[KineJapan] KineJapan Digest, Vol 60, Issue 2

Sun May 7 17:52:21 EDT 2023

On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 5:34 PM <kinejapan-request at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

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>    1. FEFF 25 (Roger Macy)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 7 May 2023 21:32:13 +0000 (UTC)
> From: Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk>
> To: KineJapan discussion forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
> Subject: [KineJapan] FEFF 25
> Message-ID: <2109345013.7357760.1683495134144 at mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
>
> Far East Film Festival at Udinewas back in full swing late last month.
> Besides a full programme at the largeTeatro Nuovo from 9am till past
> midnight for nearly nine days, there were threeor four films a day at the
> Visionario, a longish kilometre away on the oppositeside of the city.
>
> FEFF does a remarkable job of filling its large theatre, mainly withpeople
> from the nearby region to see films from East Asiaand Southeast Asia. But,
> to do so, it employs a barrageof breathless publicity which a film scholar
> has to shield against to avoid discouragement.I think I am now managing
> that for the Japanese films but for others, inretrospect, without realizing
> it, I still allowed myself to be put off somethat may well have been
> rewarding when I finally found time to read thecatalogue entries. For
> example, I ought to have tried the Taiwanese ?TeenageFugitive? by CHANG
> Pei-cheng which the catalogue variously describes asrealistic, social
> realism, vividly depicted the sense of alienation permeating.... The blurb
> had it as ?irresistible comedy?. That film was in the strand?A/B side? from
> 80s & 90s ?before FEFF existed?. But, to be fair to myself,I had little
> more than four days there and, for example, finally caught ?2/Duo?by SUWA
> Nobuhiro, blurbed as ?Amour fou? but which I sa
>  w as depicting anabusive relationship, hard to watch due to the terrific
> acting and to herkeeping coming back for more, even at the end. Mark
> Schilling?s catalogue entrywas fair and thoughtful.
>
> There were also some documentaries. We should not read too much inKOREEDA
> Hirokazu being the only Japanese filmmaker in ?Jiseok?, the tribute tothe
> late director of Busan I.F.F., as only one filmmaker from each country
> wasrepresented. Although the business of the attempted sacking was referred
> to, viewerswould be disappointed if they expected the controversy
> unravelled. I guess it?sright that Kim should not be defined by that sorry
> episode. That story ought tobelong to those who initiated it. There were
> also two documentaries on Japanesesubjects ? one by Yves Montmayeur,
> ?Kaidan?, which I?ll have to find elsewhere,and a doc. on AUM by the
> American-based Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto. Basedsubstantially on the
> investigative work of David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall,I think it
> benefited greatly from its more western investigative methodology,
> validatedby going back to Japanese sources. Their film didn?t mention the
> previousdocumentaries by MORI Tatsuya, KUMAI Kei and others, which
>  assumed more priorknowledge, but it richly complemented them. Those
> Japanese archives showed ushow much Asahara of AUM was indulged by the
> media, even after the lawyer(SAKAMOTO) pursuing their abusive extraction of
> family funds was ?disappeared?along with his family. KITANO Takeshi on his
> TV programme made Asaharaparticularly lovable.
>
> So, it was illuminating for me to watch just after this the 1969 Otokowa
> tsurai yo, where the lovable Tora-san was showing selling fake medicines?
> Asahara?s original career launch. It had seemed as good a time and place
> asany for me to finally lose my Tora-san virginity by seeing a complete
> episode ?the first.
>
> That film was showing as part of a tribute to BAISH? Chieko, on the backof
> a screening of ?Plan 75?. I had seen here the original 19-minute section
> inthe compendium ?Ten Years Japan?. It had been transformed, with entirely
> newroles for Baish? and Stefanie ARIANNE. For me, it went to show what
> scriptdevelopment funding might do for some other Japanese independent
> films. Alsonice to see, in an industry notorious for ditching slightly
> older actresses infavour of younger talent to play their roles, was that
> Baish? here gets to playa mere 76-year-old.
>
> Not gaining any awards but well-received was ?Egoist?, written anddirected
> by MATSUNAGA Daishi, from the novel by YAKAYAMA Makoto. Something of afilm
> of two halves, the music by SEBU Hiroko didn?t just change, it
> stoppedcompletely when a phone call comes out of the blue. The rich, dreamy
> musicaccompanied a growing love between a fashion photographer and his
> personaltrainer which deepened in sincerity. Matsunaga was at one of the
> many FEFF filmpanels where he was challenged on gay lovers being acted by
> straight actors.His answer was that there were few box-office-names who had
> come out in Japan.In any case, it was beautifully acted.
>
> On the same panel were the director and actor of ?She Is Me, I Am
> Her?(NAKAMURA Mayu). ?Actor? in the singular isn?t exactly all the cast,
> but Nahanadoes have the main role in all four sections.?Nahana told us that
> she wanted to convey contrasted sides to loneliness,something in which they
> succeed, without it being a dreary film.? This was a ?Covid? film ?
> necessarily madewith limited cast but also about the only film to mention
> the great disturbanceto festivals, films and much else in the previous two
> years. That greatenveloping topic only really appeared here on the reviews
> of the national filmindustries which are in the catalogue.
>
> Mark Schilling also got on a credit list as the author of the
> originalstory for ?Convenience Story?. Mark told us he gave MIKI Satoshi a
> free hand toadapt it, which he did in this siren tale. Although Mark, in
> his talk, hadcompared konbini stores to purgatorio for their ability to
> sustain lifein a state of non-satisfaction, I had always thought of them
> more as infernodue to the zombifying muzak. So, I was greatly relieved that
> the detachmentfrom realism in the film extended to the music by UENO K?ji,
> which hadinteresting nourishment.
>
> There was much more, of course, and one piece of good news is that
> ChrisBerry will resume his FEFF reviews for Senses of Cinema, having
> seenmore, and different, films than me.
>
> Roger
>
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Shige (CJ) Suzuki, PhD
Associate Professor
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