[KineJapan] Right wing cinema

[Markus Nornes]

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*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20140218/eecf4c11/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
KineJapan mailing list
KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan