[KineJapan] New Hara Kazuo film

quentin turnour unkleque at yahoo.com.au
Thu Oct 17 10:52:22 EDT 2019


As a sidebar to this, Hara admirers might be interested in a new, long (9000 words) piece in English just up in the latest edition of The Asia-Pacific Journal - Japanese Focus, from historian Yuki Tanaka. https://apjjf.org/2019/20/Tanaka.html. 

It looks at the 1960s political activism of Okazaki Kenzo; the subject, of course, of Hara’s Yukiyukite shingun aka The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On. 

Tanaka seems to be trying to re-establish Okazaki as a reasoned, audacious, if passionate social justice campaigner (at least up to his 1971 trial), and for the real legal significance of his constitutional challenge to the Emperor system. It’s a bit of a diferent presentation from the aggrieved, violent ‘ratbag’ that he seems to have become by the early 1980s, and the personality which dominates Hara’s film. Tanaka also seems to be making a case for a seeing something rational, strategic and necessary in Okazaki’s later actions—an understanding that can maybe get missed in most of the, often shocked and startled Anglosphere responses to the documentary. 

Quentin Turnour
> On 4 Oct 2019, at 1:01 PM, Earl Jackson via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> I don't mind the length, but this old guy won't survive a midnight screening. Those days are long gone.
> Earl Jackson
> Chair Professor
> Foreign Languages and Literatures
> Asia University
> Professor Emeritus
> National Chiao Tung University
> Associate Professor Emeritus
> University of California, Santa Cruz
> Co-Director
> Trans-Asia Screen Cultures Institute
> 
> 
> On Fri, Oct 4, 2019 at 12:55 AM Roger Macy via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu <mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:
> Thanks for this, Markus.
> The TIFF schedule is now posted
> https://2019.tiff-jp.net/en/schedule/list/day02 <https://2019.tiff-jp.net/en/schedule/list/day02>
> which tells us that 'Reiwa Uprising' is 270 minutes long, and has one screening starting at midnight.
> 
> Can someone tell me/us how TIFF works for accredited professionals?  The 'press' page mentions P&I screenings. Do they tend to be in the mornings a couple of days before, or some other scheme ?   Is there a viewing room ?
> 
> Roger
> 
> On Sunday, 29 September 2019, 02:20:05 BST, Markus Nornes via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu <mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:
> 
> 
> Tokyo Film Festival announced their schedule and a notable film is a new work by Hara Kazuo. It's called Reiwa Uprising (れいわ一揆), a title that evokes one of Tsuchimoto's films. It's about the new political party Reiwa Shinsengumi. I've always found Japanese elections depressingly dull, but this past one had me riveted to Youtube thanks to Yamamoto Taro. He started his career as a tarento, and also acted in movies (notably Battle Royale, Izo and Princess Raccoon). But he ran as an independent for the Diet after 3/11 and became a politician who spoke his mind and was openly critical of status quo politics. He notoriously passed a letter complaining about the handling of Fukushima to the emperor some years back. This year he established this new party and I have to say it was impressive. 
> 
> First of all, Yamamoto know how to give good speech. If you've never seen him, check this out (especially the halfway point): 
> 
> https://youtu.be/V6jbn9Ye670 <https://youtu.be/V6jbn9Ye670>
> 
> His party put up an amazing lineup for election this year. It included an Okinawan, two people with disabilities, a cross-dressing professor from Tokyo University who sometimes campaigned with a horse, and an obasan that was better at public speaking than Yamamoto. 
> 
> One of the impressive things about the party, from my admitted limited understanding, was that Yamamoto shifted his representation from the city of Tokyo to the national proportion representational block, this fascinating open system where people all over the country can vote for a party. This was a big gamble. Moreover, the party gives a ranked list and although they expected to pick up at least two seats Yamamoto put himself 3rd....behind the two disabled politicians. Who won, and he came up short. Both are quite severely disabled, one in the advanced stages of ALS. Seeing them win was really moving.  
> 
> Hara seems to have centered his new film on the professor, Yasutomi Ayumi, who is transgender and on the Todai website lists her research subject as "Decolonization of the soul." She also campaigned with a horse and a Thriller flash mob. I recall watching this Youtube video, where she has a backup band and one of the zombies is carrying a baby: 
> 
> https://youtu.be/ett8o0u1fdI <https://youtu.be/ett8o0u1fdI>
> 
> It's hardly surprising Hara chose Yasutomi and not Yamamoto. Judging from his asbestos film, he really doesn't know how to deal with people who aren't edgy.  This could be really interesting. Here's the trailer:
> 
> https://youtu.be/_b-Wieqk6Gk <https://youtu.be/_b-Wieqk6Gk>
> 
> Back in the summer, Hara did some live streaming documentary on election night. I only heard about it afterwards, so if anyone saw it I'd love to hear what was it was like. 
> 
> Mori Tatsuya also has a new film at TIFF. In recent years, Mori has been concentrating on his writing and not filmmaking. I think he identifies more strongly with critical journalism than documentary. And this helps explain his film's subject, journalist Mochizuki Isoko:
> 
> https://youtu.be/YQGF8y1TiA8 <https://youtu.be/YQGF8y1TiA8>
> 
> I look forward to this as well. 
> 
> I sure do with these were at Yamagata and not TIFF. I'm wondering what this means......
> 
> That said, the Japanese entry in the Yamagata main competition is a film I am really looking forward to and I'm impressed by its selection: Makino Takashi's Memento Stella. 
> 
> https://www.yidff.jp/2019/ic/19ic08-e.html <https://www.yidff.jp/2019/ic/19ic08-e.html>
> 
> I'll be in Yamagata. Hope to see some of you at Komian!
> 
> Markus
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --- 
> 
> Markus Nornes
> Professor of Asian Cinema
> Department of Film, Television and Media, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
> 
> Department of Film, Television and Media
> 6348 North Quad
> 105 S. State Street
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
> 
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