From johnbwheeler at gmail.com Fri Dec 4 12:15:33 2015 From: johnbwheeler at gmail.com (John Wheeler) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2015 02:15:33 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Image of Kurosawa on the set of Ran Message-ID: Dear KineJapan subscribers, I apologize for a very trivial question, but I've been searching for the origin of this image of Kurosawa overseeing the burning keep in Ran. It is commonly used in blog posts about the film, but I haven't seen a credit for it. http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m59g6i99WN1qisxvio1_1280.jpg If anyone has any leads about where this image comes from (a documentary?), please let me know. Regards, John Wheeler -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From aaron.gerow at yale.edu Thu Dec 17 19:39:32 2015 From: aaron.gerow at yale.edu (Gerow Aaron) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 19:39:32 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Ando Noboru Message-ID: The actor Ando Noboru has died at the age of 89. Ando was a real life yakuza (and apparently the boss of a pretty high powered gang at that) before going to jail and being forced to break up his gang. He then became an author and a major actor in yakuza films, lending authenticity to many a Toei yakuza flick. http://www.nikkansports.com/entertainment/news/1580627.html Aaron Gerow Professor Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures Director of Graduate Studies, EALL Yale University 320 York Street, Room 311 PO Box 208324 New Haven, CT 06520-8324 USA Phone: 1-203-432-7082 Fax: 1-203-432-6729 e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu website: www.aarongerow.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From amnornes at umich.edu Thu Dec 17 07:54:44 2015 From: amnornes at umich.edu (Markus Nornes) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 07:54:44 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Transcript on Eiga-nabe/TIFF panel on the state of things Message-ID: I heard about this panel about the state of Japanese cinema, and am grateful to Stephen Cremin's crew for publishing a transcript: http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/fixing-japanese-cinemas-image-problem The conversation is between an international sales agent, and foreign-born distributor/producer/agent, and an executive from Cool Japan. The first two speak the truth, channeling the frustration one always hears on the street, while the suit from Cool Japan spouts ridiculous cluelessness. I hope his final comment was sincere. Markus -- *Markus Nornes* Professor of Asian Cinema, 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.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From macyroger at yahoo.co.uk Tue Dec 1 07:41:11 2015 From: macyroger at yahoo.co.uk (Roger Macy) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2015 12:41:11 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [KineJapan] Hara Setsuko In-Reply-To: <30E0A0D0-17B8-4559-A51A-EBB9D99C453B@yale.edu> References: <30E0A0D0-17B8-4559-A51A-EBB9D99C453B@yale.edu> Message-ID: <1703718457.22022841.1448973671699.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> Dear KineJapaners,The obituaries for Hara Setsuko in the English newspapers are now all published.? Mostly they are not in great depth, were not written by Japanese specialists and do not situate her fame in Japan at all. However, there is one honourable exception.? The Independent had on file an obituary written by James Kirkup, whose own obituary in 2009 was noted here.? The piece was written for a full-sized broadsheet, at 2,500 words and brings out a nostalgia within me for a style and depth of writing that seems to have irrevocably passed in journalism. For the edition of Thursday 26th November, The Independent cut it down to its current page size of 1500 words.? It still unquestionably surpasses the competition and notably addresses Hara's relationship with Ozu, particularly at the end. The Independent agreed that I could show the unabridged version to scholars, that would otherwise be lost to the record, so I am providing it here.? I've marked the parts that were cut in blue, but I'm not sure that 'KineJapan' transmits colour, so I'll also attach a doc file.Written some twenty years ago, it deploys some unfamiliar english translations of the titles but these will not distract readers here.Roger The link to the published version is here http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/setsuko-hara-actress-adored-in-japan-and-abroad-for-her-sensitivity-and-best-known-for-her-work-with-a6749256.html by James Kirkup? July 1998?SETSUKO HARA (Masae Aida) film actress.Born Yokohama17 June, 1920. Died Kamakura.She was theGarbo of Japan, the great shining star of the golden era in Japanese filmmaking. In his autobiography, the actor Ken Takakura, best known for his rolein Sydney Pollock?s The Yakuza, describes the vision of Setsuko Hara walkingthrough the indifferent hordes of commuters in Shinjuku Station: she movedamong them within an indefinable aura of mystery, a physical presence sodiscreet, it could hardly be called present at all. The atmosphere of purityand mystic innocence surrounding her was partly a reflection of her privatelife, shrouded in the utmost discretion.She wasaverse to publicity and rarely gave interviews. She never married, and she isnot known to have had any love affairs. There was a rumour that she might marryYasujiro Ozu, who directed her in most of her finest films, but it was only arumour. Ozu, too, never married, something even now considered abnormalin a Japanese male: he lived with his mother all his life. Women today are moreindependent of social conventions, and many now prefer a career to marriage. Hara wasknown affectionately, regretfully, as ?The Eternal virgin.??Setsuko Hara attended the veryrefinedYokohama Ladies? Seminary from 1933. In August 1934, her fresh, modest yetebullient personality and her radiantly simple beauty led her to be recommendedas a possible addition to Nikkatsu Movie company?s list of ?new faces?.Her father,Fujinosuke Aida, was a lowly salaryman, but his second daughter had become anactress and the wife of Hisatora Kumagai, a young movie director. Setsuko?splayful charm and a certain childlike spontaneity of feeling hadmade her popular with children, so she had decided to become a schoolteacher.But with the deterioration of her family?s financial situation, she could notenvisage a continuation of higher education.In her firstcasting photos, her skin appeared rather dark. Though she had a fine profile,her frontal shots revealed here as too thin and underdeveloped. Soher first attempt to enter Nikkatsu failed. However her brother-in-law Hisatoraremained convinced that she had the makings of a good actress. Soheinvited the movie company?s casting directors to his home in order to meetSetsuko in a more relaxed atmosphere. The subtle aura she diffused on thatoccasion was enough to persuade the company to engage her.At the time,Nikkatsu had few talented young actresses, so Setsuko seemed likely to fill aneed for a certain type of traditional Japanese girl. In April 1935, she joinedthe Nikkatsu Tamagawa Satsueijo, and in August made her film debut in Tetsu Taguchi?sTamerau nakare Wakandoyo (Don?t hesitate young people!). She was only fifteenyears old. In this young people?s movie, she took the professional name ofSetsuko Hara. Later in 1935, she appeared in Fumito Kurata?s shinya no taiyo(Midnight Sun). It was a ?B class? movie of the kind that in those days was runin support of the first feature, ?A class? film. But she had the leading role.? In that same year, the leading actress billedto appear in Midori no Chiheisen (Green Horizon) committed suicide. Setsukotook over her part in this first-class ?A? movie?. Herperformance revealed her as a potential star, with her happy smile, innocent,open gaze, wide, sparkling eyes and classic profile.In1936 she made Sadao Yamanaka?s Kochiyama Soshun. Yamanaka was a very promisingyoung director who had already made a couple of remarkable early talkies, andwas soon to leave Nikkatsu to work as Ozu?s assistant in Tokyo. He was killedduring the war in Manchuria.Inthose pre-war days, Nazi Germany had a passion for sentimental adventuremovies, love stories set in the mountains. In his book Dr Caligari to Hitler,Siegfried Kracauer writes about the Nazis ?idolatry of glaciers and mountainrock faces as symptomatic of the anti-rationalist romanticism of the Germanpsyche exploited by the German leaders.? The director Arnold Fanck was thechief exponent of his nationalist cinematic cult, and his first opus had beennamed, significantly, Der Heilige Berg (The Holy Mountain), 1926, starring theex-dancer Leni Riefenstahl, who was to appear in the five more of Fanck?smovies, none of which achieved the mastery of Die Weisse Holle vom Piz Palu(The White Hell of Piz Palu) co-directed by Pabst in 1929. All Fanck?s movieswere photographed by the celebrated operator Richard Angst.ArnoldFanck arrived from Berlin to make a Japan/German/co-production mountain moviewith Setsuko Hara and Sesshu Hayakawa. Fanck?s co-director was Mansaku Itami(father of the late Juzo Itami). But there was a lot of friction on the setbetween them. In the end, to save face on both sides, two versions had to bemade: Atarashi Tsuchi (New Earth) and Samurai nomusumi (Daughter of the Samurai). In 1937 Setsuko Hara appearedin both versions, which were shown in strict alternation in Japan. The Japaneseaudiences preferred the German version, as more ?exotic?. Setsuko, the firstJapanese girl to play in a German movie, was a great attraction, and it madeher a real star.She went toGermany for the film?s opening there. After studying German for only one month,she managed to speak the language passably. She travelled in acompany with the famous Japanese pair of movie buyers for Towa Shoji, Nagamasaand Kashiko Kawakita. Hara?s brother-in-law was also one of the delegation. AtTokyo Station, vast crowds had gathered to see them off on 10 March, 1937. Theyjourneyed through Manchuria and on the Trans-Siberian, to arrive on 26 March inBerlin. Setsuko made her first public appearance at the Capitol Theatre,wearing the elegant traditional women?s long-sleeved Kimono known as furisode. Her grace,her youth, her radiant smile and demure demeanour enchanted the Germans.Shemet the great Swiss actress Dorothea Wieok, who had played the sensationalleading role in Leontine Sagan?s Madchen in Uniform, which had been a hugesuccess in Japan. Setsuko possessed some of the spiritual distinction of Wieck,whom she admired as a model for her own acting style. The Germans preferred theJapanese to the German version of the film.Hara went onto Paris, where she met Louis Jouvet, Annabella, Michel Simon and JulienDuvivier. Thento New York and Hollywood, where she encountered Josef von Sternberg, MarleneDietrich, Barbara Stanwyk and the Austrian actress LuiseRainer. It would have been interesting to see Hara in a film by Duvivieror von Sternberg, but apparently no attempt was made to put her undercontract in Paris or Los Angeles.Whenshe returned to Japan, Setsuko Hara joined the Toho Movie Company where in 1937she made Tokai bijoden (Tokai Beauty Legend) directed by Takizo Ishida. Shealso played in a version of Les Miserables, in which she was a very natural,appealing Cosette. In 1938, Satsuo Yamamoto directed her in Kyojinden (Legendof a Great Man) adapted from Andre Gide?s La Symphonie Pastorale. As thetremulously sensitive blind heroine, Setsuko was superbly cast, aninterpretation deeply-thought out. It was Setsuko?s use of the marvellousmyopic gaze in her brilliantly expressive eyes that confirmed her as a greatactress, far superior to Michele Morgan in Delannoy?s1946 version. The Japaneseloved these films with Western backgrounds and characters. Fanck had seen inher a typical Japanese beauty. To the Japanese she seemed to represent a moreEuropean type.Butduring the Pacific War, rigid anti-Western propaganda compelled her to playtypical Japanese young lady parts, and she made few movies during this period.It was therefore not untilthe, end of the war that her career really began to take off, in Kuresawa?sfirst post-war film, Waga seishu ni kuinashi (Mr Springtime, No Regrets) inl946. She acted with real passion, and was an impressive leading lady. Thefilm was voted No. 2 on the list of the year?s best movies. In 1947, she leftToho and joined the new Shin-Toho Movie Company. She became an independentactress and played only in parts that she felt were suited to her, beginningwith Kimisaburo Yoshimura?s Anjoke no butokai (The Anjo Family?s Dance Party),which was chosen as the best film of 1947. Setsuko?s popularitystarted to soar. She always appeared on screen as an intelligent, refined,elegant, serious, young lady. She was untouched by social revolutions inJapanese post-war life, and in that depressed period her enchanting smileseemed to give people consolation and hope for a better future. In theconfusions of post-war society, her delicacy and tenderness were aninspiration.As anactress, she had begun with a rather stiff, mechanical technique, butexperience softened her style and in Yasujiro Ozu?s Banshun (Late spring),1949, with the support of the great Chishu Ryu, she touchedeveryone?s heart as a motherless daughter living with her professor father,taking care of him with true affection and self-effacement, thus missing herchances of marriage, which she finally is persuaded to embark upon at the end. Thereis a wonderfully touching scene between her and Ryu as she leaves him for themarriage ceremony, wearing a superb traditional wedding kimono. This film,the first of several she made with Ozu, was elected No.1 on the year-endcharts.Inthe came year, Keisuke Kinoshita directed her in O-jo-san kampai! (Cheers, oldgirl!) which was only No. 6 on the box-office list. But her performance thesame year in Aoi san miyaku (Blue Mountain) was No. 2 in the annual list. In1949 again, she went on to win the Best Actress Award in the MainichiNewspaper?s Movie Concours.SetsukoHara?smost famous films belong to the 1950s. In 1951, she played in Kurosawa?sHakuchi, based on Dostoevsky?s The Idiot, co-starring with ToshiroMifune and Masayuki Mori. She was Natasha, andthe whole film was shot in northern Japan. Hers was a very dramatic character, themistress of a wealthy man but longing to lead a purer life.In the sameyear, her next film with Ozu, Bakusha (Early Summer) became the year?s No.1hit, followed by the No.2, Mikio Naruse?s Meshi (A Bowl of Rice) in which shegave one of her best performances. Those three films are classics of theJapanese cinema, constantly screened at film festivals andretrospectives.Her director, Ozu, said: ?She can act from the very depths of her being, andalways has a quick understanding of her part. When I am giving her direction,she always responds intelligently and instinctively, a wonderful naturalactress.? Ozu?s traditional Japanese interiors, shot from tatami floor level,were perfect settings for her.In 1953 thegreatest of the Ozu/Hara films, Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story) wasmade.The shooting began in June, directed by Hara?s brother-in-law as Ozu?sassistant, and with her second brother as cameraman. The latter was taking ashot of an approaching train in Gotemba station when the train failed to stop intime: he was run over and died on June 6th. In these very sadcircumstances, which intensified the peculiar melancholy of the story, SetsukoHara began playing her greatest part, that of a young war widow,on 20 July. Here again she appears as a devoted daughter-in-law who kindlytakes care of her ageing parents-in-law when they leave their remote countryhome to spend a few days with their son and his rather abrasivewife (the inimitable Haruko Sugiyama) in their cramped Tokyo home.It is adeeply moving film, in which Setsuko?s fine performance is backed by theexcellent characterisations of Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama as herparents-in-law. Tokyo story is universal in its appeal, and one of the greatestmasterpieces of Japanese cinematographic art.In 1954,Hara made another film with Mikio Naruse, a sensitive version ofYasunari Kawabata?s best novel, Yama no oto (A Rumbling in the mountains).Setsuko now 34, and still unmarried, was at her peak period as anactress, and the very fact that she chose to remain unmarried seemed to add anextra almost ethereal dimension of spiritual distinction to her art. Her lovelyeyes were still full of tenderness and sparkles of mischievous humour. But shehad developed cataract in her left eye: this was successfully operated on atKeio University Hospital. It seemed an omen of coming decline.Herfavourite director, Ozu, had only another ten years to live. Her own fatherdied in 1955.?Hara next appeared on the screen in Hisatora Kumagai?s 1955 Non-chan kumo ni noru (Non-chan in the Clouds), based on a well-lovedchildren?s classic by Momoko Ishi. Newspaperheadlines joyfully announced: ?Beautiful Eyes Return to the Screen!? The filmmarked another significant step in her career: it was the first time she hadplayed a mother. There followed a succession of almost elegiac autumnal Ozumasterpieces: Tokyo boshoku (Tokyo Twilight) in 1957; Aki biyori (Autumnskies), 1960; and Kohayagawake no aki (Autumn of the Kohayagawa Family), 1961. ThoughSetsuko did not appear in it, Ozu made his last film, Samma no aji (usuallybilled as The Taste of Sake) in 1962. In several of Ozu?s later movies, he hadused younger actresses: Keiko Kishi in Soshun (Early Spring), in 1956; InekoArima in Higanbana (Equinox Flowers), 1958; Mariko Okada in Samma no aji, 1962.None of these women could equal the qualities of Setsuko Hara, herspell-binding quiet intensity and her grace. She began toseem to belong to another age.Hara andOzu: there is an underlying sense of some disturbing secret that emanates fromthese two unmarried artists, the sadness of an emotional difference that theircondition arouses in the spectators, and indefinable strain of sexualperversity. They seem to be telling us that human lives are not what they seem,and that an acceptable social exterior is not everything.In his recent enthrallingbook on Ozu, the critic and scholar Shigehiko Hasumi argues, againstcritics like Paul Schrader, Donald Richie and Audie Bock that all was notsimple sweetness and light in those films made with Setsuko Hara. She wasapparently in love with her much older director, a father-figure who had nointention of marrying anybody, and so treated her rather distantly. UnlikeHasumi, I see their relationship more like that between the dutiful daughterand the father in Banshun: one of pure devotion, with a sublimated sexual need.In 1962,Setsuko appeared in her last movie, one of the countless versions ofChushingura, a historical epic in which she is obviously ill at ease. Sheretired from the screen when she was only forty-two,feeling there were no more parts for her to play. The type of young girl andwoman she had portrayed to such perfection was already vanishing from modernJapan. Like Garbo and Dietrich, she retired not only from the screen, but alsofrom public life. The Japarazzi managed to take only one shot of her at home.She did not want her fans to witness her beauty in decline. The Eternal Virginremained one to the end of her days, her veil or mystery unbroken.Masae Aida (SetsukoHara), actress: born 17 June 1920; died Kanagawa, Japan 5 September 2015.James Kirkup died in2009.??* = Bakush? From: Gerow Aaron To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum Sent: Wednesday, 25 November 2015, 14:29 Subject: [KineJapan] Hara Setsuko The news services report that Hara Setsuko, the star of so many great Japanese films, is dead at age 95. She actually died September 5, but her passing was not announced. http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASHCT7KPNHCTUCLV01B.html?iref=comtop_6_01 _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: HARA Setsuko by James Kirkup~ full text.doc Type: application/msword Size: 44032 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From lucile.druet at gmail.com Thu Dec 17 01:22:16 2015 From: lucile.druet at gmail.com (lucile druet) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2015 15:22:16 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Hara Setsuko In-Reply-To: References: <30E0A0D0-17B8-4559-A51A-EBB9D99C453B@yale.edu> <1703718457.22022841.1448973671699.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear KineJapaners, A little follow-up here about Hara Setsuko : as a tribute, the Film theater inside the Kyoto Bunka Hakubutsukan (The Museum of Kyoto / ??????????) will be screening about twelve of her movies, several times for each one of them, from January 5th to 28th. And later on, in March, Movix Kyoto will be screening a restored digital copy of "Tokyo Monogatari". You'll find the scanned movie list attached to this mail but you can also find it online at this address : http://www.bunpaku.or.jp/exhi_film/schedule/ I don't know if anyone from the list will have the possibility to go, I just thought it's nice to hear that her movies are getting a chance to be seen on a large screen like this. Wishing you all a nice and happy day, Best, Lucile 2015-12-17 15:19 GMT+09:00 lucile druet : > Dear KineJapaners, > > A little follow-up here about Hara Setsuko : > as a tribute, the Film theater inside the Kyoto Bunka Hakubutsukan (The > Museum of Kyoto / ??????????) > will be screening about twelve of her movies, several times for each one > of them, from January 5th to 28th. > > And later on, in March, Movix Kyoto will be screening a restored digital > copy of "Tokyo Monogatari". > > You'll find the scanned movie list attached to this mail but you can also > find it online at this address : > http://www.bunpaku.or.jp/exhi_film/schedule/ > > I don't know if anyone from the list will have the possibility to go, > I just thought it's nice to hear that her movies are getting a chance to > be seen on a large screen like this. > > > Wishing you all a nice and happy day, > > Best, > > Lucile > > > > > > 2015-12-01 21:41 GMT+09:00 Roger Macy : > >> Dear KineJapaners, >> The obituaries for Hara Setsuko in the English newspapers are now all >> published. Mostly they are not in great depth, were not written by >> Japanese specialists and do not situate her fame in Japan at all. >> >> However, there is one honourable exception. *The Independent *had on >> file an obituary written by James Kirkup, whose own obituary in 2009 was >> noted here. The piece was written for a full-sized broadsheet, at 2,500 >> words and brings out a nostalgia within me for a style and depth of writing >> that seems to have irrevocably passed in journalism. >> >> For the edition of Thursday 26th November, *The Independent* cut it down >> to its current page size of 1500 words. It still unquestionably surpasses >> the competition and notably addresses Hara's relationship with Ozu, >> particularly at the end. >> >> *The Independent* agreed that I could show the unabridged version to >> scholars, that would otherwise be lost to the record, so I am providing it >> here. I've marked the parts that were cut in blue, but I'm not sure that >> 'KineJapan' transmits colour, so I'll also attach a doc file. >> Written some twenty years ago, it deploys some unfamiliar english >> translations of the titles but these will not distract readers here. >> Roger >> >> The link to the published version is here >> >> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/setsuko-hara-actress-adored-in-japan-and-abroad-for-her-sensitivity-and-best-known-for-her-work-with-a6749256.html >> >> *by James Kirkup July 1998 SETSUKO HARA (Masae Aida) film actress.* >> Born Yokohama 17 June, 1920. Died Kamakura. >> She was the Garbo of Japan, the great shining star of the golden era in >> Japanese film making. In his autobiography, the actor Ken Takakura, best >> known for his role in Sydney Pollock?s The Yakuza, describes the vision of >> Setsuko Hara walking through the indifferent hordes of commuters in >> Shinjuku Station: she moved among them within an indefinable aura of >> mystery, a physical presence so discreet, it could hardly be called present >> at all. The atmosphere of purity and mystic innocence surrounding her was >> partly a reflection of her private life, shrouded in the utmost discretion. >> She was averse to publicity and rarely gave interviews. She never >> married, and she is not known to have had any love affairs. There was a >> rumour that she might marry Yasujiro Ozu, who directed her in most of her >> finest films, but it was only a rumour. Ozu, too, never married, >> something even now considered abnormal in a Japanese male: he lived with >> his mother all his life. Women today are more independent of social >> conventions, and many now prefer a career to marriage. Hara was known >> affectionately, regretfully, as ?The Eternal virgin.? >> Setsuko Hara attended the very refined Yokohama Ladies? Seminary from >> 1933. In August 1934, her fresh, modest yet ebullient personality and her >> radiantly simple beauty led her to be recommended as a possible addition to >> Nikkatsu Movie company?s list of ?new faces?. >> Her father, Fujinosuke Aida, was a lowly salaryman, but his second >> daughter had become an actress and the wife of Hisatora Kumagai, a young >> movie director. Setsuko?s playful charm and a certain childlike >> spontaneity of feeling had made her popular with children, so she had >> decided to become a schoolteacher. But with the deterioration of her >> family?s financial situation, she could not envisage a continuation of >> higher education. >> In her first casting photos, her skin appeared rather dark. Though she >> had a fine profile, her frontal shots revealed here as too thin and >> underdeveloped. So her first attempt to enter Nikkatsu failed. However >> her brother-in-law Hisatora remained convinced that she had the makings of >> a good actress. So he invited the movie company?s casting directors to >> his home in order to meet Setsuko in a more relaxed atmosphere. The subtle >> aura she diffused on that occasion was enough to persuade the company to >> engage her. >> At the time, Nikkatsu had few talented young actresses, so Setsuko seemed >> likely to fill a need for a certain type of traditional Japanese girl. In >> April 1935, she joined the Nikkatsu Tamagawa Satsueijo, and in August made >> her film debut in Tetsu Taguchi?s Tamerau nakare Wakandoyo (Don?t hesitate >> young people!). She was only fifteen years old. In this young people?s >> movie, she took the professional name of Setsuko Hara. Later in 1935, >> she appeared in Fumito Kurata?s shinya no taiyo (Midnight Sun). It was a ?B >> class? movie of the kind that in those days was run in support of the first >> feature, ?A class? film. But she had the leading role. In that same >> year, the leading actress billed to appear in Midori no Chiheisen (Green >> Horizon) committed suicide. Setsuko took over her part in this first-class >> ?A? movie?. Her performance revealed her as a potential star, with her >> happy smile, innocent, open gaze, wide, sparkling eyes and classic profile. >> In 1936 she made Sadao Yamanaka?s Kochiyama Soshun. Yamanaka was a very >> promising young director who had already made a couple of remarkable early >> talkies, and was soon to leave Nikkatsu to work as Ozu?s assistant in >> Tokyo. He was killed during the war in Manchuria. >> In those pre-war days, Nazi Germany had a passion for sentimental >> adventure movies, love stories set in the mountains. In his book Dr >> Caligari to Hitler, Siegfried Kracauer writes about the Nazis ?idolatry of >> glaciers and mountain rock faces as symptomatic of the anti-rationalist >> romanticism of the German psyche exploited by the German leaders.? The >> director Arnold Fanck was the chief exponent of his nationalist cinematic >> cult, and his first opus had been named, significantly, Der Heilige Berg >> (The Holy Mountain), 1926, starring the ex-dancer Leni Riefenstahl, who was >> to appear in the five more of Fanck?s movies, none of which achieved the >> mastery of Die Weisse Holle vom Piz Palu (The White Hell of Piz Palu) >> co-directed by Pabst in 1929. All Fanck?s movies were photographed by the >> celebrated operator Richard Angst. >> Arnold Fanck arrived from Berlin to make a Japan/German/co-production >> mountain movie with Setsuko Hara and Sesshu Hayakawa. Fanck?s co-director >> was Mansaku Itami (father of the late Juzo Itami). But there was a lot of >> friction on the set between them. In the end, to save face on both sides, >> two versions had to be made: Atarashi Tsuchi (New Earth) and Samurai no >> musumi (Daughter of the Samurai). In 1937 Setsuko Hara appeared in both >> versions, which were shown in strict alternation in Japan. The Japanese >> audiences preferred the German version, as more ?exotic?. Setsuko, the >> first Japanese girl to play in a German movie, was a great attraction, and >> it made her a real star. >> She went to Germany for the film?s opening there. After studying German >> for only one month, she managed to speak the language passably. She >> travelled in a company with the famous Japanese pair of movie buyers for >> Towa Shoji, Nagamasa and Kashiko Kawakita. Hara?s brother-in-law was also >> one of the delegation. At Tokyo Station, vast crowds had gathered to see >> them off on 10 March, 1937. They journeyed through Manchuria and on the >> Trans-Siberian, to arrive on 26 March in Berlin. Setsuko made her first >> public appearance at the Capitol Theatre, wearing the elegant traditional >> women?s long-sleeved Kimono known as furisode. Her grace, her youth, her >> radiant smile and demure demeanour enchanted the Germans. >> She met the great Swiss actress Dorothea Wieok, who had played the >> sensational leading role in Leontine Sagan?s Madchen in Uniform, which had >> been a huge success in Japan. Setsuko possessed some of the spiritual >> distinction of Wieck, whom she admired as a model for her own acting style. >> The Germans preferred the Japanese to the German version of the film. >> Hara went on to Paris, where she met Louis Jouvet, Annabella, Michel >> Simon and Julien Duvivier. Then to New York and Hollywood, where she >> encountered Josef von Sternberg, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyk and the >> Austrian actress Luise Rainer. It would have been interesting to see >> Hara in a film by Duvivier or von Sternberg, but apparently no attempt >> was made to put her under contract in Paris or Los Angeles. >> When she returned to Japan, Setsuko Hara joined the Toho Movie Company >> where in 1937 she made Tokai bijoden (Tokai Beauty Legend) directed by >> Takizo Ishida. She also played in a version of Les Miserables, in which she >> was a very natural, appealing Cosette. In 1938, Satsuo Yamamoto directed >> her in Kyojinden (Legend of a Great Man) adapted from Andre Gide?s La >> Symphonie Pastorale. As the tremulously sensitive blind heroine, Setsuko >> was superbly cast, an interpretation deeply-thought out. It was Setsuko?s >> use of the marvellous myopic gaze in her brilliantly expressive eyes that >> confirmed her as a great actress, far superior to Michele Morgan in >> Delannoy?s1946 version. The Japanese loved these films with Western >> backgrounds and characters. Fanck had seen in her a typical Japanese >> beauty. To the Japanese she seemed to represent a more European type. >> But during the Pacific War, rigid anti-Western propaganda compelled her >> to play typical Japanese young lady parts, and she made few movies during >> this period. >> It was therefore not until the, end of the war that her career really >> began to take off, in Kuresawa?s first post-war film, Waga seishu ni >> kuinashi (Mr Springtime, No Regrets) in l946. She acted with real passion, >> and was an impressive leading lady. The film was voted No. 2 on the list >> of the year?s best movies. In 1947, she left Toho and joined the new >> Shin-Toho Movie Company. She became an independent actress and played only >> in parts that she felt were suited to her, beginning with Kimisaburo >> Yoshimura?s Anjoke no butokai (The Anjo Family?s Dance Party), which was >> chosen as the best film of 1947. Setsuko?s popularity started to soar. >> She always appeared on screen as an intelligent, refined, elegant, serious, >> young lady. She was untouched by social revolutions in Japanese post-war >> life, and in that depressed period her enchanting smile seemed to give >> people consolation and hope for a better future. In the confusions of >> post-war society, her delicacy and tenderness were an inspiration. >> As an actress, she had begun with a rather stiff, mechanical technique, >> but experience softened her style and in Yasujiro Ozu?s Banshun (Late >> spring), 1949, with the support of the great Chishu Ryu, she touched >> everyone?s heart as a motherless daughter living with her professor father, >> taking care of him with true affection and self-effacement, thus missing >> her chances of marriage, which she finally is persuaded to embark upon at >> the end. There is a wonderfully touching scene between her and Ryu as >> she leaves him for the marriage ceremony, wearing a superb traditional >> wedding kimono. This film, the first of several she made with Ozu, was >> elected No.1 on the year-end charts. >> In the came year, Keisuke Kinoshita directed her in O-jo-san kampai! >> (Cheers, old girl!) which was only No. 6 on the box-office list. But her >> performance the same year in Aoi san miyaku (Blue Mountain) was No. 2 in >> the annual list. In 1949 again, she went on to win the Best Actress Award >> in the Mainichi Newspaper?s Movie Concours. >> Setsuko Hara?s most famous films belong to the 1950s. In 1951, she >> played in Kurosawa?s Hakuchi, based on Dostoevsky?s The Idiot, co-starring >> with Toshiro Mifune and Masayuki Mori. She was Natasha, and the whole >> film was shot in northern Japan. Hers was a very dramatic character, the >> mistress of a wealthy man but longing to lead a purer life. >> In the same year, her next film with Ozu, Bakusha (Early Summer) became >> the year?s No.1 hit, followed by the No.2, Mikio Naruse?s Meshi (A Bowl of >> Rice) in which she gave one of her best performances. Those three films are >> classics of the Japanese cinema, constantly screened at film festivals >> and retrospectives. Her director, Ozu, said: ?She can act from the very >> depths of her being, and always has a quick understanding of her part. When >> I am giving her direction, she always responds intelligently and >> instinctively, a wonderful natural actress.? Ozu?s traditional Japanese >> interiors, shot from tatami floor level, were perfect settings for her. >> In 1953 the greatest of the Ozu/Hara films, Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo >> Story) was made. The shooting began in June, directed by Hara?s >> brother-in-law as Ozu?s assistant, and with her second brother as >> cameraman. The latter was taking a shot of an approaching train in Gotemba >> station when the train failed to stop in time: he was run over and died on >> June 6th. In these very sad circumstances, which intensified the >> peculiar melancholy of the story, Setsuko Hara began playing her greatest >> part, that of a young war widow, on 20 July. Here again she appears as a >> devoted daughter-in-law who kindly takes care of her ageing parents-in-law >> when they leave their remote country home to spend a few days with their >> son and his rather abrasive wife (the inimitable Haruko Sugiyama) in >> their cramped Tokyo home. >> It is a deeply moving film, in which Setsuko?s fine performance is backed >> by the excellent characterisations of Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama as >> her parents-in-law. Tokyo story is universal in its appeal, and one of the >> greatest masterpieces of Japanese cinematographic art. >> In 1954, Hara made another film with Mikio Naruse, a sensitive version >> of Yasunari Kawabata?s best novel, Yama no oto (A Rumbling in the >> mountains). Setsuko now 34, and still unmarried, was at her peak period >> as an actress, and the very fact that she chose to remain unmarried seemed >> to add an extra almost ethereal dimension of spiritual distinction to her >> art. Her lovely eyes were still full of tenderness and sparkles of >> mischievous humour. But she had developed cataract in her left eye: this >> was successfully operated on at Keio University Hospital. It seemed an >> omen of coming decline. >> Her favourite director, Ozu, had only another ten years to live. Her own >> father died in 1955. Hara next appeared on the screen in Hisatora >> Kumagai?s 1955 Non-chan kumo ni noru (Non-chan in the Clouds), based on >> a well-loved children?s classic by Momoko Ishi. Newspaper headlines >> joyfully announced: ?Beautiful Eyes Return to the Screen!? The film marked >> another significant step in her career: it was the first time she had >> played a mother. There followed a succession of almost elegiac autumnal Ozu >> masterpieces: Tokyo boshoku (Tokyo Twilight) in 1957; Aki biyori (Autumn >> skies), 1960; and Kohayagawake no aki (Autumn of the Kohayagawa Family), >> 1961. Though Setsuko did not appear in it, Ozu made his last film, Samma >> no aji (usually billed as The Taste of Sake) in 1962. In several of Ozu?s >> later movies, he had used younger actresses: Keiko Kishi in Soshun (Early >> Spring), in 1956; Ineko Arima in Higanbana (Equinox Flowers), 1958; Mariko >> Okada in Samma no aji, 1962. None of these women could equal the qualities >> of Setsuko Hara, her spell-binding quiet intensity and her grace. She >> began to seem to belong to another age. >> Hara and Ozu: there is an underlying sense of some disturbing secret that >> emanates from these two unmarried artists, the sadness of an emotional >> difference that their condition arouses in the spectators, and indefinable >> strain of sexual perversity. They seem to be telling us that human lives >> are not what they seem, and that an acceptable social exterior is not >> everything. >> In his recent enthralling book on Ozu, the critic and scholar Shigehiko >> Hasumi argues, against critics like Paul Schrader, Donald Richie and Audie >> Bock that all was not simple sweetness and light in those films made with >> Setsuko Hara. She was apparently in love with her much older director, a >> father-figure who had no intention of marrying anybody, and so treated her >> rather distantly. Unlike Hasumi, I see their relationship more like that >> between the dutiful daughter and the father in Banshun: one of pure >> devotion, with a sublimated sexual need. >> In 1962, Setsuko appeared in her last movie, one of the countless >> versions of Chushingura, a historical epic in which she is obviously ill at >> ease. She retired from the screen when she was only forty-two, feeling >> there were no more parts for her to play. The type of young girl and woman >> she had portrayed to such perfection was already vanishing from modern >> Japan. Like Garbo and Dietrich, she retired not only from the screen, but >> also from public life. The Japarazzi managed to take only one shot of her >> at home. She did not want her fans to witness her beauty in decline. The >> Eternal Virgin remained one to the end of her days, her veil or mystery >> unbroken. >> *Masae Aida (Setsuko Hara), actress: born 17 June 1920; died Kanagawa, >> Japan 5 September 2015.* >> *James Kirkup died in 2009.* >> >> >> * = Bakush? >> >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> *From:* Gerow Aaron >> *To:* Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum >> *Sent:* Wednesday, 25 November 2015, 14:29 >> *Subject:* [KineJapan] Hara Setsuko >> >> The news services report that Hara Setsuko, the star of so many great >> Japanese films, is dead at age 95. She actually died September 5, but her >> passing was not announced. >> >> http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASHCT7KPNHCTUCLV01B.html?iref=comtop_6_01 >> _______________________________________________ >> KineJapan mailing list >> KineJapan at lists.osu.edu >> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> KineJapan mailing list >> KineJapan at lists.osu.edu >> https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan >> >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Kyoto Hakubutsukan_Hara Setsuko films.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 507561 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From aaron.gerow at yale.edu Wed Dec 9 21:38:59 2015 From: aaron.gerow at yale.edu (Gerow Aaron) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2015 21:38:59 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Nosaka Akiyuki Message-ID: <6ECB500D-594C-4482-8E4F-BC3446B7BA4A@yale.edu> Nosaki Akiyuki, the prominent Japanese novelist who may be best known as the author of the story on which Takahata Isao's Grave of the Fireflies was based (and for which he won the Naoki Prize), has died at the age of 85. He also authored the novel on which Imamura Shohei's The Pornographers was based. In addition to other works like American Hijiki, he was also famous as a singer and television personality. Quite a character, one of his most famous moments was punching Oshima Nagisa at a wedding anniversary party. http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASHDB3DK3HDBUCLV00H.html?iref=comtop_6_03 Aaron Gerow Professor Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures Director of Graduate Studies, EALL Yale University 320 York Street, Room 311 PO Box 208324 New Haven, CT 06520-8324 USA Phone: 1-203-432-7082 Fax: 1-203-432-6729 e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu website: www.aarongerow.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From lindsayrebeccanelson at gmail.com Sat Dec 12 23:34:51 2015 From: lindsayrebeccanelson at gmail.com (Lindsay Nelson) Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 13:34:51 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] Seeking Taku Shinjo's "Aokigahara" Message-ID: Does anyone know where I might find a copy of "Aokigahara," a film by Taku Shinjo based on a novella by Shintaro Ishihara that screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2012? It doesn't seem to be available in any of the usual places (video rental stores, Amazon, libraries), and a direct email I sent to the director was returned undeliverable. Should I try emailing the distributor (Ark Entertainment)? Thank you, Lindsay Nelson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From stephen at asianfilm.info Mon Dec 14 01:15:31 2015 From: stephen at asianfilm.info (Stephen Cremin) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:15:31 +0800 Subject: [KineJapan] Seeking Taku Shinjo's "Aokigahara" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Yes, looks like a lost film. Did it ever screen outside Japan? Amazing how a film can disappear in three years now. As a festival programmer, I'm getting links to screeners that expire in a week or less. Films like AOKIGAHARA are the new silent cinema. The film's website is now offline. All that exists are some low-resolution images of the film elsewhere on the web. AOKIGAHARA ?is not on FestivalScope, which has some of the TIFF films going back to 2013. But AOKIGAHARA was in the Special Screenings section, so wouldn't have been there anyway. Perhaps Skip City can arrange a screening for you if you visit their office, since they screened it ahead of Tokyo IFF in 2012. Otherwise, yes, try Ark Entertainment. Stephen On 14 December 2015 at 02:33:19, Lindsay Nelson (lindsayrebeccanelson at gmail.com) wrote: Does anyone know where I might find a copy of "Aokigahara," a film by Taku Shinjo based on a novella by Shintaro Ishihara that screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2012? It doesn't seem to be available in any of the usual places (video rental stores, Amazon, libraries), and a direct email I sent to the director was returned undeliverable. Should I try emailing the distributor (Ark Entertainment)? Thank you, Lindsay Nelson _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From aaron.gerow at yale.edu Sat Dec 19 12:34:49 2015 From: aaron.gerow at yale.edu (Gerow Aaron) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2015 12:34:49 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Ichikawa Kon Memorial Room Message-ID: The Ichikawa Kon Memorial Room ?????? has finally opened up in Shibuya. One room in the new building that was built on the location of Ichikawa?s old home is now devoted to memorabilia of the director. http://www.konichikawa.com/memorial.html Aaron Gerow Professor Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures Director of Graduate Studies, EALL Yale University 320 York Street, Room 311 PO Box 208324 New Haven, CT 06520-8324 USA Phone: 1-203-432-7082 Fax: 1-203-432-6729 e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu website: www.aarongerow.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From hakutaku at kansaigaidai.ac.jp Fri Dec 18 07:31:34 2015 From: hakutaku at kansaigaidai.ac.jp (BERRY Paul) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 21:31:34 +0900 Subject: [KineJapan] question about the CFP Conference Visualization of Japanese History In-Reply-To: <566D9497.5000604@xs4all.nl> Message-ID: <1780749419.2279090.1450441894750.JavaMail.root@kansaigaidai.ac.jp> Dear Dick, I really like the ideas you put forth concerning the your upcoming conference and I have a question about it. Although the timing of the conference is a bit awkward for my teaching schedule I am considering sending in a proposal dealing with Aida Makoto's video and calligraphy installation that heavily critiqued the Abe administration this year. I don't know if you heard about it but he was invited to present anything he wanted at a large exhibition directed towards children at the huge Tokyo Gendai Bijutsukan. Aida submitted these very political critiques of Abe and the museum asked him to voluntarily withdraw them as they could not be easily understood by children, but he held his ground and they were shown. There was considerable press coverage about the attempt to suppress it and his resistance. Although dealing with contemporary "history" the issues about media influence and meaning seem relevant to the questions you raise. Nonetheless, I would appreciate your take on it. If you see a talk on this material as potentially within the range of the call, I may go ahead and write one up. There was no catalogue but I was able to photograph all the exhibits and related texts. In April at the AAS in Seattle I will be discussing Aida's new sensoga and its relation to Fujita's work. I would like to give Aida's Abe critique more visibility as he is one of the very few contemporary artists to openly take a stance about the current political situation here. On another slightly related note, I included Eien no zero as the last film this term in my recent Japanese film course and was disconcerted that a mixture of Japanese and foreign students found the film to be the best or one of the best films they saw in the course despite a critique of the film on the ground of historical inaccuracy and contemporary propaganda films. The most analytical students saw through the film after being prompted for a closer examination by my discussion. Nonetheless for many of the them "seeing was believing" regardless of potential problems... This experience underlines the importance of the questions you raised in the call for papers. Best regards, Paul Berry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dick Stegewerns" To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 12:53:59 AM Subject: [KineJapan] CFP Conference Visualization of Japanese History, Oslo, March 10-11 Dear colleagues, Please find below the call for papers for a conference on the visualization of Japanese history in popular media. I hope to be able to welcome some KineJapan 'members' as well. And please forward to others potentially interested. Best regards, Dick Stegewerns *Call for Papers* ** *Conference, University of Oslo, 10-11 March 2016* ** *Every Picture Tells a Story: The Visualization of Japanese History* ** In modern and contemporary Japan we have seen how mass media such as historic novels, film and television, but nowadays increasingly manga and anime, have become a major influence in the shaping of views on national history. Film and television directors and manga and anime makers occupy an increasing share in the distribution of historical knowledge and it is no exaggeration that in this sense they have become the most prominent group of ?historians?. It is no longer an exception that some directors and artists are rather evaluated on the basis of their credentials as a historian rather than as a creator. Are we as professional historians at ease with the fact that the voice of non-professionals overshadows and maybe even distorts our careful and painstaking labour in retracing, structuring, analyzing and conveying history to a present day audience? As history writers, can we approve of those who rather ?make history?, i.e. convey ?history? on a completely different basis than that of ?historical reality?? Can we be sure that the various artists and directors are autonomous and do not have to adjust their product to the agendas and mores of the state and commercial institutions? And if we cannot, what should we do? Pressure filmmakers and manga writers to use academic advisers? Make an effort to have our research findings visualized on television and in manga? Should we counter the influence of for instance Kobayashi Yoshinori by the mere means of the orthodox ?book? or should we counter him with equal means, i.e. manga? The aim of this collective international research project is to conduct a comparative analysis of how the images and interpretations of the most outstanding periods and personages in Japanese history have changed over time, and to scrutinize which products of mass media were most instrumental in bringing about these changes. A related aim is to reflect upon the question what the increasing influence of the mass media on the 'making' of history implies for the academic trade of historical research. We will try to describe long-term structures, characteristics and recent developments in the field of the relations between the media, popular culture, academia, and collective historical memory. This is a field that both I and our keynote speakers Professors Fukuma (tbc), Gluck, and Otmazgin have focused on lately, largely related to questions of images and memories of the Second World War in Japan, and we will build on previous academic meetings on this topic. By bringing together scholars on history, media studies, and popular culture, we expect to stimulate new approaches to the study of Japanese ?history-writing? and to provide fresh insights into long-term structures and defining moments, characteristics and universal nature, changes and continuities, roots and future of the links between mass media and historical consciousness. The results of the conference will be published, if possible in separate English and Japanese publications, in order to serve the global academic - and hopefully wider - community. Place:University of Oslo Time:Thurs-Fri 10-11 March 2016 Keynote speakers: Prof. Dr. Fukuma Yoshiaki (tbc), Prof. Dr. Carol Gluck, Prof. Dr. Nissim Otmazgin Please send a 300 word abstract of your proposal by 31 December 2015 to dick.stegewerns at ikos.uio.no For more information, please send an email to the same address. Best regards, Dick Stegewerns Associate Professor Modern & Contemporary Japanese Studies University of Oslo _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From eija.niskanen at gmail.com Sun Dec 20 02:44:55 2015 From: eija.niskanen at gmail.com (Eija Niskanen) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2015 09:44:55 +0200 Subject: [KineJapan] The Actor sneak preview at FCCJ Message-ID: Dear KineJapanners, The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Yurakucho will be screening ?The Actor,? Satoko Yokohama?s first film since the much-lauded ?Bare Essence of Life,? on Tuesday, January 12th. Since FCCJ is a private club, you must reserve your seats through Screenings Curator Karen Severns: kjs30 at gol.com. FCCJ SNEAK PREVIEW TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2016 6:45 pm THE ACTOR (Haiyu Kameoka Takuji) Japan, 2016 123 minutes English, Russian, Japanese with Japanese subtitles Followed by a Q&A with director Satoko Yokohama Busy TV actor Ken Yasuda gives an extraordinarily versatile performance in the role of a lifetime, demonstrating his skill in a range of parts on a variety of film sets and theatrical stages. ?The Actor,? which world premiered at the 2015 Tokyo International Film Festival, highlights Yokohama?s flare for surrealistic touches, unusual imagery and offbeat musical selections. A witty, warm-hearted paean to a bit-part player ? you recognize his face, but you can never remember his name ? the film follows Takuji Kameoka as he auditions, rehearses and shoots, then drinks away his loneliness with fellow low-achievers in nearby bars. Then one night, he awakens from a nap and falls in love with the radiant bartender Azumi (Kumiko Aso). As if that isn?t enough, he?s invited to audition for world-famous arthouse director Alan Spesso (Ricardo Garcia). Suddenly, Kameoka is facing an existential midlife crisis For trailer (in Japanese): http://kametaku.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From aaron.gerow at yale.edu Mon Dec 28 14:00:26 2015 From: aaron.gerow at yale.edu (Gerow Aaron) Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2015 14:00:26 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Aoyama Shinji's manifesto Message-ID: <6421A081-4931-4DAB-ABCD-D2C80AEC7F43@yale.edu> I just wanted to mention that my translation of Aoyama Shinji?s ?Nouvelle Vague Manifesto? is finally out. Adrian Martin had long expressed interest in publishing it and it now appears in the 6th issue of LOLA, the film journal Adrian edits with Girish Shambu. I penned a short introduction to the piece. http://lolajournal.com/6/index.html I have long used this manifesto in my writings and in my classes as an important expression of not only Aoyama's theory of cinema, but also the politics of style in 1990s Japanese film. I do apologize for the length of time it took for it to come out. Much of it was my fault (too busy!), but it took a bit of digging to find the sources of the many quotes Aoyama uses in the manifesto. Aaron Gerow Professor Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures Director of Graduate Studies, EALL Yale University 320 York Street, Room 311 PO Box 208324 New Haven, CT 06520-8324 USA Phone: 1-203-432-7082 Fax: 1-203-432-6729 e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu website: www.aarongerow.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From aaron.gerow at yale.edu Sun Dec 13 13:25:13 2015 From: aaron.gerow at yale.edu (Gerow Aaron) Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 13:25:13 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Oh Deok-soo Message-ID: <653C84FF-4CA0-4910-B3E0-A481FAFF4A45@yale.edu> The film director Oh Deok-soo has died at the age of 74. Starting out as an assistant director to Oshima Nagisa and then working in TV, Oh eventually became an independent documentary filmmaker, making especially works on the situation of zainichi Koreans in Japan. http://mainichi.jp/articles/20151214/k00/00m/040/026000c Monma Takashi interviewed Oh for the YIDFF's Documentary Box: http://www.yidff.jp/docbox/26/box26-1-1-e.html Aaron Gerow Professor Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures Director of Graduate Studies, EALL Yale University 320 York Street, Room 311 PO Box 208324 New Haven, CT 06520-8324 USA Phone: 1-203-432-7082 Fax: 1-203-432-6729 e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu website: www.aarongerow.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From aaron.gerow at yale.edu Sun Dec 13 22:48:00 2015 From: aaron.gerow at yale.edu (Gerow Aaron) Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 22:48:00 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Oh Deok-soo In-Reply-To: References: <653C84FF-4CA0-4910-B3E0-A481FAFF4A45@yale.edu> Message-ID: <5D9A976A-5AB3-4118-911C-1583D68A0259@yale.edu> Oshima had another famous zainichi assistant: the director Sai Yoichi, who was AD on In the Realm of the Senses. Sai-san later appears as Kondo Isami in Oshima?s Gohatto. Aaron Gerow > 2015/12/13 ??9:08?Nohchool Park ????? > > Thanks for your posting about the director Oh Deok-soo. > > I just saw this Korean name and got surprised to learn that Oshima Nagisa worked with a Korean assistant. > > Recently, I had searched Amazon.com to find Oshima's Forgotten Imperial Army (Wasurerareta Kogun, 1963) but to no avail. > > From the obituary I feel more assured that the director had maintained strong ties with Koreans, emotionally and artistically. > > Nohchool Park > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From olidew at gmail.com Mon Dec 14 19:06:13 2015 From: olidew at gmail.com (Oliver Dew) Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2015 00:06:13 +0000 Subject: [KineJapan] Oh Deok-soo In-Reply-To: <653C84FF-4CA0-4910-B3E0-A481FAFF4A45@yale.edu> References: <653C84FF-4CA0-4910-B3E0-A481FAFF4A45@yale.edu> Message-ID: <3DC95550-3C82-4AD4-865F-DD16DA71C12D@gmail.com> I was very sad to hear this news. I met with Oh on several occasions over the past few years, and he was always so generous and forthcoming. He was a wonderful person to talk to, and to interview. I last saw him just over a year ago and he seemed to be in very good form. He was very active as a curator in recent years. I went to see him lead a series of screenings and discussions at the Korean community association meetings near where he lived in Chofu, and to an exhibition of stills from Shimon ?natsu kyohi (Against Fingerprinting) at Gallery 1/F. He was there discussing the images with visitors and giving them souvenirs he'd brought back from a recent trip to his birthplace in Akita (he gave me some miso). KineJapaners who came to the Japanese Film Symposium at Meiji Gakuin in July 2014 will remember him as a lively and engaging discussant. I hope that his films will not become harder to access now that he is no longer here to discuss them with us. He was a vital figure, as a filmmaker, an activist, and as an archivist, as a collector and remediator of others' images. My thoughts are with his wife and sons. Oliver > On 13 Dec 2015, at 18:25, Gerow Aaron wrote: > > The film director Oh Deok-soo has died at the age of 74. Starting out as an assistant director to Oshima Nagisa and then working in TV, Oh eventually became an independent documentary filmmaker, making especially works on the situation of zainichi Koreans in Japan. > > http://mainichi.jp/articles/20151214/k00/00m/040/026000c > > Monma Takashi interviewed Oh for the YIDFF's Documentary Box: > > http://www.yidff.jp/docbox/26/box26-1-1-e.html > > Aaron Gerow > Professor > Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures > Director of Graduate Studies, EALL > Yale University > 320 York Street, Room 311 > PO Box 208324 > New Haven, CT 06520-8324 > USA > Phone: 1-203-432-7082 > Fax: 1-203-432-6729 > e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu > website: www.aarongerow.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.osu.edu > https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From shota.ogawa at gmail.com Mon Dec 14 22:36:45 2015 From: shota.ogawa at gmail.com (shota ogawa) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 22:36:45 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Oh Deok-soo In-Reply-To: <3DC95550-3C82-4AD4-865F-DD16DA71C12D@gmail.com> References: <653C84FF-4CA0-4910-B3E0-A481FAFF4A45@yale.edu> <3DC95550-3C82-4AD4-865F-DD16DA71C12D@gmail.com> Message-ID: Thank you Aaron for sharing the news on Oh Deok-soo's passing, and Oliver for sharing your thoughts on Oh. I was also saddened to hear the news. I met Oh a few times, mostly for interviews, but on one occasion, he took me on a hike on Mt. Takao with a full gear (portable cooker etc.) that seemed excessive for a day trip. He left a strong impression on me with his unique views which he articulated with surprising metaphors and aphorism. When I spoke to him on the phone in August, he told me quite frankly about his illness, but I had assumed that he would recover. I agree with Oliver about the unique ways in which Oh used his own presence as the magnet to make his own films as well as those of many others meaningful. I wonder if there is now a large enough demand in the Anglophone world for a subtitled versions of *Zainichi *and *Against Fingerprinting *if they don't exist already. I hastily wrote an obituary yesterday since I felt that I never got to reciprocate his generosity and was concerned that there might be no obituary available in English for posterity. I wonder if anyone has ideas for what the best way to publish something like this. I am going to copy-paste it below. I would contact *Japan Times *if I had their contact. Can someone help me? Please feel free to contact me off the list if you prefer. shota.ogawa at gmail.com Shota ----------------------------------------------------------- Obituary: Film Director Oh Deok-soo, known for documentary *Zainichi*, dies at 74 Film director Oh Deok-soo passed away from lung cancer on Sunday. He was 74. Oh is known for his feature-length documentary films on Zainichi Koreans (Resident Koreans in Japan) including *Against Fingerprinting *(1984) and *The Story of Koreans in Postwar Japan: Zainichi *(1997). Born in 1941 in Kazuno City, Akita Prefecture, Oh first entered the film world as an assistant to Nagisa Oshima, working on *Violence at Noon *(1966) and *Sing a Song of Sex *(1967), before working for Daiei and Toei in their film divisions through the late 1960s and the 1970s. Some of the better known television productions he worked on include *The Guardsman *(starring Ken Utsui, Daiei/TBS, 1965-1971), *A Lone Wolf *(starring Shigeru Amachi, Toei/NTV, 1967-1968), and *Key Hunter *(starring Tetsuro Tamba and Sonny Chiba, Toei/TBS, 1968-1973). Oh was a familiar presence in local film festivals and public symposia, particularly since completing his lifework, *The Story of Koreans in Postwar Japan*, in 1997 which involved working closely with grassroots groups across Japan that co-sponsored its production and realized a nation-wide tour of the film. In addition to making his own films, he was active in organizing screenings of others? works that highlighted the historical presence of Koreans within Japanese cinema. In the screenings he organized for the History Museum of J-Koreans in Azabu, for example, he showcased the works of Zainichi Korean directors such as Sai Yoichi, Lee Sang-il, and Kim Su-gil alongside films made by Japanese directors that depicted Zainichi Koreans in interesting ways. Each screening was accompanied by a guest speaker who might be the director, a staff member, or a viewer with a special attachment to the title, and a post-screening discussion followed by a party gave the event a unique communal character. In recent years, he had branched out into exhibiting his own photographs and probing the possibility of curating a museum exhibition of picture books and school textbooks written for Korean children in Occupied Japan. His multifaceted activity as a filmmaker, collector, curator, and cultural organizer stemmed from his work on the monumental documentary, *The Story of Koreans in Postwar Japan*, for which he had to condense a vast archive of music, photographs, home movies, newsreels, and material artifacts into its running time of four-and-a-half hours. The unique ways in which Oh?s professional and artistic career developed *around* rather than fully *within *cinema were also a product of circumstances. In an interview with film scholar Takashi Monma in 2005, Oh recounts that most studios had stopped hiring assistant directors when he graduated from Waseda?s Theater Department in 1965. Even in Toei?s TV division (Toei Tokyo Production) where he received most of the training and rose to the rank of Chief Assistant Director, he was still on an irregular contract with limited benefits or job security. The second half of his time at Toei was thus spent on a prolonged strike that demanded improved labor conditions for contract employees. It was only by taking up freelance assignments to write screenplays for film, television, and manga, while collectively running a franchised noodle shop that Oh and his fellow strikers of Toei Production Company Labor Union were able to live through the 1970s. It was paradoxically during the prolonged strike that Oh found the key to direct his own films. Through befriending the editors of the Zainichi Korean magazine *Madan *and later cofounding its informal successor *Jansori*, Oh became involved in the burgeoning movement of young Japan-born Zainichi Koreans to develop a public sphere outside the two traditional organizations that represented the interests of Pyongyang and Seoul. When the anti-fingerprinting protest broke out in 1980 and developed into a major social movement by 1985, he found himself ideally situated to document the movement from within, thanks to the significant overlap between the target audience of *Jansori *and the main actors of the protest movement. He founded his independent production company Oh Kikaku for the project which was completed and screened within a year while the protest was still ongoing. On a number of occasions, Oh raised objection to the label ?Zainichi Korean film director? which he found to be constrictive. But no other director has so consistently explored the interrelation between Zainichi and film, or to rephrase in his preferred expressions: ?what it means to be Zainichi Koreans living at a time when we have access to these images.? If it is apt to call him a representative Zainichi Korean film director, it is not because his interest was limited to Zainichi Korean issues, but because he took up the challenge of weaving Zainichi Koreans? social concerns into the fabric of cinema. It is in this spirit that we can appreciate the opening of his maiden film, *Against Fingerprinting*, that shows an alien registration card set on fire. This was, he confided in an informal conversation I had with him, a visual homage paid to Yasuzo Masumura?s *Black Test Car *(1962) that opens with a similar shot although with a burning car in place of a registration card. With Oh?s documentaries, we can learn about Chesa (a Korean ceremony of ancestor worship) to a-ha?s ?Take On Me,? or make unexpected connections between Zainichi Korean history and Anton Chekhov?s *Three Sisters *or with Yoshio Tabata?s postwar hit, *Kaeribune *(Repatriation Boat). At a time when Directors Guild of Japan is chaired by Sai Yoichi and Eiren (Motion Picture Producer Association of Japan) have nominated works by Sai, Lee Sang-il, and Yang Yong-hi to compete for the Foreign Language Oscar in the Academy Awards, it appears all but certain that Zainichi Koreans have gained citizenship in the world of cinema. Oh?s legacy might be understood in the reverse term. Instead of making it in the film business, he made film relevant to as many Zainichi Koreans as he could. On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 7:06 PM, Oliver Dew wrote: > I was very sad to hear this news. I met with Oh on several occasions over > the past few years, and he was always so generous and forthcoming. He was a > wonderful person to talk to, and to interview. I last saw him just over a > year ago and he seemed to be in very good form. He was very active as a > curator in recent years. I went to see him lead a series of screenings and > discussions at the Korean community association meetings near where he > lived in Chofu, and to an exhibition of stills from Shimon ?natsu kyohi > (Against Fingerprinting) at Gallery 1/F. He was there discussing the images > with visitors and giving them souvenirs he'd brought back from a recent > trip to his birthplace in Akita (he gave me some miso). KineJapaners who > came to the Japanese Film Symposium at Meiji Gakuin in July 2014 will > remember him as a lively and engaging discussant. I hope that his films > will not become harder to access now that he is no longer here to discuss > them with us. He was a vital figure, as a filmmaker, an activist, and as an > archivist, as a collector and remediator of others' images. My thoughts are > with his wife and sons. > > > Oliver > > > On 13 Dec 2015, at 18:25, Gerow Aaron wrote: > > The film director Oh Deok-soo has died at the age of 74. Starting out as > an assistant director to Oshima Nagisa and then working in TV, Oh > eventually became an independent documentary filmmaker, making especially > works on the situation of zainichi Koreans in Japan. > > http://mainichi.jp/articles/20151214/k00/00m/040/026000c > > Monma Takashi interviewed Oh for the YIDFF's Documentary Box: > > http://www.yidff.jp/docbox/26/box26-1-1-e.html > > > Aaron Gerow > Professor > Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures > Director of Graduate Studies, EALL > Yale University > 320 York Street, Room 311 > PO Box 208324 > New Haven, CT 06520-8324 > USA > Phone: 1-203-432-7082 > Fax: 1-203-432-6729 > e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu > website: www.aarongerow.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.osu.edu > https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > > > _______________________________________________ > KineJapan mailing list > KineJapan at lists.osu.edu > https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan > > -- ---------------------------------------- Shota Ogawa, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Dept. of Languages and Culture 461 COED University of North Carolina at Charlotte University City Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28223 http://humanities.lib.rochester.edu/onfilm/ ---------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From aaron.gerow at yale.edu Mon Dec 7 09:07:12 2015 From: aaron.gerow at yale.edu (Gerow Aaron) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2015 09:07:12 -0500 Subject: [KineJapan] Taira Tomi Message-ID: <4843A81E-D415-422C-AEC0-505A1D1F291C@yale.edu> Taira Tomi, the actress who became a symbol of Okinawa, died on the 6th at the age of 87. She became famous through the NHK Asadora *Churasan*, but I remember her most as a regular in Takamine Go's films. She did everything from film to underground theater. Her husband, Taira Susumu, appeared in a lot of productions with her. Both, for instance, appeared in Tsuru Henry, the Takamine film I wrote about in my piece in Islands of Discontent. http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASHD65QQTHD6TIPE01Y.html Aaron Gerow Professor Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures Director of Graduate Studies, EALL Yale University 320 York Street, Room 311 PO Box 208324 New Haven, CT 06520-8324 USA Phone: 1-203-432-7082 Fax: 1-203-432-6729 e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu website: www.aarongerow.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan From kerimyasar at yahoo.com Sun Dec 13 01:51:52 2015 From: kerimyasar at yahoo.com (Kerim Yasar) Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 06:51:52 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [KineJapan] Noriko's "disappointing life" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1777285762.373567.1449989512458.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> "iya" is often translated as ?unpleasant? when used as an adjective, but the nuance is a good deal more earthy than that--It?s the primal ?No!? of a young child who doesn?t want to eat or do or experience something. Depending on the context and tone it can signify anything from mild annoyance to deep revulsion and hatred. ?yo no naka? is often translated as ?world? or ?life? or ?society? and in this case all three meanings seem to be active. ?bakkari? is often rendered ?only,? ?just,? ?nothing but? So one could plausibly render this far more forcefully: ?Isn?t it awful, this world???Yes, it?s just one awful thing after another.? (?unatteku wa yo? is not in the film) The fact that she says something so deeply, almost savagely pessimistic with a beaming smile on her face gives this moment a frisson that gets a little lost in the translation as is. On Saturday, December 12, 2015 7:13 PM, Michael Kerpan wrote: I have a question -- prompted by Ozu's birth/memorial day. As I read the script of Tokyo Story (as someone not fluent) I get this as the key exchange between Kyoko and Noriko: Kyoko Iyaa nee. Yononaka tte...? unatteku wa yo. Noriko Sou, iyanakoto bakkari. This sure looks rather different to me than : "Isn't life disappointing?" "Yes, it is". Anyone care to offer a more literal translation _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ KineJapan mailing list KineJapan at lists.osu.edu https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan