Audio transcription

For more interviews and talks, visit the Harvard Film Archive Visiting Artists Collection page.

Haden Guest  0:02

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Haden Guest. I'm director of the Harvard Film Archive. I’m very happy and excited for tonight, which launches a major program focused on the other side of the New Wave that transformed Japanese cinema in the late ’50s and ’60s; a loose but vital movement that saw the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers determined—each in their own way—to reinvent narrative, and as we'll see tonight, also non- narrative cinema, by forging a film language entirely of their own, embracing bold political strategies and modes of art cinema and counter cinema, to challenge long established and upheld film traditions.

As the films of New Wave directors such as Nagisa Oshima, Shohei Imamura, Masahiro Shinoda have today become quite widely known and available, they've come to stand, for many, as emblematic figures of the New Wave. And yet, there was far more to this fertile period in Japanese cinema, as is wonderfully demonstrated by this remarkable program—which continues through the month of April—entitled The Other Wave: Alternate Histories of Post-World War Two Japanese Cinema, and which gathers together important films by the likes of Eizo Yamagiwa, Koreyoshi Kurahara, Kiju Yoshida, Osamu Takahashi, to name just some of the names, to name some of the figures.

Alright, tonight we see a program of extremely rare films, by truly avant-garde filmmakers Katsumi Hirano, Hiroo Ko, and Toshio Matsumoto. I am very, very happy that we have with us tonight the curator of this program, Mr. Go Hirasawa, who is a curator-at-large and important film scholar whose research and work focuses closely upon Japanese cinema of the crucial decades of the 1960s and ’70s. Mr. Hirosawa is based in Tokyo as a researcher at Meiji-Gakuin University. But his work takes him around the world, from Greece and Germany, where he presented films at Documenta 14; to Lebanon, where he’s now working on a program on the revolutionary films of Masao Adachi; to Gwangju, in South Korea, where he’s curated important exhibitions at the Asian Cultural Center, one focused on landscape theory, coming up very soon, later this spring; to here, of course, at Harvard, where he's come several times, generously guiding and inventing major programs such as a focus on Japanese experimental cinema, a few years ago; to a wonderful Masao Adachi retrospective that we also held, and that included a Skype conversation with the great Adachi-sama.

We’re very grateful to Go Hirosawa for the passion and extraordinary dedication that he brings to all of his projects, and for his generosity with his knowledge and insight. It's thanks to Go that the Harvard Film Archive has begun to acquire rare prints of Japanese films, experimental films, that will be available for research, study, and teaching. We are in the process of acquiring a set of prints by the great Shūji Terayama, as well as a group of prints of the filmmakers of the Nihon Daigaku Film Club, one of which we'll be seeing tonight.

Before handing the podium over to Go, I wanted to point to an important event that's taking place tomorrow afternoon in CGIS—Alex, remind me where it's taking place?—CGIS South, at 5 pm? Alright, 5:15, in Room S250. There's going to be a conversation by Skype, live from Tokyo, with theorist and filmmaker Eizo Yamagiwa, who is among the last major figures from this period who’s still with us today. His film The End of Love is one of the centerpieces of this program, and will screen later on in this month. So take a look at our calendar. The three films tonight are going to play back-to-back after Go Hirosawa gives an introduction. But I'd like to ask you to please turn off any cell phones, any electronic devices that you have, please refrain from using them. And now, with no further ado, please join me in welcoming Go Hirosawa!

[APPLAUSE]

Go Hirasawa  4:30

Thank you for your introduction. First of all, I would like to say thanks to Haden at the Harvard Film Archive; Kazu Watanabe and Noe Amber at the Japan Society; National Film Archive of Japan; Japan Foundation; Reischauer Institute; and Alex Zahlten, at Harvard University. When discussing the birth of the Japanese New Wave, it is typical to begin with Shochiku Nouvelle Vague, such as Nagisa Oshima, Masahiro Shinoda, and Kiju Yoshida. However, this approach is very limiting. Oshima and Yoshida criticize the term of “Nouvelle Vague” itself. And it's difficult to compare a young director who worked for the major studio to a French New Wave filmmaker who made film outside the studio system. Also, they are only three of the main key figures, known and unknown, who gave life to this sea change in Japanese cinema.

Within Shochiku, Tsutomu Tamura—we will show next, or two weeks later—Tsutomu Tamura, Osamu Takahashi, and Eitaro Morikawa made their first films alongside Oshima as part of the studio’s New Wave initiative. Yoshiro Ishido couldn't make his own film, but he's one of the important scriptwriters of the Shochiku New Wave. Outside of Shochiku, the other studios concurrently invested in new talent, such as Koreyoshi Kurahara in Nikkatsu, and Eizo Yamagiwa in Shin-Toho.

Beyond the studio, documentary and PR filmmakers such as Toshio Matsumoto and Shinkichi Noda organized the Association of Documentary Filmmakers, and published a journal, Documentary Film—Kiroku Eiga. And the Nihon University Film Club broke away from the convention of the student film to embark on new experiments, and collaborated with avant-garde artists. Hiroshi Teshigahara established a space for art activity and film screening at Sougetsu Art Center, and private filmmakers, such as Nobuhiko Obayashi and Yoichi Takabayashi, started to make 8mm film on their own, on camera.

In the background of all this film activity, postwar Japanese society was dealing with its war responsibility, and issues that splintered the pre-existing left-wing, primarily made up of the Japanese Communist Party, and gave rise to the student-led New Left Bunto—so-called Bunto—and Japan Revolutionary Communist League. Among the most volatile issues for these young political activists was the proposed 1960s US-Japan Security Treaty—so-called Anpo—around which many demonstrations and fights erupted. The filmmakers who birthed the New Wave in the late ’50s and early ’60s directly and indirectly responded to these emerging ideologies and movements through their work, which they imbued with newfound subjectivity as filmmaker, as auteur. This was not only for the film world, but also for all artistic genres, such as literature, poetry, theater, and photography.

And today—so I will introduce three films, from two important currents. One is a student and independent film, and the other is an avant-garde documentary movement. The first film, Conversation Between Nail and Socks. The Nihon University Art Department Film Club—Nihon Daigaku Geijutsubu Gakka Eiga Kenkyukai—was established in 1957, and just one year later, produced this film Conversation Between Nail and Socks—Kugi to kutsushita no taiwa. This film was produced collectively, with all members participating equally regarding roles, such as production and directing, scripting, etc. And thus, the hierarchical production style, with the director on top, was eliminated. Also, it was made as a strictly independent production by the Film Club, not seeking a profit through screening, and eliminating any commercial requirement. In addition, though the title director and scriptwriter of the initial Kugi to kutsushita no taiwa— Between Nail and Socks—can be ascribed to Katsumi Hirano and Ko Hiroo. And the Film Club’s second film is Record of N—N no kiroku—the director's name, Hiroshi Kanbara; a third film Pou Pou, Motohiro Jonouchi; fourth film, and then fifth film, so Closed Vagina, and Bowl, directed by Masao Adachi.

The productions were strictly based on a collective effort, and were not attributed to the participants’ specific names. And so we—and I can talk about—and so, the director's name, but on the credits, so, and nobody owns the credits; just produced by Nihon University Film Club. On the other hand, and so most of them worked for PR, documentary, and independent film companies’ film, as assistant director and cameraman. For example, Katsumi Hirano joined in Anpo Treaty, and Ko Hiroo—Hiroo Ko joined in Nishijin by Matsumoto Toshio. Motoharu Jonouchi joined in Pitfall by Hiroshi Teshigahara, and Masao Adachi joined in End of Love, by Eizo Yamagiwa, as assistant director. They were involved in such New Wave filmmaking, and then rejected them, at the same time. If so we want to strictly review the concept of New Wave, it seems more appropriate to discuss with Nihon University Film Club, because they came from outside the Japanese film studio system.

Shinkichi Noda is one of the most important documentary filmmakers in postwar Japan. He joined in many important art, literature, and thought groups, and established the Association of Documentary Filmmakers, and the journal Documentary Film—Kiroku Eiga. And then, the Group of Visual Art—Eizo Geijutsu no Kai, and Kiroku Eiga is like that piece. And many images of Conversation Between Nail and Socks. And then Shinkichi Noda’s Forgotten Land, in 1958, is one of his masterpieces. Through the shooting of PR film and visionary documentary film, Noda had a strong interest in the local area, left behind for economic growth, especially in the Tōhoku Northern area of main Honshu land. Noda tried to clarify the violence of the states and capitalism by strongly staring at the reality of the poor lower class. Aside from that, the Shitsukari area changed the name of Higashidōri village later. And so he described this area, Shitsukari. And so Shitsukari, and Higashidōri village, attracted nuclear power plants in 1965, and built up in the middle of the 1990s. So the Japanese government and the electric power company hit the poor area. The same is true of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

And so, Matsumoto, Toshio Matsumoto is known for Funeral Parade of Roses in 1969, an experimental film from the late 1960s. But he shot a number of PR and documentary films since the late 1950s. This Security Treaty—Anpo Joyaku—is a representative film among them. The labor union of the Socialist Party commissioned the Association of Documentary Filmmakers to produce the film. And they decided to ask Matsumoto as the director, and he and the poet, and Hiroshi Sekine, as a scriptwriter. A variety of techniques such as experimental montage, insert, sound, and voice, and photo collage, and caused a lot of debate and discussion. And through this film, the avant-garde documentary theory was argued, centered on Matsumoto and Noda.

For all three films it is the first time to be screening with English subtitles. So it's a very rare screening. And I think Conversation Between Nail and Socks screened in April, but Noda’s and Matsumoto’s, and this documentary, may be the first time in over 40 or 50 years, and not screening in April. And thank you. Please enjoy!

[APPLAUSE]

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