[KineJapan] Nami no koe

Tue Jun 25 08:13:56 EDT 2013

First, a little disclosure about the group psychology of film programmers: 
we tend to feel very supportive towards our programming colleagues when 
said colleagues validate our own programming decisions. In this case I'm 
perhaps been prompted into very sympathetic frame of mind;  the Yamagata 
competition selection includes three titles I have either run or have 
scheduled soon. 

Two are THE ACT OF KILLING and A WORLD NOT OUR OWN. The third is the 
earlier, 'part one' of NAMI NO KOE, the 142 minute NAMI NO OTO. We ran 
this here late last year, as part of the public program that coincided 
with the visit of the Visible Evidence documentary conference. This was 
the same cut that has already had some international festivals screening, 
for example at Locarno in August last year.

My observations are restricted to that version. I agree that even at 142 
minute it is perhaps too long (but certainly didn't need to be cut more 
tightly); had a small audience (it was a few days before Christmas) and a 
few walkouts. But then I think Australians have never seen anything like 
it. especially with subject matter and a synopsis most would have expected 
to result, on screen, in a series of conventionally positioned talking 
heads and conventionally unpacked first person stories. As Marcus said, it 
is as the most formally interesting of the 3/11 films - not the least 
because the talking heads are just not looking in the direction we expect 
them to be gazing, or speaking to an interlocutor we expect them to be in 
conversation with, or being edited at the 'natural' points we expect.

But based on what I saw, I think it's more than just a formal oddity. 
Certainly, it is IMHO in the Great Tradition of Japanese documentary, in 
what it does best, and reflects the reasons why a few of us are on this 
list (or keep going back to Yamagata): that tradition's kind of Interview 
Film, and its forms of narrative that evolves its arguments and themes 
through a respect for, curiosity about, patience with its informants - 
rather than the western doco tendency to interrogate and expose. In that 
sense, it is something different - and much more interesting than mere 
'oral history'.

I think NAMI NO KOE advances and opens up that tradition through its 
mirroring device and its durations. Within them - those durations and that 
structure - there is something more than formal play.  I also  got much 
more psychic detail and social subtext from this than from any other film 
about 3/11. It told me a lot about how this culture manages major emotions 
like trauma and fear - but not through 'highpoints' of emotional outburst 
or breakdown, but through a constant semaphore of involuntary tics, bodies 
shifting their position whilst faces didn't, and especially through 
socially and conversationally reinforcing laughter and nervous giggles. As 
with many of the best Asian documentary, it's shots are looking for very 
different things and it keeps very different things and meanings in its 
final cut. Fujioka-san is very right here: it is maybe a film that uses 
'talking' bodies rather than Talking Heads. This isn't to diminish the 
interest of the stories: at times the flat, matter-a fact-ness of how and 
what people did to survive is curious and surprising. As is how these 
stories cue, at different points the (to me) opaque body language. 

As Marcus hints, it perhaps the sections need to be experienced 
sectionally, episodically, maybe partially (It will make an interesting 
comparison with THE ACT OF KILLING, which has some similar strengths and 
weaknesses, even if its often psychopathic informants are very different 
people). If the new version is anything like the 142 minute one, t 
certainly needs to be experienced.

QT

Best wishes

Quentin Turnour, Manager, Arc Canberra Cinema Programs,
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia,
quentin.turnour at nfsa.gov.au
Fax: +61 2 6249 8159
Ph +61 2 6248 2054
Mob: + 61 4 428 368908
[Please note that I am often absent Mondays]

From:   fujioka asako <asakof at tkd.att.ne.jp>
To:     <kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>, 
Date:   25/06/2013 07:35 PM
Subject:        [KineJapan] Nami no koe
Sent by:        kinejapan-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu

In response to Mark's comment on the film in Yamagata's competition, I'd
like to mention that _Nami no koe_ is part of a trilogy: _Nami no oto_,
_Nami no koe_, and the final film _Utau hito_. All films deal with
storytelling -- the idea that people tell stories to _someone_. In the 
first
two films, people start out by sharing their 2011 tsunami experiences, and
go on to speak about their lives and life philosophies. They speak in
on-on-one conversations, to people who are close to them (family members,
close friends, work colleagues) or if the filmmakers did not find adequate
partners, they themselves became mirrors to bounce off stories. In the 
third
film of the trilogy (which is also already completed), the stories told 
are
local folk stories carried on from the past. 
I'm not sure if the films work well with English subtitles, as these are
really oral films and the nuances you can feel in the emotions between the
conversationalists are the hook that draws you into their life stories. 
You
get a real feel for their relationships in their daily lives -- sometimes
funny, sometimes endearing. 
Also, the films are interesting experiments that deal with body language. 
I
find Japanese people rarely seat facing opposite each other and speak 
their
minds. As a young person, I was told that it is rude to look at another's
face squarely, and have no memory of having done so with my parents. The
filmmakers speak about how people sitting side by side driving in a car
often open up to each other. In many ways this series of films is an 
archive
of testimonies, but more so a window into diverse people's lives -- with
much respect and compassion. 

The films will be shown at Kobe Eiga Shiryokan this weekend as part of a
retrospective (prospective) of Hamaguchi Ryusuke. 
Fujioka Asako 
■■■■■■■■■■■
今週末からの上映
■■■■■■■■■■■

■ 濱口竜介プロスペクティヴ in 関西
6月29日（土）〜7月8日（月）［水・木休館］

神戸・大阪・京都のミニシアター5館で同時開催する「濱口竜介 
プロスペクティヴ in 関西」。
神戸映画資料館では、4時間を超える大作『親密さ』と、東北ド 
キュメンタリー三部作（四作品）を上映。
関西に拠点を移した濱口竜介の「これから」の「はじまり」にお立ち会 
いください。

■トークゲスト（いずれの回も濱口竜介監督とのトーク）
6月29日（土）『なみのこえ　気仙沼』上映後
　芹沢高志（『なみのこえ』『うたうひと』プロデューサー、デザイ 
ン・クリエイティブセンター神戸 KIITO センター長）
　酒井耕（映画監督／東北三部作共同監督）

6月30日（日）『親密さ』上映後
　丹生谷貴志（神戸市外国語大学 教授）

7月7日（日）『なみのこえ　気仙沼』上映後
　酒井耕（映画監督／東北三部作共同監督）

■プログラム
「親密さ」
（2012/255分［途中休憩あり］/HD［ブルーレイ上映］）
製作：ENBUゼミナール
監督・脚本：濱口竜介
濱口監督の最新長篇劇映画で、4時間を超える意欲作。

「なみのおと」
（2011/142分/HD［ブルーレイ上映］）
製作：東京藝術大学大学院映像研究科
監督：濱口竜介、酒井耕
東日本大震災についてのドキュメンタリー第１作。

「なみのこえ 新地町」
（2013/103分/HD［ブルーレイ上映］）
製作：サイレントヴォイス
監督：濱口竜介、酒井耕
福島県新地町に暮らす6組10名への対話形式インタビュー 
の記録。
＊関西初上映

「なみのこえ 気仙沼」
（2013/103分/HD［ブルーレイ上映］）
製作：サイレントヴォイス
監督：濱口竜介、酒井耕
宮城県気仙沼市に暮らす7組11名への対話形式インタ 
ビューの記録。
＊関西初上映

「うたうひと」
（2013/120分/HD［ブルーレイ上映］）
製作：サイレントヴォイス
監督：濱口竜介、酒井耕
宮城県に暮らす語り手による東北地方伝承の民話語り。
＊関西初上映

詳細
http://kobe-eiga.net/program/2013/06/#a001909

上映時間
http://kobe-eiga.net/schedule/2013/06/
http://kobe-eiga.net/schedule/2013/07/

公式サイト
http://prospective.fictive.jp/index.html

+++++++++++++++

Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 14:15:47 -0400
From: Markus Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu>
Subject: [KineJapan] Fwd: YIDFF News June 24, 2013 [Special Issue]
To: "kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu"
                 <kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>
Message-ID:
 <CANoSnpDHU+oBBKhuj90JGGk_-edxzczGSBTaOVYahr4JJ2hmpw at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

Yamagata has released information on their competition for October. The
Japanese entry is Voices from the Waves (Nami no koe), by Hamaguchi 
Ryusuke
and Sakai Ko. I haven't read much from the many online interviews and blog
entries on the film, so I don't write with much confidence. But what I
thought were a set of short films based on geography, yet released under 
the
Nami no koe title, now appear to be one big massive film.

But don't confuse the 213 minute running time with monumentality. It's the
most intimate of films. And one of the most experimental of the 311 films.
The rough cuts I saw were nothing but two people talking to each other, 
face
to face, and with almost no prompting from the filmmakers. The directors 
sit
two tsunami survivors in community halls or libraries, and let them talk 
to
each other.

There are only three basic shots. An establishing shot taken at a 90 
degree
angle to the two speakers. And then shot reverse shots where one of the
speakers looks directly at the camera. Through a fascinating cinematic
trick, the people speak in direct address to the camera even though they 
are
actually talking to?and looking at?their interlocutor. It's a very strange
feeling, best to be experienced without knowing exactly how they did it.

This formal aspect to the film?added to the parallel formality of two
Japanese strangers talking to each other?makes this one of the better 311
films. It's certainly the most innovative. But I have serious doubts about
the running length. Very few people are going to last through four hours.
It signals a complete lack of distance to their material. A kind of
shiryo-sei that regrettably blinds the filmmakers to the desires, needs 
and
capabilities of their viewers. Can you tell I'm bumming?

In the rough, I thought this looked like a very promising film. I'm pretty
disappointed by this choice. Obviously, they needed an editor.

Markus

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