[KineJapan] Wakamatsu Bio

Sat Oct 6 17:07:00 EDT 2018

Dear All,

Apologies for the late reply- I just wanted to add my thoughts on “Dare to Stop Us”, though they won’t be very well organized. I found it interesting, but I can’t say I found it as enjoyable as Markus did;  or maybe I did enjoy it in certain ways, but my take at least is that it isn’t really an enjoyable film.

Generally I agree with Mark and Markus about the film’s trajectory- it gets more engaging as it goes on. But much of the film also felt like checking the boxes for me, introducing characters, moments and films that will be interesting for those pre-disposed to being interested in the Wakamatsu Pro crew. Kadowaki seems the only one (including Shiraishi) interested in making the character / film interesting for someone not “in the know”, and it shows. Maybe because she was one of the few in the crew that aren’t in some take ownership in Wakamatsu / belong to the wider Wakamatsu orbit.

That said, I kind of enjoyed Yamamoto Hiroshi as Adachi (he of course acted in Adachi’s The Artist of Fasting (2016)), giving him a stoic atmosphere that is a curious contrast to the Adachi I’ve met but still is strangely recognizable. At first I found Arata’s performance as Wakamatsu a bit caricaturish and just not that well acted (regardless of the style or school of acting). But as the film goes on it seemed to fashion Wakamatsu into an offbeat eccentric more than a iconic figure, which was an interesting take- though I don’t think that was Arata’s intention.

That the people that more or less experienced that time would complain about this or that in the film seems par for the course to me- if you watch it for veracity you won’t get what you want (more on that in a moment). Adachi’s take of seeing it as telling us something about Shiraishi / Arata’s generation’s take on Wakamatsu (Productions) seems to me to be the better way to watch it. That take might also be something irking the old guard, who have seriously complicated feelings about Wakamatsu; there was a lot of grumbling directly after Wakamatsu’s death about the Arata-gumi both claiming Wakamatsu and indulging in hero-worship, when even those close to him felt hero worship was a) much too simple and b) didn’t do Wakamatsu’s straight-talking mode of discourse justice. He himself would have called bullshit on that kind of hagiography (I’m not talking about the film here, but things that happened just after his death).

But it felt as if there were several tensions at work in the film that cancelled each other out and made it much less interesting than it might have been. Trying to stick to veracity while trying to mildly fictionalize seemed one of them. I do like scriptwriter Inoue Junichi and his work, but he also - like many involved - is so much part of the orbit of Wakamatsu / former Wakamatsu Productions people that it must have been a difficult script to write. There just isn’t that much leeway if you have to consider what your senpai (that you’re writing about) will think; and then you know the background stories that you aren’t allowed to tell… Also I’m not sure what Shiraishi wanted to say- in a way it seemed to me that he identified with Megumi’s aimlessness; she wants to shoot a film but doesn’t know what kind of film she wants to shoot. That seemed to be exactly this film’s problem.

And, of course, while nominally there is a female protagonist at the center, the male scriptwriter and director quite honestly called the film “Tomerareru ka, Ore-tachi o”; it’s clearly an “Ore-tachi” perspective. Of course I wasn’t at Wakamatsu Productions at the time, but having met quite a few of the people that are protagonists in the film I would be surprised if this film comes even close to showing how the gender relations “actually” played out (even without taking Hamano Sachi’s well-known critique based on her own Wakamatsu Productions experience into account, or acknowledging that even back then there are complex dynamics at play). It’s a complete blind spot- and at times very deliberately work to keep it that way. This too probably tells us more about the Shiraishi / Arata generation than Wakamatsu Productions of that era.

Apologies for this monstrously long post. It seems the film did stay with me more that I want to admit.

Best!

Alex

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Alexander Zahlten
Associate Professor
Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Harvard University
Director of Graduate Studies, Regional Studies East Asia

From: KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Markus Nornes <nornes at umich.edu>
Reply-To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Date: Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 22:19
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [KineJapan] Wakamatsu Bio

Mark Schilling just published his review of the new bio pic on Wakamatsu:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2018/10/03/films/dare-stop-us-japanese-cinemas-bad-boy-seen-one-women-worked/#.W7bE0S2ZM1J<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.japantimes.co.jp_culture_2018_10_03_films_dare-2Dstop-2Dus-2Djapanese-2Dcinemas-2Dbad-2Dboy-2Dseen-2Done-2Dwomen-2Dworked_-23.W7bE0S2ZM1J&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=__ROkypPMfBMMPVia3CjGrxSJryXbwjGyfBDGhCKd68&m=4-Z4MCDR_8FEzk5w5rQHOks0EEwP9Z-0OQ3N75drysc&s=Q5TUF2sm_LhTJUO3-HYvjm8XR83TMHdv5XP33XBnFhk&e=>

I saw this last summer and really enjoyed it. The film is directed by Shiraishi Kazuya, who was Wakamatsu's AD. I agree with Mark that the characters feel a bit overblown and caricature-like at first, but grow on you. The imitations of Wakamatsu, Adachi Masao, Oshima Nagisa and Arai Haruhiko are pretty good, and do get better as the film moves through the years. It's also a great Shinjuku film, with some scenes shot at original locations that have survived.

There aren't all that many years covered, actually. Only 69 to 72. But the choice is actually really interesting. First of all, it's because the film actually centers of Wakamatsu's female AD Yoshizumi Megumi. It's the story of her growth within the production company and her untimely death (the cause of which was debated, and Shiraishi leaves it a mystery). But the time period is also a canny historiographic choice because it shows Wakamatsu reaching the peak of his pink years, and ends at a fascinating juncture: Wakamatsu entertains the possibility of working for ATG and make a move towards the mainstream while Adachi hops on the famous red bus and takes their Aka-P documentary to instigate the revolution. It's a smart film. Not as polished or powerful as Shirashi's other film this year (!), Blood of Wolves. But I hope it gets picked up on the festival circuit. I'm curious what other people think.

(I talked to Adachi about it briefly. He said his friends from those days all grouse and complain about Shiraishi not getting it, but Adachi himself was more expansive—critical of the film, while wanting the younger director to present his take on Wakamatsu and the era. I wish Wakamatsu was here to comment!)

Markus

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[https://drive.google.com/a/umich.edu/uc?id=1i0izwlsrcSvQgU4nMCzTLiOhmdDMm-xZ&export=download]
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
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105 S. State Street
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