are accused of having revealed. Unsurprisingly, government assurances that persons who accidentally come across or reveal secrets would not be punished are not convincing ? and logic indicates that, even if they ended up not being punished, such persons would be subject to investigation.? from a Dec. 7th editorial (see 4 below) >>> >>> As these issues will become more pronounced after the act goes into effect it is important that the community of people involved in cinema be fully aware of these events and on the look out for the problems that now seem likely to arise. These things should be subject to international debate and becoming better informed about them is the first step, especially as the international news community has not done a good job of covering the quickly occurring changes here in Japanx. I have inserted several relevant articles below, but searching on the net for Japanese sources about them has an even larger diversity of information and commentary on these events. >>> >>> Paul Berry >>> Kyoto, Japan >>> >>> 1, The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 7 editorial after passage of the bill >>> >>> The Upper House passed legislation on Dec. 6 to protect confidential information concerning national security. Serious thought must be given to the grave implications from the viewpoints of the political system and the Constitution. >>> >>> Under the new state secrets protection law, the chiefs of ministries and agencies have the power to determine what specific information should be designated as a state secret and whether such confidential information should be disclosed for Diet deliberations or trials. >>> >>> The law will effectively create a pocket of secrecy within the sphere of administrative activities insulated from scrutiny by the public, the Diet or the judiciary. It will empower the government to determine at its discretion the scope and content of information that should be enveloped by the heavy veil of official secrecy. >>> >>> In other words, the government has obtained a convenient and powerful tool to limit information disclosure. The scope of state secrets will inevitably expand year after year. >>> >>> This situation poses a serious threat to the fundamental constitutional principles of popular sovereignty and separation of the three branches of government. >>> >>> The legislation could eviscerate the most important principles of modern democracy and bring outdated politics back to the nation. >>> >>> The enactment of the state secrets law amounts to making an ?effective revision to the Constitution? without following formal procedures. It can be likened to the Abe administration?s move to enable Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense through a change in the government?s interpretation of the related provision in the Constitution. >>> >>> REMOVING SAFEGUARDS FOR DEMOCRACY >>> >>> The political nature of this legislative initiative becomes even clearer when viewed against the backdrop of the track record of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his second tenure in office. >>> >>> In the first of a series of related steps, the Abe administration replaced the chief of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, who was opposed to Japan?s exercise of its right to collective self-defense, with a person who supported the idea. It was an attempt to suppress dissenting voices on the issue within the government. >>> >>> The Abe administration then filled vacancies in public broadcaster NHK?s Board of Governors, which has the power to appoint and to dismiss the broadcaster?s president, with people close to the prime minister. It is a move that deserves to be criticized as a ploy to muzzle the press. >>> >>> To cap it all, the administration has now succeeded in establishing the state secrets law. >>> >>> All of this clearly shows the Abe administration is trying to silence its noisy critics and remove, one by one, the safeguards against abuse of power. >>> >>> The chief justice of the Supreme Court will retire next year. If the Abe administration appoints a person unlikely to take exception to the government?s decisions as the successor, this nation could be hastening down a path toward autocratic government. >>> >>> When the ?twisted Diet,? due to opposition control of the Upper House, caused political gridlock, the nation?s policymaking machinery was bitterly criticized for being unable to make decisions. >>> >>> As soon as the gridlock disappeared following the ruling coalition?s landslide victory in the July Upper House election, however, the government began to eliminate safeguards for democracy. This is a far more dangerous situation than legislative gridlock. >>> >>> Where is the government trying to lead the nation in such haste? >>> >>> The Abe administration appears to be putting greater priority on building a system that allows Japan to cooperate more closely with the United States in fighting wars than on protecting the spirit of the Constitution and the principles of democracy. >>> >>> The administration?s reasoning seems to go like this: Japan needs to fortify its security alliance with the United States to respond to China?s rising military power. To do so, Japan needs to promise to fight together with the United States when the ally comes under attack. Japan also needs to create an organization that can share vital information closely with the U.S. National Security Council and has a similar name. In addition, Tokyo needs a system that allows it to guarantee to Washington that there will be no leaks of sensitive information provided by its ally. >>> >>> During Diet debate between party chiefs, Abe said the state secrets law is designed to protect the Japanese people. We are willing to believe him. He was probably not lying. >>> >>> DANGER OF POWER CONCENTRATION >>> >>> The question is whether the law will really protect the people. >>> >>> From the government?s point of view, centralizing power for a quicker decision-making process is a more effective approach to protecting the people than maintaining a system that requires time to explain policies to the public and building a consensus. >>> >>> But a government that is allowed to monopolize information and use its policymaking power without being restrained by safeguards against abuse can easily go astray, regardless of its intentions. >>> >>> The government should disclose information, encourage broad public debate on key policy issues and pay serious attention to the voice of the people. The legislative and judicial branches should be able to check and correct mistakes made by the administrative branch. Authorities will inevitably make misguided decisions if they disable this vital system of checks and balances. >>> >>> There is ample historical evidence of such dangers. >>> >>> Prewar Japan and Germany are two typical examples of how dangerous leaders can be when they have unrestricted power. >>> >>> Both countries tightly controlled information available to the public and cracked down on dissenting voices. The rulers of the two nations created systems that enabled them to make policy decisions without going through a due process of legislation. >>> >>> Nazi Germany established a law that gave the government the power to enact laws as it wished and even ignore the Constitution. Imperial Japan enacted the notorious National Mobilization Law, which based a wide range of powers on discretionary imperial orders issued by the government. >>> >>> We must not forget what kind of consequences these laws produced for both nations. >>> >>> DIET, PUBLIC SHOULD RISE TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY >>> >>> Based on the bitter lessons of history, the postwar Constitution provides for a governing system that ensures a separation of powers. The Constitution defines the Diet as ?the highest organ of state power? and ?the sole lawmaking organ of the State.? >>> >>> By enacting the state secrets protections law, the Diet, oblivious to its mission, helped the Abe administration take a big step toward creating an autocratic government. It is an extremely foolish act. >>> >>> Japan doesn?t need the state secrets protection law. Since the Diet has now enacted the law, it should take the responsibility to quickly repeal it. >>> >>> If immediately revoking the law is difficult, the Diet should at least act swiftly to take measures to reduce the negative effects of the law. >>> >>> The Diet should set up its own body to scrutinize the government?s decisions to designate specific information as a state secret for protection under the law. It should also require the government to make records of all such decisions and ensure full information disclosure. The Diet needs to swiftly take these steps. >>> >>> The public should also ask itself some serious questions. >>> >>> Things have come to this because we have allowed politicians to hold us in contempt. Many politicians apparently think only a few voters will actually express their views publicly and take part in the political process to protect their sovereignty and their right to know, however important they think these democratic values are. >>> >>> The politicians are clearly betting that even if the new law provokes an angry response from the public, voters will forget about it by the next election. >>> >>> As long as we allow politicians to sell us short this way, the situation will not change. >>> >>> Things will start improving only if the Japanese people make a solid resolution to protect democratic principles they value and demonstrate a commitment to them by protesting continuously against any move to undermine them. >>> >>> --The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 7th >>> >>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> 2, Movie industry starts group against state secrets bill >>> >>> December 04, 2013 >>> >>> By YUKA ORII/ Staff Writer >>> >>> The movie industry formed a group Dec. 3 to oppose the state secrets protection bill, saying the Abe administration is returning Japan to its dangerous World War II days. >>> >>> ?Based on the reflections of our predecessors, who were forced to support the war against their will, the Japanese movie industry started to walk on the postwar path (back to normalcy),? the group said in a statement. >>> >>> It added, ?We cannot support this bill at all because it could deprive us of the ?right to know? and endanger ?freedom of expression.?? >>> >>> Film directors Isao Takahata, Yasuo Furuhata and Yoji Yamada were among those who had called for the establishment of ?Tokutei Himitsu Hogo Hoan ni Hantaisuru Eigajin no Kai? (Group of movie people who oppose the state secrets protection bill). >>> >>> ?There is no other way except to patiently put up resistance so that our society will not return to the one before and during the war,? Furuhata said. >>> >>> Takahata said, ?We are appalled by the fact that we, the Japanese people, are the ones who created the Abe administration.? >>> >>> In just four days, the group gained 264 supporters, including film directors Nobuhiko Obayashi, Hayao Miyazaki, Hirokazu Koreeda and Kazuyuki Izutsu, actresses Sayuri Yoshinaga and Shinobu Otake, and scriptwriters Taichi Yamada and James Miki. >>> >>> Cinematographers, movie theater operators, film critics and about 60 fans joined the group. >>> >>> Criticism was also directed at the way the ruling coalition has been trying to rush the bill through the Diet before the current session ends on Dec. 6. >>> >>> ?I am angered at the way the public hearing was held obviously just for show,? film director Masato Harada said. >>> By YUKA ORII/ Staff Writer >>> >>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> 3. www.cnn.com/2013/08/02/world/asia/japan-politician-nazi-comment >>> >>> Japanese government minister's Nazi remarks cause furor >>> By Jethro Mullen, CNN >>> August 2, 2013 -- Updated 1206 GMT (2006 HKT) >>> (CNN) -- Japan's deputy prime minister stirred controversy this week by appearing to suggest that the government could learn from the way that Nazi Germany changed its constitution. >>> >>> The remarks by Taro Aso, who is also the Japanese finance minister, provoked criticism from Japan's neighbors and a Jewish organization in the United States. >>> >>> Aso, a former prime minister who has slipped up with verbal gaffes in the past, retracted the comments later in the week but refused to apologize for them or resign, saying they had been taken out of context. >>> >>> Amid persistent talk in Japan about revising the country's pacifist post-war constitution, Aso set off the controversy at a seminar Monday, in which he said that discussions over constitutional changes should be carried out calmly. >>> >>> "Germany's Weimar Constitution was changed into the Nazi Constitution before anyone knew," he said in comments widely reported by the Japanese media. "It was changed before anyone else noticed. Why don't we learn from that method?" >>> >>> Aso added: "I have no intention of denying democracy. Again, I repeat that we should not decide [constitutional revisions] in a frenzy." >>> >>> In 1933, Adolf Hitler's National Socialists turned the democratic Weimar Republic into a dictatorship using "a combination of legal procedure, persuasion, and terror," according to the U.S. Library of Congress. >>> >>> Hitler used a fire that burned down the parliament building as a pretext to suppress the opposition through an emergency clause in the constitution. He then pushed through the Enabling Act, which allowed him to govern without parliament and vastly extend the Nazis' grip on power. >>> >>> Words that hurt >>> >>> Aso's apparent reference to those changes drew expressions of concern from the governments of China and South Korea, two countries that suffered heavily under Japanese imperial aggression during World War II, a conflict in which Japan was allied with Nazi Germany. >>> >>> Beijing and Seoul are already wary of Japan's hawkish prime minister, Shinzo Abe. His campaign platform for elections last year included measures aimed at restoring Japanese national pride such as revising the constitution to give the country's self-defense forces the status of a regular army. >>> >>> Abe's party now has control of both houses of parliament. But it remains unclear if he will take on the difficult, controversial challenge of constitutional change, which would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers. >>> >>> Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said Wednesday that Aso's comments mean that other countries need to step up their vigilance over the direction in which Japan is headed. >>> >>> China and Japan are locked in a tense territorial dispute over a set of small, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that has fueled nationalist sentiments in on both sides. >>> >>> South Korea, meanwhile, called for "prudence" from Japanese political leaders. >>> >>> "Such comments definitely hurt a lot of people," Cho Tai-young, a foreign ministry spokesman, said Tuesday. >>> >>> And the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, demanded that Aso immediately clarify his remarks. >>> >>> "What 'techniques' from the Nazis' governance are worth learning ? how to stealthily cripple democracy?" asked Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean at the center. >>> >>> "The only lessons on governance that the world should draw from the Nazi Third Reich is how those in positions of power should not behave," Cooper said in a statement Tuesday. >>> >>> 'Great misunderstandings' >>> >>> Aso responded Thursday to the criticism over his comments, which also came from opposition lawmakers in Japan, saying he regretted that the remarks had "caused great misunderstandings despite my true intentions." >>> >>> He said that he had referred to the Nazi takeover of power as a "bad example" of constitutional revision because changes were forced through "in a commotion." They should be done through calm debates instead. >>> >>> "I believe it is obvious that I feel extremely negatively about Nazi Germany, if you consider the entire context," he said. "However, since these remarks have caused serious misunderstandings, I would like to retract them." >>> >>> Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference the same day that "the Abe administration definitely does not view Nazi Germany positively and I am sure Vice Prime Minister Aso himself does not either." >>> >>> It's not the first time Aso's words have gotten him into hot water. At a meeting about social security reform and healthcare costs in January, he caused offense by suggesting it would be best for people on life support to "die quickly." >>> >>> "Aso's comment about Hitler and the implication that his example should be followed are utterly unacceptable," the Asahi Shimbun, a daily newspaper, said in an editorial Friday. " The remark is not something that Aso can get away with by simply retracting it." >>> >>> CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki and journalist Saori Ibuki contributed to this report. >>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> 4, >>> As if it ever needed repeating, the people of Japan were once again treated to a reminder of how secretive and arbitrary their government can be during the nuclear disaster in Fukushima 2011. Government foot-dragging and reluctance to divulge information meant that people remained exposed to high doses of radiation for over a month after the meltdown with potentially grave health consequences. Now, what is easily the most right wing government Japan has seen in decades has forced through parliament a bill to classify ?special secrets? that would essentially give the executive carte blanche to withhold information on a massive scale, not seen since the period of militarism directly leading up to, and during, World War 2. >>> >>> The law, known as the Designated Secrets Bill, was hurriedly rammed throughthe more powerful lower house on 26 November, and then passed through the upper house in equally speedy fashion on 6 December. It gives unrestricted power to the executive to designate a broad range of information as national secrets. There are no effective checks or balances, no truly meaningful opportunity for the involvement of any independent body, and no effective way to ensure that the executive is not abusing its power. Only the barest of outlines of information regarding what sort of information has even been designated as secret will be disclosed to the public. The bill would violate the right of people?s right to access information, severely punish whistleblowers, and have a chilling effect on journalism, civil society organizations, and the actions of concerned citizens. >>> >>> The government has repeated the mantra that the bill is necessary because Japan is a ?heaven for spies? due to a lack of espionage and state secrets legal infrastructure. They would have the people believe that the government lacks the power to keep information confidential, and that Tokyo is full of foreign agents who freely collect sensitive secrets. Nothing could be further from the truth ? the government already designates a wide range of information as confidential ?410,000 pieces of information have been designated so since a sweeping government policy was implemented on this in 2009. >>> >>> In addition, in response to a question in parliament, Prime Minister Abe admitted that the government was aware of five cases of ?leaks of important information by civil servants? over the past fifteen years. Five cases over fifteen years can hardly be described as a ?heaven?. The truth, as even the government admits, is that this bill is intrinsically connected with another bill adopted by parliament in November, establishing a National Security Council much along the lines of the US body by the same name. Indeed, the Secrets bill specifically provides for the sharing of designated secrets with foreign governments, who are apparently more trustworthy than Japan?s own people. >>> Constitutional infringement >>> >>> There are four categories of information listed in the bill that could potentially qualify for designation as a secret ? defense, diplomacy, ?designated dangerous activities?, and prevention of terrorism ? but they are worded in an extremely broad manner. Seemingly any kind of information related to defense could qualify, as well as any ?important security related information? in the area of foreign relations, any information related to official efforts in the area of counter terrorism, and any information related to ?activities potentially harmful to national security?. The possible designations of particular information as ?secret? are essentially infinite; though there is a principled maximum period of sixty years (already extremely long) stipulated in the amended bill, there are also categories of information ? almost equally sweeping ? which it is possible to designate secret with no time limit. The role envisioned for parliament is extremely limited, to the extent that it would most probably be meaningless. >>> >>> The bill does state that, in applying the law, the government should ?fully take into account? journalistic reporting ?aimed at ensuring the peoples? right to access information?. These provisions are ?vague? to say the least, and appear to grant the government leeway to decide which reporting is ?aimed at ensuring? this right. But punishments for the revealing of secrets are severe ? up to ten years imprisonment for civil servants or persons subcontractors dealing with secrets. Persons who obtain secrets through illegal means are also subject to up to ten years imprisonment, and persons who ?incite? the revealing of secrets are subject to up to five years imprisonment. Persons who reveal secrets through negligence can also be subject to imprisonment, as are persons who ?incite? or conspire to divulge secrets. >>> >>> It is worth pointing out that the right to access information is not only a vital element of the right to freedom of expression, but also a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Japanese constitution. Article 21 states that ?freedom of?speech, press, and all other forms of expression are guaranteed? and, in accordance with developments in international law, this article has been interpreted by the Japanese courts to include the right to access information. The same article also states that the government must ?refrain from violating fundamental human rights in an unreasonable manner? in applying the law, begging the question as to what ?unreasonable? means in this new environment. >>> >>> Even worse, article 21 goes on to say that reporting by the media will not be punished ?insofar as those activities are aimed solely at ensuring the public interest and are not based on illegal or clearly unreasonable methods?. There is no definition of what the ?public interest? means in this context, and just how the government will ascertain this. The government has even stated that some bloggers and other social media activists may not fall under the definition of ?media? in this article, indicating that even the above pathetic safeguards would not apply. >>> >>> As one could imagine, public outcry regarding the bill has been intense with near-daily demonstrations and criticism from human rights organizations, including the Japanese Bar Association, former prominent conservative MPs, academic societies, journalist societies, and prefectural and local councils. Unusually for a country that is used to being under the radar of international scrutiny, the bill was also the target of harsh criticism from human rights actors in the United Nations. The UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression together with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health issued a statement criticizing the sweeping provisions of the bill, and the lack of protection for whistle blowers. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed similar concerns. >>> >>> Government responses to these concerns have been a shining example of evasion, vagueness, and a condescending ?shut up and trust us? mentality ? indeed, the fact that the government opened the bill to public comment for only two weeks, as opposed to the normal practice of a full month, shows the contempt in which it holds views it does not agree with. One NGO filed a request for the minutes of the meetings of a government panel that had discussed the provisions of the bill ? minutes that date back to 2008. In an insult to the notion of government accountability, the documents the NGO was provided with were almost completely redacted, i.e. blacked out. >>> A new chilling effect >>> >>> In one telling response to the obvious question of what would entail a ?clearly unreasonable method? of reporting, Minister Masako Mori, the female Cabinet member charged by Prime Minister Abe to steer the bill through parliament seemingly for no reason other than placing a woman in front of the cameras would give the bill a ?soft? image, gave the example of the infamous Nishiyama case of 1972. Takichi Nishiyama, a former journalist for Mainichi Shimbun, a major Japanese broadsheet, was arrested for obtaining information from a Japanese Foreign Ministry secretary (with whom, it later came to light, he had been having an affair) regarding a secret agreement between Japan and the US surrounding the return of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty. Though the agreement that had been made public by the two governments had stated that certain expenses totaling USD 4 million would be paid by the US, this was an outright lie, and the secret agreement specified that the costs would be footed by the Japanese. >>> >>> For his efforts in exposing government deception of the people, Nishiyama was convicted in 1978 of inciting a civil servant to reveal confidential information. 30 years later, declassified US government documents confirmed Nishiyama?s allegations ? and yet his name is used by the government as a good example of ?bad? journalism. Tellingly, Mori has declared that subjects of intense public debate, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) economic agreement currently being negotiated behind closed doors with the United States and other countries, could be designated as secrets. And government reassurances have been unable to quell fears that with such broad provisions in the bill, important information regarding nuclear safety could be designated as secret as well. >>> >>> Perhaps most important in all of this is the chilling effect that the law would have on people accessing or publishing any sort of information. With the opaque phrasing of the law persons will have no idea as to whether information they are accessing or publishing is in fact a designated secret. The Japanese Bar Association notes that, under the provisions of the bill, it is entirely plausible that people could be accused and tried without them or their lawyer being told exactly what information they are accused of having revealed. Unsurprisingly, government assurances that persons who accidentally come across or reveal secrets would not be punished are not convincing ? and logic indicates that, even if they ended up not being punished, such persons would be subject to investigation. >>> >>> In the early hours of 5 December, the government announced in response to mounting pressure that it would create two ?independent? bodies to oversee implementation of the law and ensure that there was no abuse. However, of these two bodies, only one is truly independent ? a panel of legal experts which will advise the PM in creating guidelines regarding the designation of secrets, and which will receive an annual report on implementation of the law. However, it appears that the PM will only provide this panel with a simple outline stating the number of pieces of information that had been designated secret by category. Beyond that, there is no clarity as to how this panel would operate, and how much power it would actually have. It would be child?s play for the government to appoint a panel of government cronies to rubber stamp a one page note. >>> >>> Calling the other body to be created ?independent? is an insult to one?s intelligence. The ?oversight committee for information retention? will monitor application of the law and ensure that there is no abuse, and is clearly the more powerful body of the two. However, it will be made up of undersecretaries (the highest ranking civil servants) from the Foreign and Defence Ministries ? the two ministries that will undoubtedly be designating the largest number of secrets. Unsurprisingly, no one in Japan expects any kind of serious oversight from this body. >>> >>> Many opposed to the bill have pointed out strikingly similar language in legislation from darker times, in particular the infamous National Defence and Public Security Act of 1941, which was used by the government to jail opponents of the war effort. The Japanese experience from those days is that government secrets lead to more government secrets, and then to war. To use a phrase the generation that remembers the 1930s often uses to describe the creeping nature of militarism ? the jackboots come closer and closer. >>> >>> This article was originally posted on 10 Dec 2013 at opendemocracy.net. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> KineJapan mailing list >>> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >>> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan >> >> _______________________________________________ >> KineJapan mailing list >> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From stephen at asianfilm.info Fri Dec 13 00:36:03 2013 From: stephen at asianfilm.info (Stephen Cremin) Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 09:36:03 +0400 Subject: [KineJapan] Kore-eda, Miyazaki, Takahata, etc. oppose State Secrets Act In-Reply-To: <57785572-9BD0-4C52-B267-15C0EC33E0B6@mail-central.com> References: <1323767701.3135197.1386885760910.JavaMail.root@kansaigaidai.ac.jp> <57785572-9BD0-4C52-B267-15C0EC33E0B6@mail-central.com> Message-ID: <6F5624CE8CDF4CA7BAD5F2AB0F476313@asianfilm.info> When I wrote about the state secrets bill last week on Film Business Asia, thanks the tip off on the KineJapan list, I did try to find out if there was a US connection, since that seemed to make sense together with the TPP, etc. I could only find a quote from a German journalist in a Japanese newspaper making that accusation, which seemed a bit too speculative at the time. I interviewed Matsubayashi about the state secrets bill this week in Dubai, where his HORSES OF FUKUSHIMA is getting a lot of buzz, at least from the other film-makers here. The awards, which include US$85,000 in the documentary section, are announced later today: http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/japanese-documentaries-after-fukushima The FILMeX Q&A may be online (with English interpretation) as I was able to find videos of other after-screening discussions online. Stephen On Friday, 13 December 2013 at 04:45, Mark Roberts wrote: > Paul, > > Thanks for gathering and forwarding these articles. This is indeed a very worrisome development. > > The Directors Guild of Japan has also called for repeal of the State Secrets law, as it will have direct consequences for filmmakers (see: ???????????????????? (http://www.dgj.or.jp/news/2013/000863.html)). It is worth emphasizing that documentary filmmakers, in particular, will be affected. A key point is that this legislation will operate as a new form of censorship. Not only can filmmakers be criminalized for works that investigate sensitive political issues, but such films simply may not get produced in the first place. > > For example, Matsubayashi Yojyu's new film "The Horses of Fukushima" was made with the cooperation of regional government officials. This was just screened at FILMeX and during the Q & A, Matsubayashi raised the issue of the then-pending SS bill twice, spelling out for the audience that his film probably could not have been made had the SS law been in effect. In a nutshell, it was only possible to evacuate the horses from the Fukushima Daiichi exclusion zone by declaring them "cultural assets" used in a traditional matsuri. This meant that they were sent to a state-run compound, where all filming was forbidden. This, owing to the presence of a nearby SDF facility. Matsubayashi was nevertheless able to film because the local officials allowed him into the compound. Were the SS law in effect, they not would have given this consent. > > The SS law may be used to quash information concerning the nuclear industry. While the Abe administration has stated that it will not be employed to restrict knowledge about Fukushima Daiichi or the TPP, the terms of the law are so wide reaching that this amounts to little more than a vague verbal promise. Information is already being restricted, and the SS law will extend this power. For example, when the JCP recently requested a policy document on the handling of nuclear material, the regulation agency delivered a 135-page document that was entirely blacked out (http://t.co/qiML64SIkF). Abe has stated that the SS law is also specifically designed to restrict satellite photos. > > As the Asahi Shimbun editorial states, the urgency to implement this law and others (e.g., SDF now allowed to carry heavy weapons on "rescue" operations) speaks to a new emphasis on the security relationship with the US, and preparation for Japan to participate in upcoming US wars. It's not so much about "self defense" as it's about drawing Japan closer to the American military and intelligence machine. During the recent revelations about NSA spying, for example, a news story surfaced that Japan was one of the few American allies to not allow the NSA unrestricted access to its fibre optic networks. The stated reasons were that (1) Japanese law would not allow it and (2) there was no budget to staff the expanded surveillance operations. It has been widely reported that the SS law comes partly in response to American pressure that Japan should be more compliant in the security partnership. > > While the Japanese public is largely opposed to the SS law, the LDP was able to ram it through with only a small loss of political capital. This, apparently because many Japanese are still hoping that Abenomics will somehow pan out. Here, it is important to emphasize that Abenomics is almost certain to fail on its promises. It's all about generating economic demand and there is really no way that wages are going to increase across the board, commensurate with cost of living increases. Abenomics is basically a new PR campaign for the same old monetarist smoke and mirrors, juicing the stock market and corporate profits, inflating asset bubbles, while looting the middle and working classes. > > With regards to cinema, the implications of the SS law are quite disturbing. While the exact ways in which it will be applied remain to be seen, the most glaciating effects will likely be on documentary production. Documentary cinema in Japan is now in a quite precarious situation, and this law only serves to stress it further. > > Mark Roberts > Research Fellow, UTCP > http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/data/mark_roberts/index_en.php > > > > > > > On Dec 13, 2013, at 7:02 AM, BERRY Paul wrote: > > In early December, a group of movie directors (including Miyazaki, Takahata, Kore-eda) and others who are part of the movie industry formed an association to oppose passage of the state secrets protection bill. (see article 2 below) Many other groups quickly formed as protests arose in cities around Japan in a futile attempt to stop this legislation from becoming law. These efforts failed. The law was passed on Dec. 6th and will go into effect at some point next year. Why were these directors and others such as Oe Kenzaburo, Japanese Nobel-winning scientists, Japanese Catholic Bishops, Japanese Bar Association, and many other groups so opposed to this legislation? > > The first inklings of drastic changes to come came from Deputy Prime Minister Aso who is also the Japanese Finance Minister (former Prime Minister) when in early August he said, "Germany's Weimar Constitution was changed into the Nazi Constitution before anyone knew," he said in comments widely reported by the Japanese media. "It was changed before anyone else noticed. Why don't we learn from that method?" (see article 3 below) Although he claimed these remarks were taken out of context he did not retract the basic idea that the LDP should consider such methods. > > Then, over a two-week period starting in late November, the LDP introduced a hitherto unannounced bill for protecting state secrets. The vague wording of the key provisions of this bill will allow for a vast expansion of the designation of government secrets for a 60-year period with provisions for police investigation of violations and prison terms from 5 to 10 years for violations. Please read the editorials inserted below from various Japanese newspapers below to get an idea of how serious these changes in Japan?s legal system are. They appear to be the opening front in implementing Prime Minister Abe?s campaign slogan, ?Nihon o torimodosu? (Bring Back Japan) which includes restoring many of the worst features of the Japanese pre-war constitution. The currently adopted state secrets act has features that resemble the notorious Peace Preservation Act that helped establish the so-called thought police during the prewar period. > > Exactly how the law will be enforced remains to be seen, but it has already had a chilling effect on the media in Japan since its adoption. > > ?Perhaps most important in all of this is the chilling effect that the law would have on people accessing or publishing any sort of information. With the opaque phrasing of the law persons will have no idea as to whether information they are accessing or publishing is in fact a designated secret. The Japanese Bar Association notes that, under the provisions of the bill, it is entirely plausible that people could be accused and tried without them or their lawyer being told exactly what information they are accused of having revealed. Unsurprisingly, government assurances that persons who accidentally come across or reveal secrets would not be punished are not convincing ? and logic indicates that, even if they ended up not being punished, such persons would be subject to investigation.? from a Dec. 7th editorial (see 4 below) > > > > As these issues will become more pronounced after the act goes into effect it is important that the community of people involved in cinema be fully aware of these events and on the look out for the problems that now seem likely to arise. These things should be subject to international debate and becoming better informed about them is the first step, especially as the international news community has not done a good job of covering the quickly occurring changes here in Japanx. I have inserted several relevant articles below, but searching on the net for Japanese sources about them has an even larger diversity of information and commentary on these events. > > > > Paul Berry > > Kyoto, Japan > > > > 1, The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 7 editorial after passage of the bill > > > > The Upper House passed legislation on Dec. 6 to protect confidential information concerning national security. Serious thought must be given to the grave implications from the viewpoints of the political system and the Constitution. > > > > Under the new state secrets protection law, the chiefs of ministries and agencies have the power to determine what specific information should be designated as a state secret and whether such confidential information should be disclosed for Diet deliberations or trials. > > > > The law will effectively create a pocket of secrecy within the sphere of administrative activities insulated from scrutiny by the public, the Diet or the judiciary. It will empower the government to determine at its discretion the scope and content of information that should be enveloped by the heavy veil of official secrecy. > > > > In other words, the government has obtained a convenient and powerful tool to limit information disclosure. The scope of state secrets will inevitably expand year after year. > > > > This situation poses a serious threat to the fundamental constitutional principles of popular sovereignty and separation of the three branches of government. > > > > The legislation could eviscerate the most important principles of modern democracy and bring outdated politics back to the nation. > > > > The enactment of the state secrets law amounts to making an ?effective revision to the Constitution? without following formal procedures. It can be likened to the Abe administration?s move to enable Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense through a change in the government?s interpretation of the related provision in the Constitution. > > > > REMOVING SAFEGUARDS FOR DEMOCRACY > > > > The political nature of this legislative initiative becomes even clearer when viewed against the backdrop of the track record of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his second tenure in office. > > > > In the first of a series of related steps, the Abe administration replaced the chief of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, who was opposed to Japan?s exercise of its right to collective self-defense, with a person who supported the idea. It was an attempt to suppress dissenting voices on the issue within the government. > > > > The Abe administration then filled vacancies in public broadcaster NHK?s Board of Governors, which has the power to appoint and to dismiss the broadcaster?s president, with people close to the prime minister. It is a move that deserves to be criticized as a ploy to muzzle the press. > > > > To cap it all, the administration has now succeeded in establishing the state secrets law. > > > > All of this clearly shows the Abe administration is trying to silence its noisy critics and remove, one by one, the safeguards against abuse of power. > > > > The chief justice of the Supreme Court will retire next year. If the Abe administration appoints a person unlikely to take exception to the government?s decisions as the successor, this nation could be hastening down a path toward autocratic government. > > > > When the ?twisted Diet,? due to opposition control of the Upper House, caused political gridlock, the nation?s policymaking machinery was bitterly criticized for being unable to make decisions. > > > > As soon as the gridlock disappeared following the ruling coalition?s landslide victory in the July Upper House election, however, the government began to eliminate safeguards for democracy. This is a far more dangerous situation than legislative gridlock. > > > > Where is the government trying to lead the nation in such haste? > > > > The Abe administration appears to be putting greater priority on building a system that allows Japan to cooperate more closely with the United States in fighting wars than on protecting the spirit of the Constitution and the principles of democracy. > > > > The administration?s reasoning seems to go like this: Japan needs to fortify its security alliance with the United States to respond to China?s rising military power. To do so, Japan needs to promise to fight together with the United States when the ally comes under attack. Japan also needs to create an organization that can share vital information closely with the U.S. National Security Council and has a similar name. In addition, Tokyo needs a system that allows it to guarantee to Washington that there will be no leaks of sensitive information provided by its ally. > > > > During Diet debate between party chiefs, Abe said the state secrets law is designed to protect the Japanese people. We are willing to believe him. He was probably not lying. > > > > DANGER OF POWER CONCENTRATION > > > > The question is whether the law will really protect the people. > > > > From the government?s point of view, centralizing power for a quicker decision-making process is a more effective approach to protecting the people than maintaining a system that requires time to explain policies to the public and building a consensus. > > > > But a government that is allowed to monopolize information and use its policymaking power without being restrained by safeguards against abuse can easily go astray, regardless of its intentions. > > > > The government should disclose information, encourage broad public debate on key policy issues and pay serious attention to the voice of the people. The legislative and judicial branches should be able to check and correct mistakes made by the administrative branch. Authorities will inevitably make misguided decisions if they disable this vital system of checks and balances. > > > > There is ample historical evidence of such dangers. > > > > Prewar Japan and Germany are two typical examples of how dangerous leaders can be when they have unrestricted power. > > > > Both countries tightly controlled information available to the public and cracked down on dissenting voices. The rulers of the two nations created systems that enabled them to make policy decisions without going through a due process of legislation. > > > > Nazi Germany established a law that gave the government the power to enact laws as it wished and even ignore the Constitution. Imperial Japan enacted the notorious National Mobilization Law, which based a wide range of powers on discretionary imperial orders issued by the government. > > > > We must not forget what kind of consequences these laws produced for both nations. > > > > DIET, PUBLIC SHOULD RISE TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY > > > > Based on the bitter lessons of history, the postwar Constitution provides for a governing system that ensures a separation of powers. The Constitution defines the Diet as ?the highest organ of state power? and ?the sole lawmaking organ of the State.? > > > > By enacting the state secrets protections law, the Diet, oblivious to its mission, helped the Abe administration take a big step toward creating an autocratic government. It is an extremely foolish act. > > > > Japan doesn?t need the state secrets protection law. Since the Diet has now enacted the law, it should take the responsibility to quickly repeal it. > > > > If immediately revoking the law is difficult, the Diet should at least act swiftly to take measures to reduce the negative effects of the law. > > > > The Diet should set up its own body to scrutinize the government?s decisions to designate specific information as a state secret for protection under the law. It should also require the government to make records of all such decisions and ensure full information disclosure. The Diet needs to swiftly take these steps. > > > > The public should also ask itself some serious questions. > > > > Things have come to this because we have allowed politicians to hold us in contempt. Many politicians apparently think only a few voters will actually express their views publicly and take part in the political process to protect their sovereignty and their right to know, however important they think these democratic values are. > > > > The politicians are clearly betting that even if the new law provokes an angry response from the public, voters will forget about it by the next election. > > > > As long as we allow politicians to sell us short this way, the situation will not change. > > > > Things will start improving only if the Japanese people make a solid resolution to protect democratic principles they value and demonstrate a commitment to them by protesting continuously against any move to undermine them. > > > > --The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 7th > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 2, Movie industry starts group against state secrets bill > > > > December 04, 2013 > > > > By YUKA ORII/ Staff Writer > > > > The movie industry formed a group Dec. 3 to oppose the state secrets protection bill, saying the Abe administration is returning Japan to its dangerous World War II days. > > > > ?Based on the reflections of our predecessors, who were forced to support the war against their will, the Japanese movie industry started to walk on the postwar path (back to normalcy),? the group said in a statement. > > > > It added, ?We cannot support this bill at all because it could deprive us of the ?right to know? and endanger ?freedom of expression.?? > > > > Film directors Isao Takahata, Yasuo Furuhata and Yoji Yamada were among those who had called for the establishment of ?Tokutei Himitsu Hogo Hoan ni Hantaisuru Eigajin no Kai? (Group of movie people who oppose the state secrets protection bill). > > > > ?There is no other way except to patiently put up resistance so that our society will not return to the one before and during the war,? Furuhata said. > > > > Takahata said, ?We are appalled by the fact that we, the Japanese people, are the ones who created the Abe administration.? > > > > In just four days, the group gained 264 supporters, including film directors Nobuhiko Obayashi, Hayao Miyazaki, Hirokazu Koreeda and Kazuyuki Izutsu, actresses Sayuri Yoshinaga and Shinobu Otake, and scriptwriters Taichi Yamada and James Miki. > > > > Cinematographers, movie theater operators, film critics and about 60 fans joined the group. > > > > Criticism was also directed at the way the ruling coalition has been trying to rush the bill through the Diet before the current session ends on Dec. 6. > > > > ?I am angered at the way the public hearing was held obviously just for show,? film director Masato Harada said. > > By YUKA ORII/ Staff Writer > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 3. www.cnn.com/2013/08/02/world/asia/japan-politician-nazi-comment (http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/02/world/asia/japan-politician-nazi-comment) > > > > Japanese government minister's Nazi remarks cause furor > > By Jethro Mullen, CNN > > August 2, 2013 -- Updated 1206 GMT (2006 HKT) > > (CNN) -- Japan's deputy prime minister stirred controversy this week by appearing to suggest that the government could learn from the way that Nazi Germany changed its constitution. > > > > The remarks by Taro Aso, who is also the Japanese finance minister, provoked criticism from Japan's neighbors and a Jewish organization in the United States. > > > > Aso, a former prime minister who has slipped up with verbal gaffes in the past, retracted the comments later in the week but refused to apologize for them or resign, saying they had been taken out of context. > > > > Amid persistent talk in Japan about revising the country's pacifist post-war constitution, Aso set off the controversy at a seminar Monday, in which he said that discussions over constitutional changes should be carried out calmly. > > > > "Germany's Weimar Constitution was changed into the Nazi Constitution before anyone knew," he said in comments widely reported by the Japanese media. "It was changed before anyone else noticed. Why don't we learn from that method?" > > > > Aso added: "I have no intention of denying democracy. Again, I repeat that we should not decide [constitutional revisions] in a frenzy." > > > > In 1933, Adolf Hitler's National Socialists turned the democratic Weimar Republic into a dictatorship using "a combination of legal procedure, persuasion, and terror," according to the U.S. Library of Congress. > > > > Hitler used a fire that burned down the parliament building as a pretext to suppress the opposition through an emergency clause in the constitution. He then pushed through the Enabling Act, which allowed him to govern without parliament and vastly extend the Nazis' grip on power. > > > > Words that hurt > > > > Aso's apparent reference to those changes drew expressions of concern from the governments of China and South Korea, two countries that suffered heavily under Japanese imperial aggression during World War II, a conflict in which Japan was allied with Nazi Germany. > > > > Beijing and Seoul are already wary of Japan's hawkish prime minister, Shinzo Abe. His campaign platform for elections last year included measures aimed at restoring Japanese national pride such as revising the constitution to give the country's self-defense forces the status of a regular army. > > > > Abe's party now has control of both houses of parliament. But it remains unclear if he will take on the difficult, controversial challenge of constitutional change, which would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers. > > > > Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said Wednesday that Aso's comments mean that other countries need to step up their vigilance over the direction in which Japan is headed. > > > > China and Japan are locked in a tense territorial dispute over a set of small, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that has fueled nationalist sentiments in on both sides. > > > > South Korea, meanwhile, called for "prudence" from Japanese political leaders. > > > > "Such comments definitely hurt a lot of people," Cho Tai-young, a foreign ministry spokesman, said Tuesday. > > > > And the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, demanded that Aso immediately clarify his remarks. > > > > "What 'techniques' from the Nazis' governance are worth learning ? how to stealthily cripple democracy?" asked Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean at the center. > > > > "The only lessons on governance that the world should draw from the Nazi Third Reich is how those in positions of power should not behave," Cooper said in a statement Tuesday. > > > > 'Great misunderstandings' > > > > Aso responded Thursday to the criticism over his comments, which also came from opposition lawmakers in Japan, saying he regretted that the remarks had "caused great misunderstandings despite my true intentions." > > > > He said that he had referred to the Nazi takeover of power as a "bad example" of constitutional revision because changes were forced through "in a commotion." They should be done through calm debates instead. > > > > "I believe it is obvious that I feel extremely negatively about Nazi Germany, if you consider the entire context," he said. "However, since these remarks have caused serious misunderstandings, I would like to retract them." > > > > Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference the same day that "the Abe administration definitely does not view Nazi Germany positively and I am sure Vice Prime Minister Aso himself does not either." > > > > It's not the first time Aso's words have gotten him into hot water. At a meeting about social security reform and healthcare costs in January, he caused offense by suggesting it would be best for people on life support to "die quickly." > > > > "Aso's comment about Hitler and the implication that his example should be followed are utterly unacceptable," the Asahi Shimbun, a daily newspaper, said in an editorial Friday. " The remark is not something that Aso can get away with by simply retracting it." > > > > CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki and journalist Saori Ibuki contributed to this report. > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 4, > > As if it ever needed repeating, the people of Japan were once again treated to a reminder of how secretive and arbitrary their government can be during the nuclear disaster in Fukushima 2011. Government foot-dragging and reluctance to divulge information meant that people remained exposed to high doses of radiation for over a month after the meltdown with potentially grave health consequences. Now, what is easily the most right wing government Japan has seen in decades has forced through parliament a bill to classify ?special secrets? that would essentially give the executive carte blanche to withhold information on a massive scale, not seen since the period of militarism directly leading up to, and during, World War 2. > > > > The law, known as the Designated Secrets Bill, was hurriedly rammed throughthe more powerful lower house on 26 November, and then passed through the upper house in equally speedy fashion on 6 December. It gives unrestricted power to the executive to designate a broad range of information as national secrets. There are no effective checks or balances, no truly meaningful opportunity for the involvement of any independent body, and no effective way to ensure that the executive is not abusing its power. Only the barest of outlines of information regarding what sort of information has even been designated as secret will be disclosed to the public. The bill would violate the right of people?s right to access information, severely punish whistleblowers, and have a chilling effect on journalism, civil society organizations, and the actions of concerned citizens. > > > > The government has repeated the mantra that the bill is necessary because Japan is a ?heaven for spies? due to a lack of espionage and state secrets legal infrastructure. They would have the people believe that the government lacks the power to keep information confidential, and that Tokyo is full of foreign agents who freely collect sensitive secrets. Nothing could be further from the truth ? the government already designates a wide range of information as confidential ?410,000 pieces of information have been designated so since a sweeping government policy was implemented on this in 2009. > > > > In addition, in response to a question in parliament, Prime Minister Abe admitted that the government was aware of five cases of ?leaks of important information by civil servants? over the past fifteen years. Five cases over fifteen years can hardly be described as a ?heaven?. The truth, as even the government admits, is that this bill is intrinsically connected with another bill adopted by parliament in November, establishing a National Security Council much along the lines of the US body by the same name. Indeed, the Secrets bill specifically provides for the sharing of designated secrets with foreign governments, who are apparently more trustworthy than Japan?s own people. > > Constitutional infringement > > > > There are four categories of information listed in the bill that could potentially qualify for designation as a secret ? defense, diplomacy, ?designated dangerous activities?, and prevention of terrorism ? but they are worded in an extremely broad manner. Seemingly any kind of information related to defense could qualify, as well as any ?important security related information? in the area of foreign relations, any information related to official efforts in the area of counter terrorism, and any information related to ?activities potentially harmful to national security?. The possible designations of particular information as ?secret? are essentially infinite; though there is a principled maximum period of sixty years (already extremely long) stipulated in the amended bill, there are also categories of information ? almost equally sweeping ? which it is possible to designate secret with no time limit. The role envisioned for parliament is extremely limited, to the extent that it would most probably be meaningless. > > > > The bill does state that, in applying the law, the government should ?fully take into account? journalistic reporting ?aimed at ensuring the peoples? right to access information?. These provisions are ?vague? to say the least, and appear to grant the government leeway to decide which reporting is ?aimed at ensuring? this right. But punishments for the revealing of secrets are severe ? up to ten years imprisonment for civil servants or persons subcontractors dealing with secrets. Persons who obtain secrets through illegal means are also subject to up to ten years imprisonment, and persons who ?incite? the revealing of secrets are subject to up to five years imprisonment. Persons who reveal secrets through negligence can also be subject to imprisonment, as are persons who ?incite? or conspire to divulge secrets. > > > > It is worth pointing out that the right to access information is not only a vital element of the right to freedom of expression, but also a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Japanese constitution. Article 21 states that ?freedom of?speech, press, and all other forms of expression are guaranteed? and, in accordance with developments in international law, this article has been interpreted by the Japanese courts to include the right to access information. The same article also states that the government must ?refrain from violating fundamental human rights in an unreasonable manner? in applying the law, begging the question as to what ?unreasonable? means in this new environment. > > > > Even worse, article 21 goes on to say that reporting by the media will not be punished ?insofar as those activities are aimed solely at ensuring the public interest and are not based on illegal or clearly unreasonable methods?. There is no definition of what the ?public interest? means in this context, and just how the government will ascertain this. The government has even stated that some bloggers and other social media activists may not fall under the definition of ?media? in this article, indicating that even the above pathetic safeguards would not apply. > > > > As one could imagine, public outcry regarding the bill has been intense with near-daily demonstrations and criticism from human rights organizations, including the Japanese Bar Association, former prominent conservative MPs, academic societies, journalist societies, and prefectural and local councils. Unusually for a country that is used to being under the radar of international scrutiny, the bill was also the target of harsh criticism from human rights actors in the United Nations. The UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression together with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health issued a statement criticizing the sweeping provisions of the bill, and the lack of protection for whistle blowers. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed similar concerns. > > > > Government responses to these concerns have been a shining example of evasion, vagueness, and a condescending ?shut up and trust us? mentality ? indeed, the fact that the government opened the bill to public comment for only two weeks, as opposed to the normal practice of a full month, shows the contempt in which it holds views it does not agree with. One NGO filed a request for the minutes of the meetings of a government panel that had discussed the provisions of the bill ? minutes that date back to 2008. In an insult to the notion of government accountability, the documents the NGO was provided with were almost completely redacted, i.e. blacked out. > > A new chilling effect > > > > In one telling response to the obvious question of what would entail a ?clearly unreasonable method? of reporting, Minister Masako Mori, the female Cabinet member charged by Prime Minister Abe to steer the bill through parliament seemingly for no reason other than placing a woman in front of the cameras would give the bill a ?soft? image, gave the example of the infamous Nishiyama case of 1972. Takichi Nishiyama, a former journalist for Mainichi Shimbun, a major Japanese broadsheet, was arrested for obtaining information from a Japanese Foreign Ministry secretary (with whom, it later came to light, he had been having an affair) regarding a secret agreement between Japan and the US surrounding the return of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty. Though the agreement that had been made public by the two governments had stated that certain expenses totaling USD 4 million would be paid by the US, this was an outright lie, and the secret agreement specified that the costs would be footed by the Japanese. > > > > For his efforts in exposing government deception of the people, Nishiyama was convicted in 1978 of inciting a civil servant to reveal confidential information. 30 years later, declassified US government documents confirmed Nishiyama?s allegations ? and yet his name is used by the government as a good example of ?bad? journalism. Tellingly, Mori has declared that subjects of intense public debate, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) economic agreement currently being negotiated behind closed doors with the United States and other countries, could be designated as secrets. And government reassurances have been unable to quell fears that with such broad provisions in the bill, important information regarding nuclear safety could be designated as secret as well. > > > > Perhaps most important in all of this is the chilling effect that the law would have on people accessing or publishing any sort of information. With the opaque phrasing of the law persons will have no idea as to whether information they are accessing or publishing is in fact a designated secret. The Japanese Bar Association notes that, under the provisions of the bill, it is entirely plausible that people could be accused and tried without them or their lawyer being told exactly what information they are accused of having revealed. Unsurprisingly, government assurances that persons who accidentally come across or reveal secrets would not be punished are not convincing ? and logic indicates that, even if they ended up not being punished, such persons would be subject to investigation. > > > > In the early hours of 5 December, the government announced in response to mounting pressure that it would create two ?independent? bodies to oversee implementation of the law and ensure that there was no abuse. However, of these two bodies, only one is truly independent ? a panel of legal experts which will advise the PM in creating guidelines regarding the designation of secrets, and which will receive an annual report on implementation of the law. However, it appears that the PM will only provide this panel with a simple outline stating the number of pieces of information that had been designated secret by category. Beyond that, there is no clarity as to how this panel would operate, and how much power it would actually have. It would be child?s play for the government to appoint a panel of government cronies to rubber stamp a one page note. > > > > Calling the other body to be created ?independent? is an insult to one?s intelligence. The ?oversight committee for information retention? will monitor application of the law and ensure that there is no abuse, and is clearly the more powerful body of the two. However, it will be made up of undersecretaries (the highest ranking civil servants) from the Foreign and Defence Ministries ? the two ministries that will undoubtedly be designating the largest number of secrets. Unsurprisingly, no one in Japan expects any kind of serious oversight from this body. > > > > Many opposed to the bill have pointed out strikingly similar language in legislation from darker times, in particular the infamous National Defence and Public Security Act of 1941, which was used by the government to jail opponents of the war effort. The Japanese experience from those days is that government secrets lead to more government secrets, and then to war. To use a phrase the generation that remembers the 1930s often uses to describe the creeping nature of militarism ? the jackboots come closer and closer. > > > > This article was originally posted on 10 Dec 2013 at opendemocracy.net (http://opendemocracy.net). > > > > _______________________________________________ > > KineJapan mailing list > > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu (mailto:KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu) > > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu (mailto:KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu) > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From hakutaku at kansaigaidai.ac.jp Thu Dec 12 17:02:40 2013 From: hakutaku at kansaigaidai.ac.jp (BERRY Paul) Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 07:02:40 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Kore-eda, Miyazaki, Takahata, etc. oppose State Secrets Act In-Reply-To: <0FB1B359-7D11-40F2-919F-0777861C133A@umich.edu> Message-ID: <1323767701.3135197.1386885760910.JavaMail.root@kansaigaidai.ac.jp> In early December, a group of movie directors (including Miyazaki, Takahata, Kore-eda) and others who are part of the movie industry formed an association to oppose passage of the state secrets protection bill. (see article 2 below) Many other groups quickly formed as protests arose in cities around Japan in a futile attempt to stop this legislation from becoming law. These efforts failed. The law was passed on Dec. 6th and will go into effect at some point next year. Why were these directors and others such as Oe Kenzaburo, Japanese Nobel-winning scientists, Japanese Catholic Bishops, Japanese Bar Association, and many other groups so opposed to this legislation? The first inklings of drastic changes to come came from Deputy Prime Minister Aso who is also the Japanese Finance Minister (former Prime Minister) when in early August he said, "Germany's Weimar Constitution was changed into the Nazi Constitution before anyone knew," he said in comments widely reported by the Japanese media. "It was changed before anyone else noticed. Why don't we learn from that method?" (see article 3 below) Although he claimed these remarks were taken out of context he did not retract the basic idea that the LDP should consider such methods. Then, over a two-week period starting in late November, the LDP introduced a hitherto unannounced bill for protecting state secrets. The vague wording of the key provisions of this bill will allow for a vast expansion of the designation of government secrets for a 60-year period with provisions for police investigation of violations and prison terms from 5 to 10 years for violations. Please read the editorials inserted below from various Japanese newspapers below to get an idea of how serious these changes in Japan?s legal system are. They appear to be the opening front in implementing Prime Minister Abe?s campaign slogan, ?Nihon o torimodosu? (Bring Back Japan) which includes restoring many of the worst features of the Japanese pre-war constitution. The currently adopted state secrets act has features that resemble the notorious Peace Preservation Act that helped establish the so-called thought police during the prewar period. Exactly how the law will be enforced remains to be seen, but it has already had a chilling effect on the media in Japan since its adoption. ?Perhaps most important in all of this is the chilling effect that the law would have on people accessing or publishing any sort of information. With the opaque phrasing of the law persons will have no idea as to whether information they are accessing or publishing is in fact a designated secret. The Japanese Bar Association notes that, under the provisions of the bill, it is entirely plausible that people could be accused and tried without them or their lawyer being told exactly what information they are accused of having revealed. Unsurprisingly, government assurances that persons who accidentally come across or reveal secrets would not be punished are not convincing ? and logic indicates that, even if they ended up not being punished, such persons would be subject to investigation.? from a Dec. 7th editorial (see 4 below) As these issues will become more pronounced after the act goes into effect it is important that the community of people involved in cinema be fully aware of these events and on the look out for the problems that now seem likely to arise. These things should be subject to international debate and becoming better informed about them is the first step, especially as the international news community has not done a good job of covering the quickly occurring changes here in Japanx. I have inserted several relevant articles below, but searching on the net for Japanese sources about them has an even larger diversity of information and commentary on these events. Paul Berry Kyoto, Japan 1, The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 7 editorial after passage of the bill The Upper House passed legislation on Dec. 6 to protect confidential information concerning national security. Serious thought must be given to the grave implications from the viewpoints of the political system and the Constitution. Under the new state secrets protection law, the chiefs of ministries and agencies have the power to determine what specific information should be designated as a state secret and whether such confidential information should be disclosed for Diet deliberations or trials. The law will effectively create a pocket of secrecy within the sphere of administrative activities insulated from scrutiny by the public, the Diet or the judiciary. It will empower the government to determine at its discretion the scope and content of information that should be enveloped by the heavy veil of official secrecy. In other words, the government has obtained a convenient and powerful tool to limit information disclosure. The scope of state secrets will inevitably expand year after year. This situation poses a serious threat to the fundamental constitutional principles of popular sovereignty and separation of the three branches of government. The legislation could eviscerate the most important principles of modern democracy and bring outdated politics back to the nation. The enactment of the state secrets law amounts to making an ?effective revision to the Constitution? without following formal procedures. It can be likened to the Abe administration?s move to enable Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense through a change in the government?s interpretation of the related provision in the Constitution. REMOVING SAFEGUARDS FOR DEMOCRACY The political nature of this legislative initiative becomes even clearer when viewed against the backdrop of the track record of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his second tenure in office. In the first of a series of related steps, the Abe administration replaced the chief of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, who was opposed to Japan?s exercise of its right to collective self-defense, with a person who supported the idea. It was an attempt to suppress dissenting voices on the issue within the government. The Abe administration then filled vacancies in public broadcaster NHK?s Board of Governors, which has the power to appoint and to dismiss the broadcaster?s president, with people close to the prime minister. It is a move that deserves to be criticized as a ploy to muzzle the press. To cap it all, the administration has now succeeded in establishing the state secrets law. All of this clearly shows the Abe administration is trying to silence its noisy critics and remove, one by one, the safeguards against abuse of power. The chief justice of the Supreme Court will retire next year. If the Abe administration appoints a person unlikely to take exception to the government?s decisions as the successor, this nation could be hastening down a path toward autocratic government. When the ?twisted Diet,? due to opposition control of the Upper House, caused political gridlock, the nation?s policymaking machinery was bitterly criticized for being unable to make decisions. As soon as the gridlock disappeared following the ruling coalition?s landslide victory in the July Upper House election, however, the government began to eliminate safeguards for democracy. This is a far more dangerous situation than legislative gridlock. Where is the government trying to lead the nation in such haste? The Abe administration appears to be putting greater priority on building a system that allows Japan to cooperate more closely with the United States in fighting wars than on protecting the spirit of the Constitution and the principles of democracy. The administration?s reasoning seems to go like this: Japan needs to fortify its security alliance with the United States to respond to China?s rising military power. To do so, Japan needs to promise to fight together with the United States when the ally comes under attack. Japan also needs to create an organization that can share vital information closely with the U.S. National Security Council and has a similar name. In addition, Tokyo needs a system that allows it to guarantee to Washington that there will be no leaks of sensitive information provided by its ally. During Diet debate between party chiefs, Abe said the state secrets law is designed to protect the Japanese people. We are willing to believe him. He was probably not lying. DANGER OF POWER CONCENTRATION The question is whether the law will really protect the people. From the government?s point of view, centralizing power for a quicker decision-making process is a more effective approach to protecting the people than maintaining a system that requires time to explain policies to the public and building a consensus. But a government that is allowed to monopolize information and use its policymaking power without being restrained by safeguards against abuse can easily go astray, regardless of its intentions. The government should disclose information, encourage broad public debate on key policy issues and pay serious attention to the voice of the people. The legislative and judicial branches should be able to check and correct mistakes made by the administrative branch. Authorities will inevitably make misguided decisions if they disable this vital system of checks and balances. There is ample historical evidence of such dangers. Prewar Japan and Germany are two typical examples of how dangerous leaders can be when they have unrestricted power. Both countries tightly controlled information available to the public and cracked down on dissenting voices. The rulers of the two nations created systems that enabled them to make policy decisions without going through a due process of legislation. Nazi Germany established a law that gave the government the power to enact laws as it wished and even ignore the Constitution. Imperial Japan enacted the notorious National Mobilization Law, which based a wide range of powers on discretionary imperial orders issued by the government. We must not forget what kind of consequences these laws produced for both nations. DIET, PUBLIC SHOULD RISE TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY Based on the bitter lessons of history, the postwar Constitution provides for a governing system that ensures a separation of powers. The Constitution defines the Diet as ?the highest organ of state power? and ?the sole lawmaking organ of the State.? By enacting the state secrets protections law, the Diet, oblivious to its mission, helped the Abe administration take a big step toward creating an autocratic government. It is an extremely foolish act. Japan doesn?t need the state secrets protection law. Since the Diet has now enacted the law, it should take the responsibility to quickly repeal it. If immediately revoking the law is difficult, the Diet should at least act swiftly to take measures to reduce the negative effects of the law. The Diet should set up its own body to scrutinize the government?s decisions to designate specific information as a state secret for protection under the law. It should also require the government to make records of all such decisions and ensure full information disclosure. The Diet needs to swiftly take these steps. The public should also ask itself some serious questions. Things have come to this because we have allowed politicians to hold us in contempt. Many politicians apparently think only a few voters will actually express their views publicly and take part in the political process to protect their sovereignty and their right to know, however important they think these democratic values are. The politicians are clearly betting that even if the new law provokes an angry response from the public, voters will forget about it by the next election. As long as we allow politicians to sell us short this way, the situation will not change. Things will start improving only if the Japanese people make a solid resolution to protect democratic principles they value and demonstrate a commitment to them by protesting continuously against any move to undermine them. --The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 7th ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2, Movie industry starts group against state secrets bill December 04, 2013 By YUKA ORII/ Staff Writer The movie industry formed a group Dec. 3 to oppose the state secrets protection bill, saying the Abe administration is returning Japan to its dangerous World War II days. ?Based on the reflections of our predecessors, who were forced to support the war against their will, the Japanese movie industry started to walk on the postwar path (back to normalcy),? the group said in a statement. It added, ?We cannot support this bill at all because it could deprive us of the ?right to know? and endanger ?freedom of expression.?? Film directors Isao Takahata, Yasuo Furuhata and Yoji Yamada were among those who had called for the establishment of ?Tokutei Himitsu Hogo Hoan ni Hantaisuru Eigajin no Kai? (Group of movie people who oppose the state secrets protection bill). ?There is no other way except to patiently put up resistance so that our society will not return to the one before and during the war,? Furuhata said. Takahata said, ?We are appalled by the fact that we, the Japanese people, are the ones who created the Abe administration.? In just four days, the group gained 264 supporters, including film directors Nobuhiko Obayashi, Hayao Miyazaki, Hirokazu Koreeda and Kazuyuki Izutsu, actresses Sayuri Yoshinaga and Shinobu Otake, and scriptwriters Taichi Yamada and James Miki. Cinematographers, movie theater operators, film critics and about 60 fans joined the group. Criticism was also directed at the way the ruling coalition has been trying to rush the bill through the Diet before the current session ends on Dec. 6. ?I am angered at the way the public hearing was held obviously just for show,? film director Masato Harada said. By YUKA ORII/ Staff Writer --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. www.cnn.com/2013/08/02/world/asia/japan-politician-nazi-comment Japanese government minister's Nazi remarks cause furor By Jethro Mullen, CNN August 2, 2013 -- Updated 1206 GMT (2006 HKT) (CNN) -- Japan's deputy prime minister stirred controversy this week by appearing to suggest that the government could learn from the way that Nazi Germany changed its constitution. The remarks by Taro Aso, who is also the Japanese finance minister, provoked criticism from Japan's neighbors and a Jewish organization in the United States. Aso, a former prime minister who has slipped up with verbal gaffes in the past, retracted the comments later in the week but refused to apologize for them or resign, saying they had been taken out of context. Amid persistent talk in Japan about revising the country's pacifist post-war constitution, Aso set off the controversy at a seminar Monday, in which he said that discussions over constitutional changes should be carried out calmly. "Germany's Weimar Constitution was changed into the Nazi Constitution before anyone knew," he said in comments widely reported by the Japanese media. "It was changed before anyone else noticed. Why don't we learn from that method?" Aso added: "I have no intention of denying democracy. Again, I repeat that we should not decide [constitutional revisions] in a frenzy." In 1933, Adolf Hitler's National Socialists turned the democratic Weimar Republic into a dictatorship using "a combination of legal procedure, persuasion, and terror," according to the U.S. Library of Congress. Hitler used a fire that burned down the parliament building as a pretext to suppress the opposition through an emergency clause in the constitution. He then pushed through the Enabling Act, which allowed him to govern without parliament and vastly extend the Nazis' grip on power. Words that hurt Aso's apparent reference to those changes drew expressions of concern from the governments of China and South Korea, two countries that suffered heavily under Japanese imperial aggression during World War II, a conflict in which Japan was allied with Nazi Germany. Beijing and Seoul are already wary of Japan's hawkish prime minister, Shinzo Abe. His campaign platform for elections last year included measures aimed at restoring Japanese national pride such as revising the constitution to give the country's self-defense forces the status of a regular army. Abe's party now has control of both houses of parliament. But it remains unclear if he will take on the difficult, controversial challenge of constitutional change, which would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers. Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said Wednesday that Aso's comments mean that other countries need to step up their vigilance over the direction in which Japan is headed. China and Japan are locked in a tense territorial dispute over a set of small, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that has fueled nationalist sentiments in on both sides. South Korea, meanwhile, called for "prudence" from Japanese political leaders. "Such comments definitely hurt a lot of people," Cho Tai-young, a foreign ministry spokesman, said Tuesday. And the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, demanded that Aso immediately clarify his remarks. "What 'techniques' from the Nazis' governance are worth learning ? how to stealthily cripple democracy?" asked Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean at the center. "The only lessons on governance that the world should draw from the Nazi Third Reich is how those in positions of power should not behave," Cooper said in a statement Tuesday. 'Great misunderstandings' Aso responded Thursday to the criticism over his comments, which also came from opposition lawmakers in Japan, saying he regretted that the remarks had "caused great misunderstandings despite my true intentions." He said that he had referred to the Nazi takeover of power as a "bad example" of constitutional revision because changes were forced through "in a commotion." They should be done through calm debates instead. "I believe it is obvious that I feel extremely negatively about Nazi Germany, if you consider the entire context," he said. "However, since these remarks have caused serious misunderstandings, I would like to retract them." Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference the same day that "the Abe administration definitely does not view Nazi Germany positively and I am sure Vice Prime Minister Aso himself does not either." It's not the first time Aso's words have gotten him into hot water. At a meeting about social security reform and healthcare costs in January, he caused offense by suggesting it would be best for people on life support to "die quickly." "Aso's comment about Hitler and the implication that his example should be followed are utterly unacceptable," the Asahi Shimbun, a daily newspaper, said in an editorial Friday. " The remark is not something that Aso can get away with by simply retracting it." CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki and journalist Saori Ibuki contributed to this report. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4, As if it ever needed repeating, the people of Japan were once again treated to a reminder of how secretive and arbitrary their government can be during the nuclear disaster in Fukushima 2011. Government foot-dragging and reluctance to divulge information meant that people remained exposed to high doses of radiation for over a month after the meltdown with potentially grave health consequences. Now, what is easily the most right wing government Japan has seen in decades has forced through parliament a bill to classify ?special secrets? that would essentially give the executive carte blanche to withhold information on a massive scale, not seen since the period of militarism directly leading up to, and during, World War 2. The law, known as the Designated Secrets Bill, was hurriedly rammed throughthe more powerful lower house on 26 November, and then passed through the upper house in equally speedy fashion on 6 December. It gives unrestricted power to the executive to designate a broad range of information as national secrets. There are no effective checks or balances, no truly meaningful opportunity for the involvement of any independent body, and no effective way to ensure that the executive is not abusing its power. Only the barest of outlines of information regarding what sort of information has even been designated as secret will be disclosed to the public. The bill would violate the right of people?s right to access information, severely punish whistleblowers, and have a chilling effect on journalism, civil society organizations, and the actions of concerned citizens. The government has repeated the mantra that the bill is necessary because Japan is a ?heaven for spies? due to a lack of espionage and state secrets legal infrastructure. They would have the people believe that the government lacks the power to keep information confidential, and that Tokyo is full of foreign agents who freely collect sensitive secrets. Nothing could be further from the truth ? the government already designates a wide range of information as confidential ?410,000 pieces of information have been designated so since a sweeping government policy was implemented on this in 2009. In addition, in response to a question in parliament, Prime Minister Abe admitted that the government was aware of five cases of ?leaks of important information by civil servants? over the past fifteen years. Five cases over fifteen years can hardly be described as a ?heaven?. The truth, as even the government admits, is that this bill is intrinsically connected with another bill adopted by parliament in November, establishing a National Security Council much along the lines of the US body by the same name. Indeed, the Secrets bill specifically provides for the sharing of designated secrets with foreign governments, who are apparently more trustworthy than Japan?s own people. Constitutional infringement There are four categories of information listed in the bill that could potentially qualify for designation as a secret ? defense, diplomacy, ?designated dangerous activities?, and prevention of terrorism ? but they are worded in an extremely broad manner. Seemingly any kind of information related to defense could qualify, as well as any ?important security related information? in the area of foreign relations, any information related to official efforts in the area of counter terrorism, and any information related to ?activities potentially harmful to national security?. The possible designations of particular information as ?secret? are essentially infinite; though there is a principled maximum period of sixty years (already extremely long) stipulated in the amended bill, there are also categories of information ? almost equally sweeping ? which it is possible to designate secret with no time limit. The role envisioned for parliament is extremely limited, to the extent that it would most probably be meaningless. The bill does state that, in applying the law, the government should ?fully take into account? journalistic reporting ?aimed at ensuring the peoples? right to access information?. These provisions are ?vague? to say the least, and appear to grant the government leeway to decide which reporting is ?aimed at ensuring? this right. But punishments for the revealing of secrets are severe ? up to ten years imprisonment for civil servants or persons subcontractors dealing with secrets. Persons who obtain secrets through illegal means are also subject to up to ten years imprisonment, and persons who ?incite? the revealing of secrets are subject to up to five years imprisonment. Persons who reveal secrets through negligence can also be subject to imprisonment, as are persons who ?incite? or conspire to divulge secrets. It is worth pointing out that the right to access information is not only a vital element of the right to freedom of expression, but also a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Japanese constitution. Article 21 states that ?freedom of?speech, press, and all other forms of expression are guaranteed? and, in accordance with developments in international law, this article has been interpreted by the Japanese courts to include the right to access information. The same article also states that the government must ?refrain from violating fundamental human rights in an unreasonable manner? in applying the law, begging the question as to what ?unreasonable? means in this new environment. Even worse, article 21 goes on to say that reporting by the media will not be punished ?insofar as those activities are aimed solely at ensuring the public interest and are not based on illegal or clearly unreasonable methods?. There is no definition of what the ?public interest? means in this context, and just how the government will ascertain this. The government has even stated that some bloggers and other social media activists may not fall under the definition of ?media? in this article, indicating that even the above pathetic safeguards would not apply. As one could imagine, public outcry regarding the bill has been intense with near-daily demonstrations and criticism from human rights organizations, including the Japanese Bar Association, former prominent conservative MPs, academic societies, journalist societies, and prefectural and local councils. Unusually for a country that is used to being under the radar of international scrutiny, the bill was also the target of harsh criticism from human rights actors in the United Nations. The UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression together with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health issued a statement criticizing the sweeping provisions of the bill, and the lack of protection for whistle blowers. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed similar concerns. Government responses to these concerns have been a shining example of evasion, vagueness, and a condescending ?shut up and trust us? mentality ? indeed, the fact that the government opened the bill to public comment for only two weeks, as opposed to the normal practice of a full month, shows the contempt in which it holds views it does not agree with. One NGO filed a request for the minutes of the meetings of a government panel that had discussed the provisions of the bill ? minutes that date back to 2008. In an insult to the notion of government accountability, the documents the NGO was provided with were almost completely redacted, i.e. blacked out. A new chilling effect In one telling response to the obvious question of what would entail a ?clearly unreasonable method? of reporting, Minister Masako Mori, the female Cabinet member charged by Prime Minister Abe to steer the bill through parliament seemingly for no reason other than placing a woman in front of the cameras would give the bill a ?soft? image, gave the example of the infamous Nishiyama case of 1972. Takichi Nishiyama, a former journalist for Mainichi Shimbun, a major Japanese broadsheet, was arrested for obtaining information from a Japanese Foreign Ministry secretary (with whom, it later came to light, he had been having an affair) regarding a secret agreement between Japan and the US surrounding the return of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty. Though the agreement that had been made public by the two governments had stated that certain expenses totaling USD 4 million would be paid by the US, this was an outright lie, and the secret agreement specified that the costs would be footed by the Japanese. For his efforts in exposing government deception of the people, Nishiyama was convicted in 1978 of inciting a civil servant to reveal confidential information. 30 years later, declassified US government documents confirmed Nishiyama?s allegations ? and yet his name is used by the government as a good example of ?bad? journalism. Tellingly, Mori has declared that subjects of intense public debate, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) economic agreement currently being negotiated behind closed doors with the United States and other countries, could be designated as secrets. And government reassurances have been unable to quell fears that with such broad provisions in the bill, important information regarding nuclear safety could be designated as secret as well. Perhaps most important in all of this is the chilling effect that the law would have on people accessing or publishing any sort of information. With the opaque phrasing of the law persons will have no idea as to whether information they are accessing or publishing is in fact a designated secret. The Japanese Bar Association notes that, under the provisions of the bill, it is entirely plausible that people could be accused and tried without them or their lawyer being told exactly what information they are accused of having revealed. Unsurprisingly, government assurances that persons who accidentally come across or reveal secrets would not be punished are not convincing ? and logic indicates that, even if they ended up not being punished, such persons would be subject to investigation. In the early hours of 5 December, the government announced in response to mounting pressure that it would create two ?independent? bodies to oversee implementation of the law and ensure that there was no abuse. However, of these two bodies, only one is truly independent ? a panel of legal experts which will advise the PM in creating guidelines regarding the designation of secrets, and which will receive an annual report on implementation of the law. However, it appears that the PM will only provide this panel with a simple outline stating the number of pieces of information that had been designated secret by category. Beyond that, there is no clarity as to how this panel would operate, and how much power it would actually have. It would be child?s play for the government to appoint a panel of government cronies to rubber stamp a one page note. Calling the other body to be created ?independent? is an insult to one?s intelligence. The ?oversight committee for information retention? will monitor application of the law and ensure that there is no abuse, and is clearly the more powerful body of the two. However, it will be made up of undersecretaries (the highest ranking civil servants) from the Foreign and Defence Ministries ? the two ministries that will undoubtedly be designating the largest number of secrets. Unsurprisingly, no one in Japan expects any kind of serious oversight from this body. Many opposed to the bill have pointed out strikingly similar language in legislation from darker times, in particular the infamous National Defence and Public Security Act of 1941, which was used by the government to jail opponents of the war effort. The Japanese experience from those days is that government secrets lead to more government secrets, and then to war. To use a phrase the generation that remembers the 1930s often uses to describe the creeping nature of militarism ? the jackboots come closer and closer. This article was originally posted on 10 Dec 2013 at opendemocracy.net. _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From matteo.boscarol at gmail.com Thu Dec 12 08:42:47 2013 From: matteo.boscarol at gmail.com (matteo.boscarol at gmail.com) Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 22:42:47 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Gosha Hideo-related request In-Reply-To: <788089066.106252.1386855294867.JavaMail.www@wsfrf1320> References: <788089066.106252.1386855294867.JavaMail.www@wsfrf1320> Message-ID: <843DB738-42B3-477A-BA03-E8625EDD3F0F@gmail.com> maybe this link will help your research: http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/person.aspx?person_id=88861 Matteo Boscarol ????? ???? ??????????? > On 2013/12/12, at 22:34, wrote: > > Hello, > > I would like to ask you all dear Kinejapan subscribers > whether anyone of you has or knows of a rare magazine > article about Hideo Gosha from the 1960s/70s/80s, > with maybe interviews with the director or his actors ? > I am Robin Gatto, the author of an article about Hideo Gosha > on Midnighteye.com. > I thank you all in advance for any possible help. > Best regards. > > > Tous vos emails en 1 clic avec l'application SFR Mail sur iPhone et Android - En savoir plus. > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From robin.gatto at neuf.fr Thu Dec 12 08:34:54 2013 From: robin.gatto at neuf.fr (robin.gatto at neuf.fr) Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 14:34:54 +0100 Subject: [KineJapan] Gosha Hideo-related request Message-ID: <788089066.106252.1386855294867.JavaMail.www@wsfrf1320> Hello, I would like to ask you all dear Kinejapan subscribers whether anyone of you has or knows of a rare magazine article about Hideo Gosha from the 1960s/70s/80s, with maybe interviews with the director or his actors ? I am Robin Gatto, the author of an article about Hideo Gosha on Midnighteye.com. I thank you all in advance for any possible help. Best regards. Tous vos emails en 1 clic avec l'application SFR Mail sur iPhone et Android - En savoir plus. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From ljth2006 at gmail.com Thu Dec 12 03:15:38 2013 From: ljth2006 at gmail.com (Lorenzo Javier Torres Hortelano) Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 09:15:38 +0100 Subject: [KineJapan] Google Ozu In-Reply-To: References: <0FB1B359-7D11-40F2-919F-0777861C133A@umich.edu> <4ADDC87F-5913-47E2-B9BC-5831904EA354@mail-central.com> Message-ID: *Tokyo Monogatari...* *Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano* Editor / *Editor * Profesor Titular / *Professor * Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicaci?n Despacho 22, Edificio Departamental Camino del Molino s/n, 28943 Fuenlabrada (Madrid, Spain) lorenzojavier.torres.hortelano at urjc.es 34-657565507 2013/12/12 Peter Larson > The Google logo is subtly in there. You just have to look for it. Fitting > for an Ozu tribute.... > > > On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 7:09 PM, Mark Roberts > wrote: > >> Nice. >> >> No sound/animation when you click, though at least they didn't try to >> sneak in the Google logo somewhere. >> >> M. >> >> On Dec 12, 2013, at 8:50 AM, Markus Nornes wrote: >> >> > Check out Google Japan. The banner is an Ozu tribute. >> > >> > Markus >> > >> > Sent from my iPad >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > KineJapan mailing list >> > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >> > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> KineJapan mailing list >> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan >> > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From pslarson2 at gmail.com Wed Dec 11 19:11:04 2013 From: pslarson2 at gmail.com (Peter Larson) Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 19:11:04 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Google Ozu In-Reply-To: <4ADDC87F-5913-47E2-B9BC-5831904EA354@mail-central.com> References: <0FB1B359-7D11-40F2-919F-0777861C133A@umich.edu> <4ADDC87F-5913-47E2-B9BC-5831904EA354@mail-central.com> Message-ID: The Google logo is subtly in there. You just have to look for it. Fitting for an Ozu tribute.... On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 7:09 PM, Mark Roberts wrote: > Nice. > > No sound/animation when you click, though at least they didn't try to > sneak in the Google logo somewhere. > > M. > > On Dec 12, 2013, at 8:50 AM, Markus Nornes wrote: > > > Check out Google Japan. The banner is an Ozu tribute. > > > > Markus > > > > Sent from my iPad > > > > _______________________________________________ > > KineJapan mailing list > > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From mroberts37 at mail-central.com Wed Dec 11 19:09:11 2013 From: mroberts37 at mail-central.com (Mark Roberts) Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 09:09:11 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Google Ozu In-Reply-To: <0FB1B359-7D11-40F2-919F-0777861C133A@umich.edu> References: <0FB1B359-7D11-40F2-919F-0777861C133A@umich.edu> Message-ID: <4ADDC87F-5913-47E2-B9BC-5831904EA354@mail-central.com> Nice. No sound/animation when you click, though at least they didn't try to sneak in the Google logo somewhere. M. On Dec 12, 2013, at 8:50 AM, Markus Nornes wrote: > Check out Google Japan. The banner is an Ozu tribute. > > Markus > > Sent from my iPad > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From amnornes at umich.edu Wed Dec 11 18:50:39 2013 From: amnornes at umich.edu (Markus Nornes) Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 18:50:39 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Google Ozu Message-ID: <0FB1B359-7D11-40F2-919F-0777861C133A@umich.edu> Check out Google Japan. The banner is an Ozu tribute. Markus Sent from my iPad _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From joel.neville.anderson at rochester.edu Tue Dec 10 23:38:55 2013 From: joel.neville.anderson at rochester.edu (Joel Neville Anderson) Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 23:38:55 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Two by Funahashi Atsushi In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <459457A6-CDA5-4F99-AEF3-CFA0F9AC5CA6@rochester.edu> Thank you for circulating information on these screenings, Mark. During his time in New York, Funahashi-san will also be introducing Late Autumn on Thursday, December 12 (110th anniversary of Ozu's birth and 50th anniversary of his passing) as part of Japan Society?s ongoing Tribute to Donald Richie: http://www.japansociety.org/event/late-autumn Hope to meet some NYC-based KineJapan subscribers at the Ozu birthday celebration reception to follow! Best, Joel Joel Neville Anderson PhD Student, Visual and Cultural Studies University of Rochester 978.394.3292 www.joelnevilleanderson.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From mroberts37 at mail-central.com Tue Dec 10 18:24:16 2013 From: mroberts37 at mail-central.com (Mark Roberts) Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 08:24:16 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Two by Funahashi Atsushi In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Just a quick note that Funahashi Atsushi's Nuclear Nation will be opening in New York today at the Film Forum: http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-12-11/film/nuclear-nation-japan-documentary/ And, for those in Japan, Funahashi's new documentary on Ozu will be broadcast tomorrow on NHK BS Premium: ?????????????????????????? ???????????????21:00 ~ 22:00 ???????NHK BS????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ???? https://pid.nhk.or.jp/pid04/ProgramIntro/Show.do?pkey=200-20131212-10-31333 ????????100????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ------- Mark Roberts Research Fellow, UTCP http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/data/mark_roberts/index_en.php -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From marran at umn.edu Tue Dec 10 10:29:29 2013 From: marran at umn.edu (Christine Marran) Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 09:29:29 -0600 Subject: [KineJapan] Tsuchimoto in Cineaste In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Yes, I want to give a big shout out to Zakka. I am so grateful to have these films to use in class and research. Christine On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 6:58 AM, Markus Nornes wrote: > The new issue of Cineaste has a long review of the precious Zakka release > of Tsuchimoto films. > > Now we must hope they'll tackle Ogawa. > > http://www.cineaste.com/articles/noriaki-tsuchimotos-living-records > > Markus > > -- > *Markus Nornes* > Chair, Department of Screen Arts and Cultures > Professor of Asian Cinema, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures > Professor, School of Art & Design > > *Department of Screen Arts and Cultures* > *6348 North Quad* > *105 S. State Street* > *Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285* > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -- Christine L. Marran Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Cultural Studies Department of Asian Languages and Literatures University of Minnesota 220 Folwell Hall 9 Pleasant St. SE University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55408 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From amnornes at umich.edu Tue Dec 10 07:58:05 2013 From: amnornes at umich.edu (Markus Nornes) Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 07:58:05 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Tsuchimoto in Cineaste Message-ID: The new issue of Cineaste has a long review of the precious Zakka release of Tsuchimoto films. Now we must hope they'll tackle Ogawa. http://www.cineaste.com/articles/noriaki-tsuchimotos-living-records Markus -- *Markus Nornes* Chair, Department of Screen Arts and Cultures Professor of Asian Cinema, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures Professor, School of Art & Design *Department of Screen Arts and Cultures* *6348 North Quad* *105 S. State Street* *Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From kthouny at gmail.com Mon Dec 9 07:42:28 2013 From: kthouny at gmail.com (kthouny at gmail.com) Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 21:42:28 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Workshop on Fukushima Japan, the Planetary, the Spectacle - December 13th In-Reply-To: References: <1386065706.77040.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear colleagues, I am pleased to announce a third and last workshop at Tokyo University, Komaba Campus this coming Friday, May 17th from 6pm. Fukushima After-Lives: Urban Spectacles and Planetary Narratives Ramona Handel-Bajema (AmeriCares), Kimura Saeko (Tsuda College), Christophe Thouny (University of Tokyo), Ueno Toshiya (Wak? University), Yoshimoto Mitsuhiro (Waseda University). For this third and last workshop, Kimura Saeko will join us and discuss her new book ????????????????????(The discourse of literature after the earthquake - for a new Japanese literature). Friday, December 13th, 2013 at 6:30pm The University of Tokyo, Komaba / Bld. 18 / Collaboration Room 4 From Sono Shion's 2012 movie The Country of Hope to recent novellas by Tawada Y?ko and Kawakami Hiromi, a series of fictional works have explored the possibility of life after Fukushima in terms of a tension between a global movement of contamination across borders and a longing for an untainted natural space. To conclude this third and last workshop on Fukushima Japan, urban space and the planetary, we will thus address recent debates on ecology, melancholy ethics, and healing narratives to define the planetary as an everyday creative practice, a process of fictionalization that opposes the movement of ambient atmospheres and land masses to the necropolitics of the state. With the recent vote of the Japanese secrecy law, it becomes all the more important to think the relation between Fukushima and the planetary, and to ask ourselves how to practice the planetary and define a position of critique that avoids the capture by national logics of spatial containment and control of information. English and Japanese?Free Admission ?No Registration Required Organized by Christophe Thouny email: ct843 at nyu.edu The workshop is open to the public. While each participant will make a short presentation and lead the ensuing discussion between the invited scholars, participation from the audience is welcomed. Best regards, Christophe Thouny ********************************************************** Christophe Thouny, PhD University of Tokyo Global Communication Research Center tel : 080-3366-9018 email : ct843 at nyu.edu ********************************************************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi Sun Dec 8 02:39:11 2013 From: eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi (Eija Niskanen) Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2013 09:39:11 +0200 Subject: [KineJapan] Media culture lecture by Erkki Huhtamo at Waseda 12/17 Message-ID: A public lecture by Prof. Erkki Huhtamo at Waseda Unviersity, Tokyo, Tues. Dec. 17, 2013, 6-8pm at Toyama Campus Bldg 36, 2F. "Visual Culture in the Era of Social Media:Media Archaeological Perspectives" The lecture will discuss how images propagate in the era of social media from media archaeological aspects, focusing on the "image" of cloud computing. Lecture in English, with translation in Japanese. Commission free, booking not needed. http://hyosho-media.com/news/2013/1203_post-33.php [image: Photo: A public lecture by Prof. Erkki Huhtamo at Waseda Unviersity, Tokyo, Tues. Dec. 17, 2013, 6-8pm at Toyama Campus Bldg 36, 2F. "Visual Culture in the Era of Social Media:Media Archaeological Perspectives" The lecture will discuss how images propagate in the era of social media from media archaeological aspects, focusing on the "image" of cloud computing. Lecture in English, with translation in Japanese. Commission free, booking not needed. http://hyosho-media.com/news/2013/1203_post-33.php] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From joelgdickerson at gmail.com Fri Dec 6 13:28:40 2013 From: joelgdickerson at gmail.com (Joel Dickerson) Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2013 13:28:40 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] KineJapan Digest, Vol 19, Issue 6 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <9FB77C92-BCFE-4339-8DEC-CD26965DAB04@gmail.com> Cant wait to see this. We need more films about Ainu and other overlooked minorities from Japan. Thank you!! Joel Sent from my iPhone On Dec 6, 25 Heisei, at 12:01 PM, kinejapan-request at lists.service.ohio-state.edu wrote: > Send KineJapan mailing list submissions to > kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > kinejapan-request at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > > You can reach the person managing the list at > kinejapan-owner at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of KineJapan digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Ainu Documentary Screening (Marcos.Centeno at uv.es) > 2. Re: Ainu Documentary Screening (Pete Larson) > 3. Re: Ainu Documentary Screening (Jim Harper) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 18:44:03 +0100 > From: > Subject: [KineJapan] Ainu Documentary Screening > To: > Message-ID: <3821466496cenmar at uv.es> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Dear Kinejapaners, > > I am very pleased to inform you about the release of the full-length > documentary "Ainu. Paths to Memory" ("Ainu. Caminos a la memoria", 2013, > 82') we have just finished about the minorisation process of the Ainu > people. > For those in Valencia (Spain) next week you are welcome to the screening > at University of Valencia (free entrance): > > Title: "Ainu. Paths to memory" ("Ainu. Caminos a la memoria", 82 > minutes, 2013) > Venue: 1st floor. Facultat de Filologia, Traducci? i Comunicaci?. > Universitat de Val?ncia. > Date: December. Wed. 11. At 12:00. > Trailer and more information (Spanish or English): > http://www.verkami.com/projects/6968 > > (For those interested: you can participate as sponsor in the > crowdfunding campaign and obtain the DVD, online viewing or having your > name mentioned on the credits, until the end of next week). > > Together with the film you can visit the Photo exhibition "Ainu > 2009-2013" by Laura Liverani (texts: Marcos Centeno). > Hall of Facultat de Filologia, Traducci? i Comunicaci?. Universitat de > Val?ncia. >> From December 9 to 13. > > Best regards, > -- > ******************************* > Centeno Mart?n, Marcos Pablo > ?rea de Comunicaci? Audiovisual. > Dept. T? dels Llenguatges i Ci?ncies de la Comunicaci?. > Universitat de Val?ncia. > Documental "Ainu. Caminos a la memoria" > http://ainumemoryfilm.com/ > http://niponfilm.com/ > ******************************** > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 13:42:18 -0500 > From: Pete Larson > Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Ainu Documentary Screening > To: > Message-ID: <52A0C90A.8050704 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"; format=flowed > > For some reason, I was just thinking about the odd Ainu appearance that > served as a backdrop in Yamamoto Satsuo's 1966 film "Freezing Point > (Hyouten)." > > It really stands out in the film. I was wondering if Yamamoto had done > anything else with the Ainu or minority rights in Japan. I know that he > was long involved with the Communist Party in Japan. > > Pete > > > > On 12/5/2013 12:44 PM, Marcos.Centeno at uv.es wrote: >> Dear Kinejapaners, >> >> I am very pleased to inform you about the release of the full-length >> documentary "Ainu. Paths to Memory" ("Ainu. Caminos a la memoria", 2013, >> 82') we have just finished about the minorisation process of the Ainu >> people. >> For those in Valencia (Spain) next week you are welcome to the screening >> at University of Valencia (free entrance): >> >> Title: "Ainu. Paths to memory" ("Ainu. Caminos a la memoria", 82 >> minutes, 2013) >> Venue: 1st floor. Facultat de Filologia, Traducci? i Comunicaci?. >> Universitat de Val?ncia. >> Date: December. Wed. 11. At 12:00. >> Trailer and more information (Spanish or English): >> http://www.verkami.com/projects/6968 >> >> (For those interested: you can participate as sponsor in the >> crowdfunding campaign and obtain the DVD, online viewing or having your >> name mentioned on the credits, until the end of next week). >> >> Together with the film you can visit the Photo exhibition "Ainu >> 2009-2013" by Laura Liverani (texts: Marcos Centeno). >> Hall of Facultat de Filologia, Traducci? i Comunicaci?. Universitat de >> Val?ncia. >> From December 9 to 13. >> >> Best regards, >> -- >> ******************************* >> Centeno Mart?n, Marcos Pablo >> ?rea de Comunicaci? Audiovisual. >> Dept. T? dels Llenguatges i Ci?ncies de la Comunicaci?. >> Universitat de Val?ncia. >> Documental "Ainu. Caminos a la memoria" >> http://ainumemoryfilm.com/ >> http://niponfilm.com/ >> ******************************** >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> KineJapan mailing list >> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > > -- > Peter S. Larson, PhD > Department of Epidemiology > School of Public Health > University of Michigan > anfangen at umich.edu > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 19:31:43 +0000 > From: Jim Harper > Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Ainu Documentary Screening > To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum > > Message-ID: > <1386271903.65279.YahooMailBasic at web173105.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hello! > > Do you know if Yamamoto's political leanings were an important aspect of his films? They seem to have been in his 1968 version of the Kaidan Botandoro, but do they extend to his other works? > > Jim. > > -------------------------------------------- > On Thu, 5/12/13, Pete Larson wrote: > > Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Ainu Documentary Screening > To: kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > Date: Thursday, 5 December, 2013, 18:42 > > For some reason, I was just thinking > about the odd Ainu appearance that > served as a backdrop in Yamamoto Satsuo's 1966 film > "Freezing Point > (Hyouten)." > > It really stands out in the film. I was wondering if > Yamamoto had done > anything else with the Ainu or minority rights in Japan. I > know that he > was long involved with the Communist Party in Japan. > > Pete > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > > End of KineJapan Digest, Vol 19, Issue 6 > **************************************** _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From jimharper666 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Dec 5 14:31:43 2013 From: jimharper666 at yahoo.co.uk (Jim Harper) Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 19:31:43 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Ainu Documentary Screening In-Reply-To: <52A0C90A.8050704@gmail.com> Message-ID: <1386271903.65279.YahooMailBasic@web173105.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Hello! Do you know if Yamamoto's political leanings were an important aspect of his films? They seem to have been in his 1968 version of the Kaidan Botandoro, but do they extend to his other works? Jim. -------------------------------------------- On Thu, 5/12/13, Pete Larson wrote: Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Ainu Documentary Screening To: kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu Date: Thursday, 5 December, 2013, 18:42 For some reason, I was just thinking about the odd Ainu appearance that served as a backdrop in Yamamoto Satsuo's 1966 film "Freezing Point (Hyouten)." It really stands out in the film. I was wondering if Yamamoto had done anything else with the Ainu or minority rights in Japan. I know that he was long involved with the Communist Party in Japan. Pete _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From pslarson2 at gmail.com Thu Dec 5 13:42:18 2013 From: pslarson2 at gmail.com (Pete Larson) Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 13:42:18 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Ainu Documentary Screening In-Reply-To: <3821466496cenmar@uv.es> References: <3821466496cenmar@uv.es> Message-ID: <52A0C90A.8050704@gmail.com> For some reason, I was just thinking about the odd Ainu appearance that served as a backdrop in Yamamoto Satsuo's 1966 film "Freezing Point (Hyouten)." It really stands out in the film. I was wondering if Yamamoto had done anything else with the Ainu or minority rights in Japan. I know that he was long involved with the Communist Party in Japan. Pete On 12/5/2013 12:44 PM, Marcos.Centeno at uv.es wrote: > Dear Kinejapaners, > > I am very pleased to inform you about the release of the full-length > documentary "Ainu. Paths to Memory" ("Ainu. Caminos a la memoria", 2013, > 82') we have just finished about the minorisation process of the Ainu > people. > For those in Valencia (Spain) next week you are welcome to the screening > at University of Valencia (free entrance): > > Title: "Ainu. Paths to memory" ("Ainu. Caminos a la memoria", 82 > minutes, 2013) > Venue: 1st floor. Facultat de Filologia, Traducci? i Comunicaci?. > Universitat de Val?ncia. > Date: December. Wed. 11. At 12:00. > Trailer and more information (Spanish or English): > http://www.verkami.com/projects/6968 > > (For those interested: you can participate as sponsor in the > crowdfunding campaign and obtain the DVD, online viewing or having your > name mentioned on the credits, until the end of next week). > > Together with the film you can visit the Photo exhibition "Ainu > 2009-2013" by Laura Liverani (texts: Marcos Centeno). > Hall of Facultat de Filologia, Traducci? i Comunicaci?. Universitat de > Val?ncia. > From December 9 to 13. > > Best regards, > -- > ******************************* > Centeno Mart?n, Marcos Pablo > ?rea de Comunicaci? Audiovisual. > Dept. T? dels Llenguatges i Ci?ncies de la Comunicaci?. > Universitat de Val?ncia. > Documental "Ainu. Caminos a la memoria" > http://ainumemoryfilm.com/ > http://niponfilm.com/ > ******************************** > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -- Peter S. Larson, PhD Department of Epidemiology School of Public Health University of Michigan anfangen at umich.edu _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From Marcos.Centeno at uv.es Thu Dec 5 12:44:03 2013 From: Marcos.Centeno at uv.es (Marcos.Centeno at uv.es) Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 18:44:03 +0100 Subject: [KineJapan] Ainu Documentary Screening Message-ID: <3821466496cenmar@uv.es> Dear Kinejapaners, I am very pleased to inform you about the release of the full-length documentary "Ainu. Paths to Memory" ("Ainu. Caminos a la memoria", 2013, 82') we have just finished about the minorisation process of the Ainu people. For those in Valencia (Spain) next week you are welcome to the screening at University of Valencia (free entrance): Title: "Ainu. Paths to memory" ("Ainu. Caminos a la memoria", 82 minutes, 2013) Venue: 1st floor. Facultat de Filologia, Traducci? i Comunicaci?. Universitat de Val?ncia. Date: December. Wed. 11. At 12:00. Trailer and more information (Spanish or English): http://www.verkami.com/projects/6968 (For those interested: you can participate as sponsor in the crowdfunding campaign and obtain the DVD, online viewing or having your name mentioned on the credits, until the end of next week). Together with the film you can visit the Photo exhibition "Ainu 2009-2013" by Laura Liverani (texts: Marcos Centeno). Hall of Facultat de Filologia, Traducci? i Comunicaci?. Universitat de Val?ncia. From December 9 to 13. Best regards, -- ******************************* Centeno Mart?n, Marcos Pablo ?rea de Comunicaci? Audiovisual. Dept. T? dels Llenguatges i Ci?ncies de la Comunicaci?. Universitat de Val?ncia. Documental "Ainu. Caminos a la memoria" http://ainumemoryfilm.com/ http://niponfilm.com/ ******************************** _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From tkarsavina at yahoo.com Wed Dec 4 01:57:27 2013 From: tkarsavina at yahoo.com (Maria Jose Gonzalez) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:57:27 -0800 Subject: [KineJapan] Japanese movie industry starts group against state secrets bill Message-ID: <1386140247.93216.YahooMailNeo@web140905.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201312040039 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From cinnamon815 at yahoo.it Tue Dec 3 11:43:56 2013 From: cinnamon815 at yahoo.it (Giacomo Calorio) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 16:43:56 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] contemporary japanese cinema and manga In-Reply-To: References: <1386065706.77040.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1386089036.13629.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Wow, thank you! It seems really what I was looking for! Il Marted? 3 Dicembre 2013 17:07, Marc Steinberg ha scritto: Hi Giacomo, This is a really fertile field of research. I?d just suggest looking at the two documents Rayna Denison and her researcher associates put together: http://www.mangamoviesproject.com/publications.html There?s a real wealth of information there. best, Marc Marc Steinberg, PhD Assistant Professor, Film Studies Mel Hoppenheim School of?Cinema, FB 319 Concordia University 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8 Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 8728 On Dec 3, 2013, at 5:15 AM, Giacomo Calorio wrote: Dear Kinejapaners, >recently I was asked to write an essay on the boundaries between contemporary japanese cinema and manga. It's quite evident that mangas provide an unlimited source for movie scripts, as contemporary japanese cinema abounds with adaptations and so on. But in the works of some directors, we can also easily find a significant influence concerning aestethics, cinematography, archetypal characters, situations, mimicry, pop visual effects and so on, even in movies not directly adapted from manga. Maybe it's a bit too much complex matter to deal with in a short essay, as manga universe in itself (which in turn was influenced by a far more ancient aesthetical tradition) proves to be extremely multiform and its visual array wider than the well-known sterotypes of shonen and shojo manga, and as it seems to me that often the influence manga exercises on cinema is not specific and direct but blended with references to anime, videogames, tv shows, advertisings, Internet graphics and so on. >Anyway, I'm asking you if anything has already been written specifically on this topic. Of course I found brief references to manga and "mangaesque" in movie essays, reviews and interviews on films or directors but nothing really focused on this particular subject (except for an essay by Olaf M?ller about shojo manga published in 2001). >Any suggestion would be very appreciated! >thank you in advance >giacomo _______________________________________________ >KineJapan mailing list >KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From cinnamon815 at yahoo.it Tue Dec 3 11:32:36 2013 From: cinnamon815 at yahoo.it (Giacomo Calorio) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 16:32:36 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] contemporary japanese cinema and manga In-Reply-To: References: <1386065706.77040.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1386088356.49230.YahooMailNeo@web173206.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Premise:?(I'm sorry for my poor english: in my previous email I wrote "boundaries" but I meant "connections"! -_-; ) Dear Jose, Yes, I agree: many manga adaptations (like the totally boring "Nana", for example) lack of any connection?to manga's aesthetics and narrative strategies, while directors like Miike, Nakashima Tetsuya or Suzuki Matsuo among the others, even when they work on original scripts, seem to share a lot with them. M?ller's essay, dealing with shojo manga and sexual identity, was published in 2001 in italian by Lindau. It was included in a book called "Il cinema giapponese oggi - Tradizione e innovazione". I think I could understand more or less an essay in spanish, so I'm very interested in reading what you wrote on Iwai and manga, if it's possible! thanks giacomo Il Marted? 3 Dicembre 2013 13:39, Jose Monta?o ha scritto: Dear Giacomo, It has become common to use the expression manga-eiga, at least amongst the Spanish Japanese film circles, to refer to manga adaptations. Look for example this film season: http://www.casaasia.eu/actividad/detalle?id=203609 Sometimes, as some of the films in the example, the adaptations are conventionally filmed, just relying on the actors characterization and the reproduction of the comics plot but not actually taking any feature from comics into screen. That?s why I don?t really like to use the term in that sense, especially as some manga esthetics are far better assimilated by filmmakers like Miike or Iwai, even they film original stories not adapted from previously edited comic. Therefore, I understand the term manga-eiga in the sense you describe, as an esthetical influence on the whole cinematic conception. In my MA thesis I studied Iwai?s works under this premise, and an article summarizing it is to be published in the upcoming January volume of journal L?Atalante, but in Spanish only. Please contact me if it could be of any help. By the way, I unsuccessfully tried to find out on the M?ller?s essay you mentioned. Could you please send me the complete citation? Best regards, Jose Monta?o On 3 December 2013 19:15, Giacomo Calorio wrote: Dear Kinejapaners, >recently I was asked to write an essay on the boundaries between contemporary japanese cinema and manga. It's quite evident that mangas provide an unlimited source for movie scripts, as contemporary japanese cinema abounds with adaptations and so on. But in the works of some directors, we can also easily find a significant influence concerning aestethics, cinematography, archetypal characters, situations, mimicry, pop visual effects and so on, even in movies not directly adapted from manga. Maybe it's a bit too much complex matter to deal with in a short essay, as manga universe in itself (which in turn was influenced by a far more ancient aesthetical tradition) proves to be extremely multiform and its visual array wider than the well-known sterotypes of shonen and shojo manga, and as it seems to me that often the influence manga exercises on cinema is not specific and direct but blended with references to anime, videogames, tv shows, advertisings, Internet graphics and so on. >Anyway, I'm asking you if anything has already been written specifically on this topic. Of course I found brief references to manga and "mangaesque" in movie essays, reviews and interviews on films or directors but nothing really focused on this particular subject (except for an essay by Olaf M?ller about shojo manga published in 2001). >Any suggestion would be very appreciated! >thank you in advance >giacomo >_______________________________________________ >KineJapan mailing list >KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu >https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -- ???????? Jose Monta?o Cine y cultura japonesa: https://eigavision.wordpress.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From Marc.Steinberg at concordia.ca Tue Dec 3 11:06:02 2013 From: Marc.Steinberg at concordia.ca (Marc Steinberg) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 16:06:02 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] contemporary japanese cinema and manga In-Reply-To: <1386065706.77040.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> References: <1386065706.77040.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Hi Giacomo, This is a really fertile field of research. I?d just suggest looking at the two documents Rayna Denison and her researcher associates put together: http://www.mangamoviesproject.com/publications.html There?s a real wealth of information there. best, Marc Marc Steinberg, PhD Assistant Professor, Film Studies Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, FB 319 Concordia University 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8 Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 8728 On Dec 3, 2013, at 5:15 AM, Giacomo Calorio > wrote: Dear Kinejapaners, recently I was asked to write an essay on the boundaries between contemporary japanese cinema and manga. It's quite evident that mangas provide an unlimited source for movie scripts, as contemporary japanese cinema abounds with adaptations and so on. But in the works of some directors, we can also easily find a significant influence concerning aestethics, cinematography, archetypal characters, situations, mimicry, pop visual effects and so on, even in movies not directly adapted from manga. Maybe it's a bit too much complex matter to deal with in a short essay, as manga universe in itself (which in turn was influenced by a far more ancient aesthetical tradition) proves to be extremely multiform and its visual array wider than the well-known sterotypes of shonen and shojo manga, and as it seems to me that often the influence manga exercises on cinema is not specific and direct but blended with references to anime, videogames, tv shows, advertisings, Internet graphics and so on. Anyway, I'm asking you if anything has already been written specifically on this topic. Of course I found brief references to manga and "mangaesque" in movie essays, reviews and interviews on films or directors but nothing really focused on this particular subject (except for an essay by Olaf M?ller about shojo manga published in 2001). Any suggestion would be very appreciated! thank you in advance giacomo _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi Tue Dec 3 09:43:45 2013 From: eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi (Eija Niskanen) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 16:43:45 +0200 Subject: [KineJapan] Sneak preview: Gen Takahashi's COURT OF ZEUS at FCCJ Message-ID: Dear KineJapanners, The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Yurakucho is screening Gen Takahashi's latex provocation on Tuesday, Dec. 17. Since FCCJ is a private club, you must reserve a seat through Karen Severns: kjs30 at gol.com. SNEAK PREVIEW SCREENING Followed by a Q&A session with director Gen Takahashi and actor?whistleblower Toshiro Senba TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17 at 6:30 pm* *Please note early start time. COURT OF ZEUS (Zeus no Hotei) Japan, 2013 136 min. In Japanese with English subtitles Japan?s cinematic crusader for truth and transparency, Gen Takahashi, returns to FCCJ with another bold expos?, this time revealing the pervasive corruption in Japan?s legal system. Not quite as intense as his acclaimed ?Confessions of a Dog? (2006), which depicted shockingly illicit activities by the police (?the largest organized crime ring in Japan,? according to the director), this new film wraps its condemnations around a love story between an overworked young judge and his fianc?e, who suddenly finds herself on the wrong side of the law? and in her lover?s courtroom, where he presides like the mighty Zeus. For more info, see: http://www.fccj.or.jp/events ?calendar/film?screenings/icalrepeat.detail/2013/12/17/579/33/sneak?preview?screening?court?of?zeus?zeus?no?hotei.html?filter_reset=1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From mostro.films at gmail.com Tue Dec 3 07:39:33 2013 From: mostro.films at gmail.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jose_Monta=F1o?=) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 21:39:33 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] contemporary japanese cinema and manga In-Reply-To: <1386065706.77040.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> References: <1386065706.77040.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear Giacomo, It has become common to use the expression *manga-eiga*, at least amongst the Spanish Japanese film circles, to refer to manga adaptations. Look for example this film season: http://www.casaasia.eu/actividad/detalle?id=203609 Sometimes, as some of the films in the example, the adaptations are conventionally filmed, just relying on the actors characterization and the reproduction of the comics plot but not actually taking any feature from comics into screen. That?s why I don?t really like to use the term in that sense, especially as some manga esthetics are far better assimilated by filmmakers like Miike or Iwai, even they film original stories not adapted from previously edited comic. Therefore, I understand the term manga-eiga in the sense you describe, as an esthetical influence on the whole cinematic conception. In my MA thesis I studied Iwai?s works under this premise, and an article summarizing it is to be published in the upcoming January volume of journal L?Atalante , but in Spanish only. Please contact me if it could be of any help. By the way, I unsuccessfully tried to find out on the M?ller?s essay you mentioned. Could you please send me the complete citation? Best regards, Jose Monta?o On 3 December 2013 19:15, Giacomo Calorio wrote: > Dear Kinejapaners, > recently I was asked to write an essay on the boundaries between > contemporary japanese cinema and manga. It's quite evident that mangas > provide an unlimited source for movie scripts, as contemporary japanese > cinema abounds with adaptations and so on. But in the works of some > directors, we can also easily find a significant influence concerning > aestethics, cinematography, archetypal characters, situations, mimicry, pop > visual effects and so on, even in movies not directly adapted from manga. > Maybe it's a bit too much complex matter to deal with in a short essay, as > manga universe in itself (which in turn was influenced by a far more > ancient aesthetical tradition) proves to be extremely multiform and its > visual array wider than the well-known sterotypes of shonen and shojo > manga, and as it seems to me that often the influence manga exercises on > cinema is not specific and direct but blended with references to anime, > videogames, tv shows, advertisings, Internet graphics and so on. > Anyway, I'm asking you if anything has already been written specifically > on this topic. Of course I found brief references to manga and "mangaesque" > in movie essays, reviews and interviews on films or directors but nothing > really focused on this particular subject (except for an essay by Olaf M?ller > about shojo manga published in 2001). > Any suggestion would be very appreciated! > thank you in advance > giacomo > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu > https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -- ???????? *Jose Monta?o* *Cine y cultura japonesa:https://eigavision.wordpress.com/ * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From cinnamon815 at yahoo.it Tue Dec 3 05:15:06 2013 From: cinnamon815 at yahoo.it (Giacomo Calorio) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 10:15:06 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] contemporary japanese cinema and manga Message-ID: <1386065706.77040.YahooMailNeo@web173203.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Dear Kinejapaners, recently I was asked to write an essay on the boundaries between contemporary japanese cinema and manga. It's quite evident that mangas provide an unlimited source for movie scripts, as contemporary japanese cinema abounds with adaptations and so on. But in the works of some directors, we can also easily find a significant influence concerning aestethics, cinematography, archetypal characters, situations, mimicry, pop visual effects and so on, even in movies not directly adapted from manga. Maybe it's a bit too much complex matter to deal with in a short essay, as manga universe in itself (which in turn was influenced by a far more ancient aesthetical tradition) proves to be extremely multiform and its visual array wider than the well-known sterotypes of shonen and shojo manga, and as it seems to me that often the influence manga exercises on cinema is not specific and direct but blended with references to anime, videogames, tv shows, advertisings, Internet graphics and so on. Anyway, I'm asking you if anything has already been written specifically on this topic. Of course I found brief references to manga and "mangaesque" in movie essays, reviews and interviews on films or directors but nothing really focused on this particular subject (except for an essay by Olaf M?ller about shojo manga published in 2001). Any suggestion would be very appreciated! thank you in advance giacomo -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From larse635 at umn.edu Sun Dec 1 13:13:56 2013 From: larse635 at umn.edu (Joseph Larsen) Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2013 12:13:56 -0600 Subject: [KineJapan] VHS Preservation in Japan (Joseph Larsen) Message-ID: Thanks so much for all of the information. I've gotten in touch with the Film Preservation Society of Tokyo and the National Diet Library, both of which have pointed me in some new directions, so I'll be sure to share what I find out. Best, Joseph Larsen University of Minnesota -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan