[KineJapan] Revolution + 1 Talk Show

[matteoB]

Thank you very much for the report John, I was at the screening in Nagoya,
Adachi, Inoue and others were there after the screenings and they said that
all the screenings around Japan were sold out.

I also found the part when Kawakami talk with the daughter of a
revolutionary activist very significant. The music by Ōtomo Yoshihide was
also fitting.

The screening itself was an event of resistance in my opinion, I could feel
the energy filling the small theater.

Regards

Matteo

Il giorno mer 28 set 2022 alle ore 15:36 John Junkerman via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> ha scritto:

> I managed to get a ticket to the Loft 9 screening, timed to coincide with
> Abe’s state funeral. The screening started with a remote feed of Adachi
> Masao, outside Budokan, confined within the police lines that kept
> protesters away from the venue.
>
> The film was remarkable. It uses rain heavily, which is apparently an
> Adachi trademark. When asked why, he said, “If I knew, I wouldn’t make
> films.” But it was clearly a metaphor for the reality that fell upon
> Kawakami (the renamed killer of Abe, Yamagami) over the years. It is
> raining in the scene where he kills Abe, at odds with the news footage of
> the same scene. An early scene shows him in his cell, flooded to his knees.
> That’s when he begins telling his story.
>
> Everyone here is of course familiar with that story: his father’s suicide,
> his mother’s entrapment in the Unification Church, the family’s
> impoverishment and bankruptcy, his brother’s suicide. But the depiction of
> the steady accumulation of humiliation and despair is compelling and
> empathetic. There is an amazing scene toward the end where the actor,
> Tamoto Soran, does a frenetic, feverish dance, as if trying to shake off
> the demons and scales of psychic pain.
>
> The film raises lots of questions, and the post-screening discussion
> delved into issues of perpetrator/victim, the violence of state power, the
> consequences of loss of family and social support networks, precarity, etc.
> There was also a good deal of discussion of the Wakamatsu school of
> filmmaking: the initial script apparently ended with a bomb explosion at
> the state funeral, which screenwriter Inoue Junichi commented, would might
> be how Wakamatsu would have ended the film. Instead, Adachi has Kawakami’s
> sister address the camera to say she respects her brother for doing what he
> believed he had to do, but that she will follow an alternative path. Adachi
> said he saw the film as a story about the breakdown of love and connection
> and that choosing that ending showed that he had matured. To which Inoue
> quipped, “It took you 83 years to grow up!” (He included what amounts to a
> scene of self-criticism, where the daughter of revolutionary activists
> commiserates with Kawakami, two “nisei” whose lives and families were
> sacrificed to their parents’ convictions.)
>
> The 50-minute rough cut will be finetuned and supplemented into an
> 80-minute film by the end the year or so. Now that the state funeral
> (fiasco) is behind us, the film will continue to probe the Unification
> Church and the other symptoms of social breakdown that remain. Personally,
> I hope they rethink the. “Revolution+1” title, which doesn’t really capture
> the spirit of the film, but perhaps they’re already too deep into
> promotion, with all the attention the film has gotten.
>
> (I tried posting some photos but it put me over the size limit, so I'll
> just post the text.)
>
>
> John Junkerman
>
> On Wed, Sep 28, 2022 at 2:11 PM John Junkerman <jtj53213 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I managed to get a ticket to the Loft 9 screening, timed to coincide with
>> Abe’s state funeral. The screening started with a remote feed of Adachi
>> Masao, outside Budokan, confined within the police lines that kept
>> protesters away from the venue.
>>
>> The film was remarkable. It uses rain heavily, which is apparently an
>> Adachi trademark. When asked why, he said, “If I knew, I wouldn’t make
>> films.” But it was clearly a metaphor for the reality that fell upon
>> Kawakami (the renamed killer of Abe, Yamagami) over the years. It is
>> raining in the scene where he kills Abe, at odds with the news footage of
>> the same scene. An early scene shows him in his cell, flooded to his knees.
>> That’s when he begins telling his story.
>>
>> Everyone here is of course familiar with that story: his father’s
>> suicide, his mother’s entrapment in the Unification Church, the family’s
>> impoverishment and bankruptcy, his brother’s suicide. But the depiction of
>> the steady accumulation of humiliation and despair is compelling and
>> empathetic. There is an amazing scene toward the end where the actor,
>> Tamoto Soran, does a frenetic, feverish dance, as if trying to shake off
>> the demons and scales of psychic pain.
>>
>> The film raises lots of questions, and the post-screening discussion
>> delved into issues of perpetrator/victim, the violence of state power, the
>> consequences of loss of family and social support networks, precarity, etc.
>> There was also a good deal of discussion of the Wakamatsu school of
>> filmmaking: the initial script apparently ended with a bomb explosion at
>> the state funeral, which screenwriter Inoue Junichi commented, would might
>> be how Wakamatsu would have ended the film. Instead, Adachi has Kawakami’s
>> sister address the camera to say she respects her brother for doing what he
>> believed he had to do, but that she will follow an alternative path. Adachi
>> said he saw the film as a story about the breakdown of love and connection
>> and that choosing that ending showed that he had matured. To which Inoue
>> quipped, “It took you 83 years to grow up!” (He included what amounts to a
>> scene of self-criticism, where the daughter of revolutionary activists
>> commiserates with Kawakami, two “nisei” whose lives and families were
>> sacrificed to their parents’ convictions.)
>>
>> The 50-minute rough cut will be finetuned and supplemented into an
>> 80-minute film by the end the year or so. Now that the state funeral
>> (fiasco) is behind us, the film will continue to probe the Unification
>> Church and the other symptoms of social breakdown that remain. Personally,
>> I hope they rethink the. “Revolution+1” title, which doesn’t really capture
>> the spirit of the film, but perhaps they’re already too deep into
>> promotion, with all the attention the film has gotten.
>>
>> I'll attach a couple of photos: Adachi with Tamoto and other cast
>> members; and the panel, with Inoue on the left.
>>
>>
>> John Junkerman
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 27, 2022 at 11:36 AM Markus Nornes via KineJapan <
>> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Last night was the premiere of Adachi’s new film Revolution +1.
>>>
>>> The venue was Loft+1 in Shinjuku. Afterwards, he sat on a panel with
>>> musician Darth Raider, Miyadai Shinji, and screenwriter Inoue. They
>>> broadcast it live via Vimeo. Now I see that the recorded it and left it up:
>>>
>>> https://player.vimeo.com/video/753485644?h=09313605ac
>>>
>>> I look forward to hearing how the film itself is. Everyone at the
>>> screening seemed excited.
>>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/
>>> <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/>*
>>> *Department of Film, Television and Media*
>>> *6348 North Quad*
>>> *105 S. State Street**Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285*
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> KineJapan mailing list
>>> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
>>> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>>>
>>
>>
>> -
>>
>
>
> --
> John Junkerman
> jtj53213 at gmail.com
> 2-18-6 Ehara-cho, Nakano
> Tokyo 165-0023
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>
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