a

ASK THE average North American what they
know about Japanese filmmaking and they will
tell you about late night movies of fearless
Samurai warriors or Godzilla the monster on a
rampage, tearing up Tokyo.

Chances are they have
never heard of filmmakers
like Kohei Oguri (Muddy
River),
(Lightening) or Hoshitaro
Negishi (Distant Thunder).

——:

_ Mikio Naruse.

By COLIN LAMONT

Stereotypes of Japanese
films are a problem that fac-

ed Tom Kowaill as festival

coordinator of the First An-
nual Japanese Film Festival.
Running until Saturday, Oc-
tober 5 at Robson Square,
the festival offers a
retrospective of 13 miovies
made in Japan from 1935
through 1982.

“One of the aspects that
distinguishes our program
from some Japanese films is
that’ we have avoided the
stereotype movies,'’ explain-

ed Kowall. ‘‘We have tried
to put together a broad
range of films that introduce
cultural concerns of Japan.’’

MAKE DEBUT

Kowall and his festival
committee began with a list
of 35 to 40 films and
shortlisted from there. The
13 films they ended up with
have been shown at Japanese

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Dispelling the stereotypes
of Japanese film making

film festivals around the
world and include comedies
and dramas. Ten of the films
to be shown in Vancouver
will make their debut here
for local audiences, never
having been seen in this city.

Highlighting the festival
program are films like Eros
Plus Massacre by filmmaker
Yoshida Yoshishige. The
film explores sex and revolu-
tion amongst anarchists in
the 1900s. The story centres
around Osugi Sake, a noted
Japanese anarchist, strangl-
ed by the police with his wife
and children, early in this
century.

NAPE EROTIC

“The Japanese approach
to eroticism is very different
from that of North
America,’’ Kowall said.
‘Very seldom does their
great sense’ of personal
modesty allow more than
side shots of nudity. Often
their approach to eroticism
is a shot of the nape of
someone’s neck.’’

The festival director said
that comedies like Tora-San,
portraying one man’s quest
for love and a career in the

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33 - Sunday, September 29, 1985 -

BLINDS ’N DRAPES

-bureaucratic society of

Tokyo should be well receiv-
ed here. These are stories
that everyone can relate to,
he said.

Vancouver viewers. will
have the chance to ap-
preciate the difference be-
tween North American and
Japanese film symbolism
through films like Muddy
River,

NOMINATION

This feature, by film-
maker Kohei Oguri, won a
1981 Academy Award
nomination for Best Foreign
Film. Filmmaker Oguri
compares the childhood ex-
periences of two young boys
awakening to aduit realities
with a river that begins pure
and clear, but gradually

_muddies on its way to the

sea.

‘“‘That’s not the kind of
movie that most. people
think of when they talk
about Japanese films,’’
noted Kowall.

While Vancouver’s Japa-
nese ambassador will be on
hand to open the. festival,

See The
Page 34

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