Filmcollege 7 - Mubii Japan

Art Theater Guild (ATG) Saving Angel during the Crisis of Japanese Cinema

Dick Stegewerns University of Oslo

The Art (Film) House Movement • Late 1950s international trend to promote and preserve non-mainstream cinema.

• Alternative cinema, experimental cinema.

Art film.

• Establishment of infrastructure art house circuit.

• In Japan almost complete domination of production, distribution and exhibition by the six great studios.

• No independent cinemas.

• Import limitation.

1962 Art Theater Guild of Japan.

• Establishment of Japanese art house circuit.

• Film classics, world (European) cinema, and independent Japanese films.

• Fragment 1 Teshigahara Hiroshi, Pitfall (1962)

• Limited infrastructure, but huge influence.

• Centre/salon of late 1960s and early 1970s counter culture.’

• Intermingling of film, theatre, contemporary music, dance, photography, manga

Exhibition and Production House • 1967 ATG starts producing films in the midst of the crisis of Japanese cinema.

• No state support of cinema. ATG (and the pink movie industry) preserve continuity.

• ATG as a stamp of quality. Autonomy of the director but low budget.

ATG Characteristics • anti-establishment, non-commercialist, art house cinema • themes that could not be treated in commercial cinemas • outspoken artistic stance • auteur cinema • original script

• close collaboration and cross-fertilization with other art forms • experimental style and structure • highly intellectual (highbrow elite cinema) • strong political/social message • film action; direct link with contemporary political and social developments • strong preference for (street) scenes of Shinjuku

• • • • • •

low-budget 10 million yen films ‘aesthetics of economy’ visual style all-location natural light documentary elements black and white

• • • •

unknown leading actors long pre-production short shooting period challenge to the hegemonic humanist victimization narrative of the collective war memory • tendency to include scenes of projecting film on naked bodies and scenes of hanging

Groups within ATG • a. Former Nouvelle Vague directors Oshima Nagisa, Yoshida Yoshishige and Shinoda Masahiro • Fragment 2 Yoshida, Eros Plus Massacre (1969) • Fragment 3 Shinoda, Double Suicide (1969)

• b. senior studio directors, making their only autonomous film.

• Fragment 4 Okamoto Kihachi, Human Bullet (1968) • c. documentary film makers.

• Fragment 5 Matsumoto Toshio, Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

• d. TV directors • e. soft porn directors being able to make non-porn • Fragment 6 Wakamatsu Koji, Ecstasy of Angels (1972)

• f. amator/student film makers offered a bigger screen and audience.

• g. outsiders receiving a carte blanche to create their own cinematic world.

• Fragment 7 Terayama Shuji, Pastoral Hide-and-Seek (1974)

Periodisation • 1967-1972 Politics and art. Innovative, experimental. Difficult but profound. Taboos and violence, anarchism and eroticism (Kuzui Kinshiro).

• 1973-1978 Away from politics, towards escapist youth films. Less experimental. Book adaptations (Taga Shosuke).

• 1979-1986 (87) Younger generation of filmmakers. Simple but vigorous (Sasaki Shiro).

• Fragment 8 (1985)

Somai Shinji, Typhoon Club

• Total of 85 films, many more distributed. High artistic level. Kine Jun polls and foreign festivals.

• “Low-budget continuation of the Nouvelle Vague”.

• “Saving grace of late 1960s- early 1980s Japanese cinema”

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Shinjuku dorobō nikki)

Ōshima Nagisa (Sōzōsha/ATG, 1969) • Homage to the political and cultural freezone of Shinjuku in the late 1960s. The perfect introduction to Japan’s counterculture.