[KineJapan] Tamura Masaki, RIP

Tue May 29 19:19:20 EDT 2018

Eureka is absolutely luminous; it can ONLY be shown on celluloid.

The only cinematographers that come to mind that come close to Tamura's
breath and impact are Miki Shigeru and Suzuki Tatsuo. Miki worked with
Itami Mansaku (and Tamura worked with Juzo), Mizoguchi and Kamei Fumio.
Suzuki worked with Tsuchimoto, Matsumoto, Terayama, Shinoda....and stepped
into Tamura's shoes in the sequel to Lady Snowblood! These three are in a
league of their own.

Ogawa Pro core member Kikuchi Nobuyuki wrote a powerful remembrance on FB.
I'll share it here.

Markus

============================================

追悼 田村正毅さん

今でも１６ミリ映写機のカラカラと言う音を聞くと思い出される事がある。その音と共に映し出されたラッシュフィルムだ。今は成田空港の敷地になった三里塚•天浪の麦畑。ライトに照れされた青々とした麦の苗が夜の風にゆれていた。ただそれだけのショットだったが、映画撮影の事については何も知らず、単なる撮影ドライバーとして参加した私にはとても印象的だったのだ。映写機のそ音を聞くと今でも当時の事を思い出す。そして撮影の時の田村さんの立ち居振る舞い。かっこ良く見えた田村さんはその時２９歳だった。
私は１〜２ヶ月だけの手伝いの予定で参加したのだが、どう言う訳かそのまま小川プロに居続けることになってしまった。思えば、三里塚、そして山形に居た十数年、私は田村さんのラッシュだけをみて過ごしたのだから随分と贅沢をさせて貰ったのだと思う。小川プロを離れてからも続いたのだから、長い御付き合いになったのだ。
私が言う事でもないが、田村さんは、撮影に関しては常に欲望的であった。そしてそれに忠実あろうと発想も自由だった様に思う。
三里塚の時だったが、やっとシンクロ撮影が可能になり始めた頃の話しである。録音機からの音を直接聞きたいとラジオに飛ばして撮影中に聞くというシステムを作り上げた。未だ誰もその様な方法をとっていなかった頃の事である。
田村さんはフレームに納まっている事だけでなく、フレーム外の事を常にしていた。当時、録音をしていた湯本もフレーム内の音だけを狙っていた訳でなかったし、現場を総体で捉えたいと言う思いだったのだと思う。田村さんは映像と音とを分けて考えるのではなく、常にそれらを一つのものとして考えていた様に思う。
小川プロを離れた直後くらいの時だったと思うが、ある作品の田村さんのカメラがラジオで高く評価されているのを聞いた事がある。私がすぐにその事を田村さんに伝えると「ハァ〜？
カメラだけが目立つ様じゃ駄目なんだけど・・・」と不機嫌な妙な雰囲気になった事がある。
田村さん人に諭す様に言う事は少ない。でも三里塚、山形での撮影、そして小川プロを離れてからでもそうであるが、私は彼の近くにいて撮影で「撮らない事の重要性」（撮ってはいけない事）とか、対象との距離（礼節）の事とか、そうした基本的姿勢を折々に垣間見せてもらった気がする。撮影すると言う事に於いて田村さんはいつも真摯だった。それ故に一部に畏れられていた向きもあるが、彼はただ撮影に於いて「清廉潔白」であろうとしただけの事だったのだと思う。その姿勢は経済的な事を含めて、どんな状況に於いても変わる事は無かった。
そして今、田村さんが逝ってしまった事に対して私の悲しみは無い。なぜなら彼はその姿勢のまま逝ったのだから。私は残された者として、どれだけそれに近づけるか分らないが、可能な限り「生き続ける」事にでしか弔う事はできない。

---

*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 Tue, May 29, 2018 at 7:30 PM, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via
KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

> 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 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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>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
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