[KineJapan] Bowing before Eastwood

[Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan]

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> 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> 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/--
>> ---
>>
>> *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*
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20180309/10a66654/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
KineJapan mailing list
KineJapan at lists.osu.edu
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan