[KineJapan] Right wing cinema

Tue Feb 18 23:44:57 EST 2014

Markus - bizarre you mention that film! I was hired by the company distributing it in Japan, or at least the company who'd produced it, to try to get it booked at overseas film festivals, along with an action film they also produced. 

The action film was innocuous enough, if not very well-made or interesting in terms of cast or director's name, and played at a couple of small festivals. But the documentary - called SENKAKU ROCK - didn't generate any interest at all. Not surprisingly, I think. Few overseas people who aren't already interested in either Chinese or Japanese issues have even heard of the Senkaku dispute, and I think those who had might have been scared off by the nationalist feelings expressed in the film. It also wasn't even feature-length, only about 45 minutes long, which made programming difficult. (Of course, nobody had heard of the rock star in it, either.) 

The film itself was pretty harmless, I felt. It's presented with a kind of feel-good nationalist tone, if that makes any sense, concentrating on personal and national pride rather than demonizing the Chinese, for the most part. The rocker plays a depressingly tiny concert in Okinawa, then sets out on a boat with a right-wing politico to set foot on one of the Senkaku islands and plant a Japanese flag. It gets interesting at this point, because they run into various problems before being picked up by Japanese maritime police, but manage to land after all, and even play two national rallying-cry songs. 

I'm not sure who you might have met, maybe the director (who was also on the boat to the island, of course). I'd met a couple of the company members who were flogging it overseas in Yubari last year, but don't remember their names and I don't think the guy you met was among them. Small world - I thought nobody had ever heard of this movie other than me!

If any members of this mailing list is interested in seeing it privately, I can provide a password-protected Vimeo link. Just email me separately, please.

Marc

On Feb 18, 2014, at 11:23 PM, Markus Nornes wrote:

> Anecdotally, one of my strong experiences of the last Yamagata festival occurred late at night at Komian Club (the venue everyone gathers at after the films). I noticed a slightly awkward looking fellow flitting from one clutch of people to the other. At some point, it was my turn. He pushed a chirashi into my hand. It was a film he had produced about the Senkaku Islands, and featuring some aged rock star. Probably because I didn't turn and walk away from him, he become increasingly agitated as he described his film and explained Japan's natural right to the rocks—along with China's pernicious claims to sovereignty. After a few minutes, his eyes started to gleam and thanks to his vigorous, clipped speech he began foaming at the mouth. Becoming nervous, I found an excuse to hand him off to the next poor soul. The pattern continued until the end of the festival, I noticed. What amazed me was the way his body language and speech took on the conventions of the New Order films—think Abe Yutaka's war films, for example. I'd actually like to see his film. He wanted me to buy the rights and distribute it for him, but didn't offer a screener. 
> 
> Markus
> 
> 
> On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 10:38 PM, Gerow Aaron <aaron.gerow at yale.edu> wrote:
> I had forgotten to respond to this, sorry.
> 
> There are many ways one could talk about right wing cinema. Personally, I would argue it was more marginal to what at least the film studios and film critics wanted to say was Japanese film culture. What has changed now is this marginal status.
> 
> Shintoho of course had its Meiji Tenno films, but those occupied an odd position, especially next to the eruguro Shintoho was also selling.
> 
> Clearly there were a lot of war films. Some talk of films by Matsubayashi Shu'e or Abe Yutaka as rightist, in part because of their backgrounds, though Matsubayashi also made some great comedies. And Abe's Senkan Yamato is very different from Otokotachi no Yamato. Also, not a small number of war films were anti-war films, and others, like Okamoto's Gurentai films or the Heitai yakuza films, made mockery of the military.
> 
> Isolde Standish has written about some of the war films and masculinity. Yoshikuni Igarashi has written about recent kamikaze films. I have several articles on Japan Focus about recent neo-nationalist war and fantasy films, one of which is a shorter version of a much longer piece about Yamato films that is forthcoming.
> 
> Aaron Gerow
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 15, 2014, at 8:40 AM, Peter Larson wrote:
> 
> > All,
> >
> > A friend and I were discussing the recent success of Eien no zero (a recent war piece about Kamikaze pilots in WWII) in the context of the recent "resurgence" (did they ever go away?) of right wingers in Japanese politics.
> >
> > It seems like every few years a film with nationalist undertones comes out of Japan. Does anyone know if anyone has ever done any work on right wing cinema?
> >
> > Pete
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 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

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20140218/bdbc5e9c/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
KineJapan mailing list
KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan