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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:24 pm Post subject: Japan's cinemas shy away from war film |
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Japanese nationalists have forced plans to screen a film examining the country's wartime excesses to be abandoned after a campaign of intimidation that included blockading cinemas.
A new documentary film, Yasukuni, was due to open at cinemas in Tokyo and Osaka on April 12.
The film, by the Chinese director Li Ying who lives in Japan, is about the Tokyo shrine that honours the nation's war dead, and examines Japan's imperial ambitions in the early decades of the last century.
Japanese politicians and commentators attacked the decision by cinema managers, who were targeted by ultra-nationalist protesters who parked vans covered in nationalistic slogans outside the cinemas and broadcast military anthems over loudspeakers.
The managers said they decided to cancel the screenings in order not to inconvenience other businesses in the surrounding areas. But their explanation provoked a fierce response from liberal sections of the media.
"Excessive 'self-censorship' has trampled on freedom of expression," said an editorial in the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper.
The Asahi Shimbun said: "Movies are a form of expression and speech, and freedom of speech and expression through movies must be guaranteed. Cinemas are social institutions that share a stake in protecting those freedoms."
The documentary shows scenes from the grounds of the Shinto shrine on Aug 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of the Second World War.
It also features interviews with Japanese veterans and relatives of some of the 2.47 million men and women who died fighting for Imperial Japan, including 14 "Class A" war criminals who are honoured at Yasukuni.
What has particularly upset nationalists is the part of the film that deals with the Rape of Nanjing, Japan's most notorious war-time atrocity. More than 150,000 Chinese men, women and children were murdered by Japanese troops in 1937 at the outset of the Sino-Japanese war.
The film was partly financed by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs. A group of politicians insisted that a special screening be held on March 12 to decide whether the subsidy had been used "appropriately."
Tomomi Inada, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said that she believed the film's "ideological message" had been to portray Yasukuni as a tool to mobilise the Japanese people for a war of aggression, a position that is "entirely different to my way of thinking," she said.
Mrs Inada criticised the decision to cancel the public screenings as "regrettable" however, adding that street campaigns should not stand in the way of freedom of expression.
"There is no reason whatsoever for cinemas to refrain from showing the film," she said. |
It is too bad the far right wields so much power in Japan.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...3/wjapan103.xml |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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| I have to admit that Korea is much more okay with opening old war wounds and analysing the worst moments in their history. There was opposition to the Gwangju Massacre movie (and probably even Silmido) but both films were still shown. |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, Korean cinema has done a good job with their history. Japan ignored it and China doesn't allow it. |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Ah, yes, Korean cinema has done a wonderful job of a)writing the UN forces out of the Korean war (see "Taegukgi Huinalimyo") b) blaming the war on the US and expressing pro-Communist sentiment (see "Welcome to Dongmakgol") and c) generally making unwatchable dreck (see "Everything Else.") |
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