Shachihoko City: Japan's Capital of Cinema

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:10:24 GMT

Forget about such film Meccas as Nagoya Cinematheque or Cinema Skhole. The 7 people that attended the projection of "THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE" (directed by Susanne Bier) at the Million-za last evening, is sufficient proof to claim Shachihoko City (AKA Nagoya) as Japan's Capital of Cinema. It's a well-known fact the meanness of Nagoya people (ask any Japanese about it), so days like yesterday (映画の日, "Eiga no Hi" or cinema day), when cinema tickets are down to 1000 yen, should be the perfect excuse to be away from shopping centres, patisseries, panchinkos and trendy coffee shops for about two hours and enjoy the magic of a flickering light on a silver screen.

But may not, maybe we are asking too much to these people, sons and daughters of Toyota Corporation. Maybe the joys of manicuring, hair styling, apparel hunting or ケーキバイキング　(cake Viking or cake buffet) are far superior to the pleasure of visual storytelling in the darkness. Or maybe the film itself did not have the right story for these pleasure-seeking people as it plays against the expectations of jun-ai (more info here) film followers. "THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE" deals with human loss due to a tragic murder, not due to a terminal disease, the protagonists are well over 30 and 40, some of the them with drug addiction problems, not young, fresh and innocent high school students, these protagonists have sexual needs and serious fidelity doubts, no "jun-ai" (pure love) themes are seen anywhere, the soundtrack features artists like Lou Reed, Frank Zappa or Captain Beefheart, rather than Aiko, Yuki or Hirai Ken.

And where are the foreigners living in this wonderful city, generous patron of all arts? They are nowhere to be seen in the cinemas, even in "Eiga no Hi". They have fallen under the pecuniary influence of the locals, filling up their schedules with so-called private lessons at trendy chain coffee shops.

Masochist view of history, Showa 1945-1989 and blah, blah, blah

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:54:07 GMT

Masochist view of history. This is how some in Japan consider views for admitting wrongdoing in history. Is this the reason why many recent war films, "LORELEI", "OTOKOTACHI NO YAMATO", "ORE WA, KIMI NO TAME NI KOSO SHINI NI IKU" and so on have tried to change the emphasis on the Japanese arm forces as an invading force to that of a defensive force fighting to protect their country and family. Wait a minute! How about the emperor? Weren't they supposed to die for the emperor as well? Yes, of course but that's an extremely touchy topic better not to mention. That's why I love the ending of the film "THE SUN" by Alexander Sokurov. After Mr "Ah so" Hirohito gives his radio broadcast surrender he asks his chamberlain, played marvellously by Shiro Sano:

Hirohito: And what happened with this young man, the sound engineer who taped my speech to the people?
The Chamberlain: He committed hara-kiri.
Hirohito: Did you try to stop him?
The Chamberlain: No.

Another thing that really bothers me is that as many of these films are set at the very end of the war or during the Japanese economic recovery of the 1950s, you are given the impression that the era Showa ran from 1945 to 1989 rather than 1926-1989. A very clear example of this is the Showa photographic exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography titled Showa: Photography 1926-..... I'm sorry ...1945-1989. Its director is very quick to point out that the exhibition does not constitute an exercise in nostalgia. Nostalgia for a better past (As it is said in Spanish Cualquier tiempo pasado siempre fue mejor), even though done in several films with enormous panache, above all in "ALWAYS: SAN-CHOME NO YUHI" or "METRO NI NOTTE", it's, nevertheless, something not to be too proud of.
Thus, producer Chihiro Kameyama tells how the film "BUBBLE FICTION: BOOM OR BUST", another clear nostalgic look at a not so distant past: "was not made with nostalgia". Ah so!, so how is that the protagonist, who goes back in time to 1990 to look for her mother and save the country's economic bubble from bursting, after some initial misgiving, ends up loving the bubble era so much? As The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was the perfect excuse to avoid individual and collective responsibility among the Japanese population in "BUBBLE FICTION: BOOM OR BUST" banks, investment companies, property developers and even the government get off scot-free as an international conspiracy helped by a few disloyal and greedy Japanese are chosen as the culprits for the burst of the bubble. How good is that for revisionist history? Ministry of Education take note.

Yasuo Baba, the director of the film says: "If we had made this movie five years ago, it would have been a much darker comedy. Even last year, when the script was approved, we asked ourselves if it was an appropriate theme. There are many people out there who were burned by the bubble and still have bad feelings about it." Was that so because if the film had been done five years ago it would have also been seen as a masochist view of history?

For a review of the film click here:
BUBBLE FICTION: BOOM OR BUST

The idiocies of a damena yatsu in Salariman Island: Films

Shachihoko City: Japan's Capital of Cinema

Masochist view of history, Showa 1945-1989 and blah, blah, blah