[KineJapan] Dotei o Produce back in the news

[Markus Nornes]

Dotei o Produce『童貞をプロデュース』 is back in the news.

(For those who are unfamiliar with this, there is more in an old KineJapan
message I wrote in summer 2017. There was a 10th anniversary screening of
this documentary, after which the subject of the film (Kaga Kenzo)
confronted and physically attacked the director (Matsue Tetsuaki) for a
sexual assault—Kaga, held down by Company Matsuo and other staff while an
actress felated him—on the set of an AV production produced by Company
Matsuo, who was present. I'm sure you can still find this on Youtube if
you're curious. It caused an uproar, but the discussion was truncated. This
was unfortunate, considering the Weinstein case broke out in the middle of
it all.)

After a few years of quiet, the new journal f/22 ran an interview with Kaga
last fall. f/22 is a fantastic journal being put out by cinematographers; I
highly recommend picking it up. Kaga gave another interview. And then at
the beginning of the year, Matsue appears out of nowhere with a very long
response (and the producer of Dotei, Naoi, put an apology on his homepage).

This started a pretty lively discussion on social media with heavy hitters
like Soda and Fukada weighing in. Also a symposium with Mori.

I suspect Matsue's long note was anticipating the interview that f/22 just
published on its webpage. It's a shockingly long taidan between Matsue and
Kaga that takes the controversy head on, and is something like a Rashomon
exercise at getting at the Truth. There are also interviews coming with
Company Matsuo and producer Naoi.

Each of these sessions was apparently 3 hours. I believe it. The PDF I made
of the Matsue/Kaga taidan came to 186 pages! Here it is, along with links,
a timeline and other information.

http://f22.hicross-cinematography.com/2020/01/22/
続報『童貞%E3%80%82をプロデュース』問題-当事者同士の/

I just happen to be writing on ethics and Japanese documentary, so back in
2017 I interviewed Kaga and have been following the discourse surrounding
the film. It's seriously hampered by the fact that almost no one has
actually seen the film. One consequence of this is that the focus is, not
surprisingly, on the rape.

But I think what is actually more important is the power harassment, which
is documented in nearly every scene. I've only given Matsue's recent note
and this interview a cursory reading, but I still think he really doesn't
get it. The abuse of power on the part of both he and Matsuo is invisible
to him. And perhaps I am being an overly sensitive (ie., dense) foreigner,
but the tone of the interview and Matsue's use of the suffix -kun under
these circumstances is expressive of his obliviousness to power.

Frankly speaking, this is the natural end to the self-documentary genre
when it's in the hands of filmmakers who get off on being edgy. (Another
great and even more troubling example is Hirano's *Kantoku shikkaku.)* These
are very unnerving films.

Markus


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*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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