[KineJapan] Bowing before Eastwood

Fri Mar 9 09:01:41 EST 2018

Knowing a number of filmmakers who studied under Hasumi, I know about this love for Eastwood. It can be explained in part by a refusal to do ideological film analysis, by respect for a great one who can’t be criticized (like Hasumi himself), and by a very different view of American cinema than the one many American academics have. I once tried to discuss this with Aoyama Shinji around the time Lost in America came out in 2000. 

Do remember that greats like Kurosawa Kiyoshi are fans of films most American academics have forgotten. I’m not just talking about Tobe Hooper, who was like God to Kurosawa-san, but directors like Richard Fleischer. When Kurosawa came to Yale, he talked at length and gave a precise analysis of a scene from Fleischer's Boston Strangler. 

The Takeshi switch is interesting, but it won’t work because Takeshi is treated the same as Eastwood. I might have written a book on him, but I will admit Takeshi has made some bad films. But someone like Abe Kasho will never admit it.

Aaron Gerow

> 2018/03/09 午後10:12、Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu> のメール：
> 
> 
> I just had the Eastwood fight too, and we got into Eastwood's recent political speech.  The position in defense of his films was that Eastwood the crank is isolated outside the work, which stands on its own as storytelling craft or whatever.  I haven't seen the new film, and don't intend to, but I would like to hear someone try to make the argument that this material is isolated from ideology!  I wish I'd thought of Jeremy's clever Takeshi switch when I was fighting this one out.
> 
> The Japan Times article is great.  I laughed out loud several times while reading it.
> 
> Ryan (Cook)
> From: KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces+ryan.cook=emory.edu at lists.osu.edu <mailto:kinejapan-bounces+ryan.cook=emory.edu at lists.osu.edu>> on behalf of Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu <mailto:kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>>
> Sent: Friday, March 9, 2018 7:58:23 AM
> To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum
> Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Bowing before Eastwood
>  
> I was wondering about this, Mark. All the people I've had the Clintwood argument with are men. I do think his swaggering masculinity is part of the attraction. Combined with auteurism, it's a heady mix.
> 
> Markus
> 
> --- 
> 
> Markus Nornes
> Professor of Asian Cinema
> Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
> 
> Department of Screen Arts and Cultures
> 6348 North Quad
> 105 S. State Street
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
> 
> 
> On Fri, Mar 9, 2018 at 12:23 PM, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu <mailto:kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
> Thanks for the reference to Stéphane Bouquet's book, Jeremy.
> 
> I guess a follow-up question would be: is the "Eastwood effect" in Japan similar to what Bouquet describes amongst audiences in France. I.e., does his work enjoy a generally favorable reception, not so much because of any quality of his films, but rather because of an aura that surrounds the man himself, an imaginary of "la vieille Amérique, ... l’Amérique idéale" ?
> 
> M. Roberts
> University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy (UTCP)
> 
>> On Mar 9, 2018, at 11:17, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu <mailto:kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> Wow, yeah. 
>> I've had the American Sniper fight too. Good read, this article.
>> 
>> I want to concede that being from the same country can leave one blind to an artist's beauty, but it's so true that no one will ever say what they think is so *good* about his movies. And it’s not like they’re all terrible enough to knock down one by one. They just don’t feel very meticulously considered or crafted. It has led to many very frustrating nights of drinking with othewise great friends (possibly on this list?) - cinefils and movie lovers. The first time it started happening, around 2008, I went and watched every movie he’d made for the previous ten years. And they just don’t even begin to warrant comparisons to other American masters—say John Ford, whose name has come up in these conversations. (nor, per the article, Hitchcok and Ozu)
>> 
>> I do have a modest response to (Japanese) people I’ve met who were apparently moved by Gran Torino as some kind of redemption for US wars in Asia, which is to ask them to imagine the same movie made by and starring Takeshi as a racist cold-hearted war veteran, with the audience laughing along with him cursing up a storm of racial slurs for the first half, until he warms to some delicious food and underage kids whom only he can save, through literal sacrifice in a shower of cherry blossoms. Set in Okubo or someplace. Call the film Yamazakura or Yaezakura or something.
>> This comparision doesn’t work for Eastwood fans who don’t like Gran Torino though.
>> 
>> Apparently it’s a scourge in France too:  
>> Clint Fucking Eastwood  <http://www.capricci.fr/clint-fucking-eastwood-80.html>
>> "Eastwood a le droit à un étrange traitement de faveur qui s’explique, me semble-t-il, par le fait qu’on a cru, et continue à croire, au fétiche. Il y a une façon d’héroïsation du cinéaste qui fonctionne à plein chez les spectateurs, comme s’ils étaient contents d’avoir encore un objet à vénérer. Je pousserais volontiers un pas plus loin en précisant que le fétiche que vénèrent les spectateurs français ce n’est pas seulement l’homme Eastwood mais l’homme qui se prend pour la vieille Amérique, pour l’Amérique idéale."
>> 
>> 
>> Jeremy Harley
>> Mabashi Movie Festival
>> 
>> On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 7:15 PM, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu <mailto:kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
>> Is Hasumi really that influential at Kinema Junpo?
>> 
>> On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 6:11 PM Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu <mailto:kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
>>  Nice Hadfield article on the critical fawning for Clint Eastwood on Japan. I once had a conversation with Funahashi-san about American Sniper that devolved into an argument where neither of us could understand the other or care to budge. Since then I studiously avoid the subject. I can’t say Hadfield has cracked the Clint Code—-unless I is, indeed, Hasumi’s fault—- but it’s an entertaining read.
>> 
>> Markus
>> 
>> https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2018/03/07/films/clint-eastwoods-japan-critics-always-make-day/ <https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2018/03/07/films/clint-eastwoods-japan-critics-always-make-day/>-- 
>> --- 
>> 
>> Markus Nornes
>> Professor of Asian Cinema
>> Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
>> 
>> Department of Screen Arts and Cultures
>> 6348 North Quad
>> 105 S. State Street
>> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
>> 
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