[KineJapan] pandemic Asian cinema for teaching

[M Arnold]

Miryam and Everyone -

I hope you are all well.

I agree with Markus that the pink project was charming. I think the
participants have been working on new things with that 16mm camera since
then, but as far as I know nothing is complete yet.

Miryam, if you're open to shorter works that aren’t movies, have you spent
much time looking into network television programs? With nowhere else to
go, I've stayed at home watching a ridiculous amount of Japanese TV since
last year--at least hundreds of hours of mainstream news, commentary, and
comedy shows, mostly Asahi and Fuji with some NHK sprinkled in--and it's
been really interesting to see where things have changed in response to
COVID.

The live news commentary programs I watch have been experimenting: using
different kinds of face masks (though I don't think that lasted too long),
enlarging the set, separating the commentators' seats, placing clear
plastic walls between participants, and even replacing usual commentators
and guests with video chat on profilmic, in-studio TV monitors. The most
common setup now seems to be socially distanced seats, separated by
transparent plastic panels that are lit just so that the edges of the
panels are barely visible. Pre-recorded segments with on-the-street surveys
or restaurant visits usually have the reporter and all of the interviewees
wearing a mask or two, and occasionally place the crew’s long boom
microphones in-frame for establishing shots to emphasize that everyone is
more than two meters apart.

I always find it odd when commentators are replaced by TV screens. I
remember a period of time months ago, when restrictions were harsher, when
it seemed like every daily show had at least one or two HDTV screens taking
over regulars' spots. It implied that the screen-commentators were staying
home and were connected on video chat via laptops. However, the videos
appeared to be shot on sets that were only designed to look like 'home' (I
do think they were physical sets; not artificial green screen backgrounds).
The rooms looked so generic, and the camera angles and lighting looked so
polished and unnatural for a Zoom or Skype-type video chat, that I
suspected those people were actually showing up to work and then sneaking
off to a private corner of the studio to merely pretend as if they were
staying home and honoring lockdown.

The webcam/screen setups altered participation in other obvious and
distracting ways too. The seconds-long stretching and exercise segment of
Asahi's Morning Show, for example, fell flat when the usually very
physically responsive commentators were "staying home” and participating
from inside close-up video chat frames that amputated their swirling arms
and legs.

Fuji TV’s Friday night parody show Zenryoku! Datsuryoku Times has made fun
of that artifice in several recent episodes. One episode last June had the
three regular commentators replaced by video chat screens from obviously
fake homes, and the studio set modified with an absurdly long table (maybe
20 feet long) to fit the two guest stars, Yamasato Ryota and Hotta Mayu.
Yamasato ends up sitting so far away from the rest that he can't properly
hear or respond to the others’ comments and questions. That becomes a
running gag.

After a few communication failures and distance jokes--like the moment when
Yamasato realizes he doesn't have a pen to write down an answer, and
someone on the crew strings one from a drone and tries to fly it to
him--host Arita decides that virtual communication would be more practical
and sends the two guests off the set so they can complete the episode via
video chat from “home.” The gags continue from there. The opening and
ending of the episode also replaced live action footage of the participants
with a kamishibai of "courtroom sketch" drawings that illustrated everyone
on the panel sitting shoulder to shoulder.

It was the June 26, 2020 episode:
https://www.fujitv.co.jp/DNN/archive/index200626.html

I don't pay much attention to the Neta Parade manzai show that airs after
Datsuryoku Times, but from the short parts I have seen, it appears that
Netapare shifted last year from doing in-person, on-stage comedy skits to
using green screen effects for each shot, which makes all of the comedians
look like paper cut-out dolls and makes it impossible to tell who was
present where or how far the participants were from each other (or if they
were even reacting to each other in real time). That might be worth a look
too.

I think the latest episodes of some of these Fuji shows are available for
free on fod.fujitv.co.jp if you have a Japanese IP address. I’m sure it’s
not too difficult to find random clips on YouTube or Dailymotion.

Some of the other comedy shows I watched stopped shooting new material for
a while, or spent weeks airing edited clip fests or repeat episodes framed
by new introductions. Retro video gaming show Game Center CX has continued
without many obvious changes, but when the ADs sneak into frame to give
Arino-kacho gameplay tips and cheats, they show up masked. The segments
where Arino personally visits vintage game arcades and amusement parks have
been filled with recycled footage from older episodes.

The various Downtown programs haven't seemed to highlight pandemic
protections as clearly. The members might wear masks when they go out on
the town to gorge on fried chicken or yakisoba, but they do their regular
studio-based gag shows together, without masks, standing or sitting fairly
close to each other. The family members of Matsumoto-ke no Kyujitsu (which
was just canceled, unfortunately) started to sit farther apart during the
studio segments, but I don’t recall them using masks, even when they went
out to dine. I've seen more recent Downtown episodes making jokes about
Hamada's presumed dementia than episodes making jokes about the foibles of
social distancing.

In serious news and talk shows, the display of pandemic protections
sometimes peaks in a ridiculous mise en abyme where the practical tables,
chairs, charts, and illustrations on the studio set, the clear screens
separating live bodies, and the opaque screens replacing absent bodies are
edited in tune with window-in-window reaction close-ups that are
superimposed on live or recorded video reports of masked and separated cast
and crew members visiting real city locations. It’s strange to see these
talk shows experiment with different impressions and sensations of space in
a TV recording format that is structured as essentially communal, live,
immediate, and direct... anything but distant.

I haven't watched nearly as much drama in the last year. Since narrative
continuity is usually fine-tuned toward the opposite function--to sculpt
illusions of presence, proximity, and interaction out of subjects and
spaces that are already ephemeral, absent, or artificial--I expect that
fictional TV and film would reflect the pandemic somewhat differently, at
least in a formal sense, if they choose to reflect it at all. I can’t
recall any recent movies or drama episodes where the pandemic and social
distancing play a role in the setting or story either, but I haven’t really
been looking.

I've been avoiding anime too (aside from Pui Pui Molcar, which was great!),
probably because most limited animation already feels artificially distant,
at least on the surface. I do wonder how transnational anime production has
changed in response to the pandemic.

This is slightly off topic, but does anyone remember the cycle of pre-COVID
U.S. films from a few years ago that relied on (fake) webcam footage?
Searching (2018), Unfriended (2015), Unfriended: Dark Web (2018), parts of
Paranormal Activity 4 (2012), etc. And others I've forgotten. They were all
horror movies. Were there any webcam or video chat films like that in Japan
before the pandemic hit?

Take care everyone,
Michael Arnold


On Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 5:59 PM Miryam Sas via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> Hi all,
> My students requested to view some good or interesting Japanese and/or
> Asian films *made* *during* the pandemic that reflect on the pandemic
> experience either formally or thematically.  Free streaming works (youtube
> or other) and short works would be the best for easy access, but all ideas
> appreciated. (Something about life on zoom?)   I have lots more from before
> that could be brought into the conversation but not recent ones.
> Feel free to share to the list or to me privately offline.
> Thanks!
> Miryam
>
> --
> Miryam Sas
> Professor, Comparative Literature and Film & Media
> University of California, Berkeley
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>
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