[KineJapan] Kaze ni tatsu Lion

Peter Larson pslarson2 at gmail.com
Tue Sep 29 07:17:41 EDT 2015


The movie is not my personal favorite, but I went to a screening here in
Nairobi, Kenya of Miike Takashi's "Kaze ni Tatsu Lion" filmed partially
here in Kenya.

Again, not the greatest of films (a lot of it is downright odd if you live
here), but it was good to see the Kenyan audience react so
enthusiastically. Not that Japanese audiences would ever pick up on it, but
Miike took some serious liberties with the facts, placing people from the
Lake region in a desert region in the north. I suppose it is just as odd as
the theme song by Sada Masashi, which places flamingoes native to Lake
Naivasha at Lake Victoria where they don't exist.

Those were the more minor oddities. I was more perplexed by the constant
publicity for Nagasaki, which were most certainly compensated somehow and
the odd peace-nicking and finger pointing at people fighting in the
Sudanese Civil War. It's a war. Yes, people will go back to it once they've
recovered from their wounds at a hospital. Actually, the whole treatment of
the war was fairly thin (but not surprising for an entertainment film).

Not sure why it was even relevant. The main character was based in Nakuru,
not Turkana and never saw people from the war. Worse yet, the real guy
isn't dead, unlike in the movie (though the book might be to blame).

The Minister for Sports, Culture and the Arts made an interesting speech on
the tax incentives to allow filming in Kenya, many of which are the most
competitive on the continent. Much of the speech was directed at Maeda
Shigeji, who was on hand to screen the film.

This was the first time that a Japanese film was screened in Kenya, outside
of the monthly events sponsored by the Embassy here.

It really wasn't clear what Miike wanted to accomplish with the film. Maeda
had indicated that they had submitted it to Cannes and Berlin, but it was
rejected for both. Perhaps he thought that this might be his Constant
Gardener, though there might be better ways of getting in international
film festivals than imitating films which got in in the past.

Very odd.
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