[KineJapan] New Hara Kazuo film

[Markus Nornes]

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

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

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

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

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

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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