[KineJapan] Tamura Masaki, RIP

Wed May 30 05:43:32 EDT 2018

In my various coverage of the film, I've always made a point of mentioning Tamura's cinematography as a key part of the films success. Evil Dead Trap an extremely visual film, and I think without Tamura the results would have been neither as impressive or as popular with cult audiences.

Jim Harper.

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On Tue, 29/5/18, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Tamura Masaki, RIP
 To: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>
 Date: Tuesday, 29 May, 2018, 19:30

 Hi
 all - 

 I was saddened to
 read the messages about Tamura Masaki. In a way,
 Tamura's camera was the backbone to the wave of new
 Japanese art cinema in the late 1990s that propelled
 discussion about Japanese film here on KineJapan and
 elsewhere. While most of the conversation then (as now)
 revolved around auteurs, Tamura brought a way of looking to
 those movies that felt like it could eclipse the imagination
 of the people directing and producing them.
 I'm thrilled that it has become
 easier to see the Ogawa films since then, but I'm also
 sad that so much of Tamura's work since the '90s is
 becoming difficult to fully appreciate. I have very fond
 memories of watching Eureka multiple times when it played at
 Theatre Shinjuku. The price was a ridiculous 2500 yen a pop,
 but the view was worth it (even with the constant threat of
 bad 35mm projection there). Ever since, I've been
 waiting for another chance to see Eureka on the big screen.
 The DVD doesn't come close to doing it justice, and I
 don't think there has ever been a HD video
 release.
 Coincidentally, a few days ago I
 found a cheap used copy of the U.S. edition Evil Dead Trap
 DVD at a nearby record store. I would guess that this, along
 with Tampopo, Lady Snowblood, Moe no Suzaku, and a couple of
 others, is among Tamura's most-seen credits outside of
 Japan. I decided to give it a spin after reading the bad
 news. This never was a pleasant story, and the DVD image
 quality is horrible, but the picture is still full of
 interesting ideas--

 extravagantly roomy
 framings, flashing or exploding flames
 and lights, flickering TV screens (sometimes stacks of
 them), surprisingly
 long takes, and a mobile camera that
 quietly finds space to float through all of the horror and
 special effects, occasionally shivering and pulsing as if it
 has its own heartbeat.
 While Evil Dead Trap is clearly no
 Shonben Rider or Summer in Sanrizuka, it always impressed me
 as an unusual moment in Tamura's career that connected
 spectacularly to body genres and--via the J-Horror and DVD
 booms--to international audiences. (The visual effects by
 Ito Takashi are worth mentioning too.) I know we've
 shared some thoughts about the movie here in the past. Has
 anything new been written about it? The only published
 mention of Tamura's connection to this that I can
 quickly find is a sentence in the 2004 Variety review of
 Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima: "When lenser Masaki
 Tamura's ("Eureka," "Evil Dead
 Trap," "The Crazy Family") handsome camera
 compositions venture outside to capture the local landscape,
 results are ravishing. Tech aspects are first
 rate."
 Aside from
 a handful of people in Pink, I'd be hard-pressed to
 identify another active, established cinematographer in
 Japan, especially somebody who has had this much of an
 impact on contemporary film. Who am I overlooking? Who else
 is working below (or on?) the line today that has a career
 as rich or a style as visible as Tamura's?

 Michael Arnold

 On Sun,
 May 27, 2018 at 9:20 AM, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum
 via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>
 wrote:
 Markus,
 Thanks for the touching tribute to
 Tamura-san. I had hesitated to send out this news because so
 far the only mention I’ve seen of it is from Funabashi-san
 on Facebook—nothing else. But I assume you have other
 sources.
 I knew
 Tamura-san first through YIDFF (though probably the first
 film of his I saw was Tampopo, which is not really a Tamura
 film). He was a juror for New Asian Currents when I was the
 coordinator, and he did a splendid job with that hard task.
 But for me, it was his later work with young directors which
 left me with the biggest impression. The three directors he
 worked most with were Ogawa, Yanagimachi, and Aoyama, and
 since I’ve written a lot on Aoyama, I’ve thought a lot
 about Tamura’s work. I once did an interview with him
 about his work with Yanagimachi—the camera through the
 murder scene towards the end of Himatsuri is pure
 Tamura—but I think his work for Aoyama was the best. I
 once asked Aoyama what Tamura was for him, and he simply
 answered: “Time.” 
 Tamura-san also directed one film,
 Drive in Gamo (2014), and co-wrote a book with Aoyama about
 Golden-gai, which he often frequented (though I drank with
 him at another favorite spot: Kirin City). 
 I hope everyone can look at this
 great interview we did with Tamura-san for Documentary Box,
 with Kanai Katsu as the expert interviewer. 
 https://www.yidff.jp/docbox/8/
 box8-3-e.html
 Aaron Gerow
 2018/05/28 午前1:02、Japanese Cinema
 Discussion Forum via KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu>
 のメール：
 I just learned of Tamura Masaki's passing. I
 met Tamura-san through Ogawa Pro, but I already knew
 him—in a sense—from my intense encounters with his
 cinematography in Farewell to the Land, Himatsuri,
 and Tanpopo. These are stunningly photographed,
 especially the first two. I remember telling Tamura-san that
 I still had the spacey, writhing rice fields of Farewell
 to the Land imprinted indelibly in my mind. He was so
 pleased and revealed that, although Ogawa Pro had moved to
 Yamagata and produced little of note, it was all his
 experiments with rice photography in Magino that enabled him
 to shoot that film. 
 Although he shot an astounding array
 of films throughout his career, from Lady
 Snowblood to Eureka, he'll
 undoubtedly be remembered especially for his partnership
 with Ogawa Shinsuke. He and Ogawa were clearly, incredibly
 close. Looking at the Heta Village making-of film,
 Filmmaking and the Way to the Village, you can see
 that he's the only one that can keep up with Ogawa. In
 the end, they had something of a falling out and Tamura-san
 basically avoided public talk about his experiences with
 Ogawa Pro. I was grateful that he talked to me. I vividly
 recall some bitter stories over cheap maguro and beer at
 some Nakano dive. 
 But more than anything, I remember
 Ogawa's wake. As they do, lively tsuya slowly
 calm down as people peel away, going home or going asleep.
 Before I, too, succumbed to sleep, I was struck that
 Tamura-san quietly chatted in the darkness. The next
 morning, I heard he didn't sleep. 
 In the last part of his career,
 Tamura-san made a very unusual contribution to Japanese
 cinema. At the top of his game, he quite self-consciously
 devoted himself to shooting films for young, up-and-coming
 directors—Aoyama, Kurosawa, Suo, Kawase, and others.
 Impressive. An impressive life.
 Markus

 --- 
 Markus NornesProfessor of Asian
 CinemaDepartment of Screen Arts and
 Cultures, Department of Asian
 Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
 Department of Screen
 Arts and Cultures6348 North
 Quad105 S. State
 StreetAnn Arbor, MI
 48109-1285

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