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