Cinema Konzai, episode 1
We have a new writer in town: our good friend Chris MaGee, who will make monthly contributions to our Film Program’s blog. Welcome Chris! [clap clap clap]
Chris is a film blogger, programmer and writer. He is the editor and chief of The J-Film Pow-Wow, as well as the Co-Programmer and Co-Director of The Shinsedai Cinema Festival, an annual showcase of independent Japanese film In Toronto, Canada. He is also the editor of World Film Locations: Tokyo, published in 2011 by Intellect Books.
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No pictures of “konzai” out there on the internets or wherever, so instead you get Ninagawa and Sawajiri © “Helter Skelter” Production Committee as an illustration for Chris’ first entry in his monthly column…
It’s (still) the beginning of 2012, the year that many have forecast is going to be truly tough for the Japanese film industry. Insiders, like nearly everyone in Japan, have been traumatized by 2011 and the historic disasters of March 3rd in the Tohoku region. The Japanese economy was hurting badly before March 3rd of last year, and now the humungous burden of reconstruction is making the situation even more difficult; but what is the famous adage? Movies are depression proof (or recession proof, or even tragedy proof). When things get tough, the tough go to the movies for a little respite from the gloom. Still, producers, studio execs and distributors in Japan have been saying that 2012 will see less films being produced nationally, and that 2011 didn’t see the same kind of blockbusters that are required to turn the situation around. So, it will be interesting to look back a year from now to see exactly how the next 12 months transpire.
One film that may reverse the fortunes of the Japanese film industry this year may be the last of a very lucrative TV-to-film series. At the end of December, Fuji TV and Toho announced that the very last Bayside Shakedown (Odoru Daisousasen) film will hit Japanese theatres in the fall. The law enforcement adventures of Det. Shunsaku Aoshima and the fictional Wangan Precinct began airing on Fuji TV in 1997. Only a year later the show parlayed its small screen success into a feature film, Bayside Shakedown: The Movie, helmed by Katsuyuki Motohiro. In the 14 years between then and now, Bayside Shakedown: The Movie, its two sequels and two spin-off features have sold a record breaking 31.27 million tickets and racked in an astounding ¥42.79 billion. The opening of Bayside Shakedown: The Final this September, which follows Det. Aoshima through an investigation during an energy summit, may be the cash injection that the Japanese film industry so desperately needs right now.
Like the U.S. and Europe, every year kicks off in Japan with awards season. 99-year-old screenwriting and directing veteran Kaneto Shindo has emerged as this season’s big winner with both Kinema Junpo and The 66th Mainichi Film Concours honoring his 45th, and last, feature film Postcard(Ichimai no Hagaki) with top honors. Postcard also picked up Best Art Direction, Best Music and Best Sound awards from The Mainichi Film Concours. A surprise winner at both the Kinema Junpo and Mainchi Film Awards was Katsuya Tomita’s hip-hop youth drama Saudade. The independently produced buzz film of 2011 was named on Kinema Junpo’s coveted Top Ten List as well as snagging the Best Film Award at The Mainichi Film Concours. Meanwhile, Izuru Narushima’s child abduction melodrama Rebirth (Youkame no Semi) garnered 13 nods at the 35th Japan Academy Prize including Director of the Year, Screenplay of the Year, as well as Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Mao Inoue and Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Eiko Koike. Other big winners at the Japan Academy Prize were Shigemichi Sugita’s jidai-geki drama The Last Chushingura (Saigo no Chushingura) and Koki Mitani’s otherworldly courtroom comedy Ghost of a Chance (Suteki na Kanashibari).
Barring the success of Katsuya Tomita and Saudade, Japan’s major film awards, especially the Japan Academy Prize , are a stronghold of old school tear-jerkers, cozy nostalgia and family-friendly heart warmers; but on the international film festival circuit it’s a different story. The perfect example of this is the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The 41st edition of the Netherlands fest, running from January 25th to February 5th, has once again assembled a challenging collection of films from around the globe, especially from Japan. The usual fest circuit favorites are represented — Hirokazu Koreeda’s family drama I Wish (Kiseki), Shinya Tsukamoto’s harrowing Kotoko, Masahiro Kobayashi’s new film Women on the Edge (Girigiri no onnatachi) and the international premiere of Takashi Miike’s Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) — but this being Rotterdam, some of the best up-and-coming talent Japan has to offer is on tap for audiences. Keiichi Kobayashi’s black-and-white teen chronicle About the Pink Sky (Momoiro Sora o), which took the top prize in the Japanese Eyes programme at the 24th Tokyo IFF, will screen, as will indie ruffian Yosuke Okuda’s big budget debut Tokyo Playboy Club. Okuda, who came to fame with his no-budget black comedy crime series Hot as Hell, will be joined at Rotterdam by Yellow Kid director Tetsuya Mariko 40-minute minimalist drama Ninifuni, co-written by Now, I… (Ima, Boku wa…) writer and director Yasutomo Chikuma. Rounding thing off will be Juichiro Yamasaki’s meditative rural drama The Sound of Light (Hikari no Oto) as well as a cornucopia of shorts by Mirai Mizue, Eriko Sonoda, Yumiko Kimura and Takashi Makino.
While the likes of Koreeda, Tsukamoto and Miike tour latest works through the Netherlands, two of Japan’s most visionary directors are prepping new work for 2012. First is Toshiaki Toyoda. For the past year there had been growing buzz about the 42-year-old helmer “returning to form” after his 2009 kabuki adaptation Blood of Rebirth (Yomigaeri no Chi). That film distilled the legends of 15th century hero Oguri Hangan Daisukeshige into a dreamy abstract tale of life and afterlife. Many critics cheered, but just as many scratched their heads and wondered where the next 9 Souls or Hanging Garden (Kuchu Teien) had gone. Those doubters began to simmer with anticipation after word leaked that Toyoda was working on a yakuza film set in Okinawa. Come the 36th Toronto International Film Festival, though, Toyoda didn’t deliver yakuza action and intrigue, but Monsters Club instead, a drama about a Unabomber-like character equal in complexity to Blood of Rebirth. What happened to the yakuza film? It turns out that that film was still in production and this month a little more was revealed about what audiences can expect. Titled I’m Flash, the film stars Tatsuya Fujiwara as a religious cult leader who travels to an Okinawan island after he is injured in a car accident. He’s accompanied by his ex-yakuza bodyguard, portrayed by Toyoda veteran Ryuhei Matsuda. I’m Flash is set for a September release in Japan, and we can assume some appearances on the 2012 festival circuit.
While Toshiaki Toyoda has kept fans and critics guessing about where his next film will take them, Mika Ninagawa has kept people guessing if she would ever make another film at all. The 39-year-old daughter of theatrical guru Yuki Ninagawa made her directorial debut in 2007 with the manga adaptation Sakuran starring Anna Tsuchiya. Sakuran became an international cult hit, mostly due to Ninagawa’s hyper-stylized depiction of the world of Edo Era geisha. During the four years since the release of Sakuran, though, it appeared that, besides a music video for mega-girl group AKB48, Ninagawa had seemingly reverted back to her first career as a photographer. Now there is word that Ninagawa is in production on her sophomore film Helter Skelter. Once again this film will be based on a manga (by Kyoko Okazaki) and will focus on a world that Ninagawa knows well from her day job — the world of high fashion. Erika Sawajiri will star as a top model who harbors the dark secret that her beauty isn’t genetic but instead the result of extensive plastic surgery. Helter Skelter boasts Shinobu Terajima, Nao Omori, Yosuke Kubozuka and Mieko Harada in its supporting cast and is set for release on July 14th.
One seemingly unstoppable filmmaker, and one that many will be watching this year, is Sion Sono. The 50-year-old poet-turned-film auteur has progressed from his breakthrough films Suicide Club (Jisatsu Sakuru) and Strange Circus (Kimyo na Sakasu) at a dizzying pace. Since his 2008 4-hour gonzo epic Love Exposure (Ai no Mukidashi) Sono has gone from marginal “extreme” director to mainstream critical favorite. One reason for this is Sono’s reckless artfulness, epitomized by his latest film Himizu. It began as a straightforward adaptation of Minoru Furuya’s manga, but under Sono’s guidance became a post-Tohoku Earthquake youth saga. It seems, though, that Sono hasn’t fully processed the magnitude of the events of March 11th. It was recently announced that Sono is working on a new film focusing on the aftermath of the Tohoku Earthquake. The Land of Hope (Kibou no Koku) will tell the story of a dairy farmer in rural Japan whose family faces a massive earthquake. The farmer is too dedicated to his home to evacuate so he stays in the stricken region while trying to care for his pregnant wife. The Land of Hope will be produced by Bitters End, Dongyu Club, German distributor Rapid Eye Movies, Taiwan-based company Joint Entertainment and UK-based DVD distributor Third Window Films. The Land of Hope will mark Third Windows’ and its President Adam Torel’s first co-production venture. Torel, speaking to Screen International’s Jason Gray, said that “After watching Sono’s feelings about the March 11 disaster come through Himizu I wanted to know more and believe that The Land of Hope has all the workings to be his masterpiece.”
Before we close off on this first month of 2012, mention has to be made of the passing of a screen veteran. On January 7th actor Hideaki Nitani, the star of numerous Nikkatsu action films from the 1950’s and 1960’s including Seijun Suzuki’s Underworld Beauty (Ankokugai no Bijo) and Tokyo Drifter (Tokyo Nagaremono), passed away at the age of 81. Born in 1930 in Kyoto, Nitani began his career not on screen but on radio as an announcer for a Nagasaki broadcaster. It wasn’t until 1956 when Nikkatsu Studios was gearing up production after having temporarily shuttered itself during the post-war U.S. Occupation that Nitani became a movie star. Nitani, along with such legendary names as Akira Kobayashi, Yujiro Ishihara and Jo Shishido, were all hired on to work in Nikkatsu’s wildly entertaining and formulaic “program pictures”. During his 15 years at Niikatsu Nitani would work with such directors as Seijun Suzuki, Yuzo Kawashima, Ko Nakahira, and Koreyoshi Kurahara, amongst many others, but once the studio transitioned into production of its Roman Porno line of softcore erotic films Nitani moved to the small screen, gaining a whole new audience as Police Detective Kyosuke Kumashiro in the TV Asahi series Frontline Investigators (Tokuso Saizensen). Nitani’s passing is sad news for the start of what will undoubtedly be an eventful, and possibly crucial, year for Japanese film.
