Thursday, April 24, 2008
Flavor of Happiness
Bloody hell the first third of this year has been non-stop. No complaints but a vacation at a Southeast Asian resort would be nice right about now.
About a month ago I mentioned subtitling Nakatani Miki's latest film. Just did a print check yesterday and everything looks good.
The film is called Flavor of Happiness (Shiawase no Kaori, 『しあわせのかおり』), directed by Mihara Mitsuhiro (三原光尋監督). You can read some plot and production background in this Tokyograph article from last year.
I spoke about the film a little in my Nippon Connection presentation in regards to interesting language trends in Japanese films as of late. Nakatani's co-star is veteran actor Fuji Tatsuya, whom Japanese film fans will know best from In the Realm of the Senses and Bright Future. Fuji plays a Chinese restaurant owner who's lived in Japan for decades and is fluent in the language, but speaks it with a Chinese accent. Native English-speaking Western actors do accented English all the time in movies, but it's not that common for a Japanese actor to play a non-Japanese who can speak Japanese. 
Anyway, he's good in the film and has a nice chemistry with Nakatani, an actress who makes having to watch a movie five or six times to subtitle it a lot easier. It's a gentle, father-daughter themed story that's atypical for Toei (pitched to one of Toei's strong producers by independent producer Miki Kazushi).
Thankfully, the China-Japan story elements aren't brushed with any kind of politics or ill-will, with good location work in Kanazawa and Shaoxing. For audiences that like food films, which are pretty hot in Japan as of late (and even influencing Korean hit Le Grand Chef), Flavor of Happiness should satisfy.
Mihara's previous film starring Fuji, Photo Album of the Village (Mura no Shashinshû 『村の写真集』), won a Golden Goblet for Fuji's performance at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2005.
15 comments:
...sounds nice. does there continue to be any trend towards
contextualising japan within its place in asia, as per "bird
people in china" and numerous other 90s movies?... it
would be suggested to be part of this film, but I don't get
much of a clear sense of how those from other Asian lands are accepted in varying ways - yamada's "a class to remember" - or how the Japanese are treated and coped with by others when they travel into other Asian countries themselves. was it a sudden appearance and dissapearance of a trend or was there a lasting affect beyond how it was described (...i've scanned it...) in mark
schillings book from around the end of the last decade.
I guess with Chinese immigrants and Zainichi there have been "trendy" films like Swallowtail, Go, and Pacchigi!. The 2005 YIDFF collection of Zainichi-themed documentaries explored the issue deeper (Don knows about that set of films). Does somebody have a link to a thesis for logboy?
A lot of the mainstream news nowadays about Chinese in Japan is ugly and brutal, with not a lot of positive stories so it was good to see a film where the character was a well-liked local with a popular restaurant. Nothing more, nothing less.
Four or five years ago I spent some time with a Japanese-born guy of North Korean descent who had worked as a news cameraman overseas. He had a very interesting life. Your question reminded me of him, thanks...
...i will have to look closer at mr.schilling's book... i'd kind of subconsciously picked up on a trend of 90s japanese film and then realised there was much more to it when i picked my way through this tome recently... i guess i'm mainly wondering why there was a sudden, concerted and extensive (well, apprently) range of films in that time, why it didn't happen before or seeming since to the same extent.
Trend...not sure it's quite that. Sai's All Under the Same Moon (93) and Blood and Bones (04) fall outside the range, to name a couple.
I forgot to mention director Lee Sang-il (Hula Girls), another director who started off at Pia with Chong (『青〜chong〜』), which was at the tail end of the period you're talking about.
As the largest minority group in Japan by far, there are plenty of zainichi-themed works in all media, but there are so many other stories...I'm surprised there hasn't been a widely seen film depicting Brazilian-Japanese issues. In my old neighbourhood there was a small community of Burmese, and where I live now the Indian population is growing. etc.etc.
isn't Koji yakusho's character in "kamikaze taxi" someone raised in brazil?... I remember some such element.
Yakusho's taxi driver character is from Peru, which in some ways has less to do with the diaspora theme you've referred to than the film's sudden genre shift in its final third.
Miike had filmed "Hazard City漂流街”featuring Brazillian Japanese street gang and Chinese illegal alien.The Nikei Brazillians were not very amused.
There was a film called 北京的西瓜 by Oobayashi in the 80's based on the true story of green grocery shop owner helping hands to Chinese students for decades in Chiba.
In reality,his family start growing dislike toward chinese in general for the numbers of reasons and it's not a pretty story as it has been immortalized in the film.
Aceface
Hazard City (aka The City of Lost Souls) -- saw it at the Toronto Film Festival at the huge Uptown Theater (RIP) back in 2000. Had its moments, but it wasn't that good. I'm surprised anybody even saw it Japan. Was there an ethnic community group complaint a la Year of the Dragon, Aceface?
The size of the nikkei Brazilian population here warrants more representation in films, I think. Living with soem when I first came to Japan in 1998 was a real eye opener when I knew nothing and expected to be surrounded by either Yamato minzoku or foreign visitors.
Don, you recommended Kamikaze Taxi to me but I still haven't seen it. You know Harada's got a new big budget film on the JAL 123 air disaster called Climber's High?
There's a U.S. DVD of Kamikaze Taxi, but no Japanese one yet because of some problem with the rights holders. I haven't seen it since I caught it at a film fest in New Zealand years ago, but it sure blew me away at the time.
I was lucky enough to see a preview of "Climber's High" last year. It won't do anything to change the minds of his detractors, but the highly-charged newsroom scenes have an authentic old-school Hollywood feel and there's a palpable attention to detail in recreating the story's settings and situations for the big screen. I'll leave it up to Aceface to clue us in on how true it is to actual events, but it's still a cracking yarn and much better than "The Choice of Hercules".
Oh, I didn't know post-production was finished that long ago. Press screenings started last month. I like newsroom movies so I hope to see it soon.
On the JAL flight to Germany I was surprised at how recent the selection of movies was -- I take it Climber's High won't be programmed on there.
Re:"Hazard City"
No,There were no real complainment coming from Brazillian groups,but I read that in an essay of ex-reporter of "International Press",the Nikkei Brazillian paper.
The only group that makes such complainment over their visual representation would be from zainichi Korean community,so Sai's "All Under The Same Moon"was remarkable success.
We may have some Japanese Brazillian themed film or TV drama since 2008 is a centennial of Japanese immigration to Brazil.
Re:"Climber's High"
That was dramatized by NHK into award winning drama starring Sato Kouichi in 2005.Biggest WTF was the wife of Sato was played by ex-porn star,Miho Jun.That could happen in other channels,but on NHK?
Big surprise.
Just googled and found that it seems the film version is going to have location in New Zealand instead of Gunnma Prefecture....
Aceface
The New Zealand location was used only for the epilogue, which I think Harada tacked on because he liked the country so much from his time working on The Last Samurai.
Miho Jun was just a Roman Poruno actress, wasn't she? If she was considered safe enough to use in the Tora-san films, I can't see why NHK would turn her down.
I don't suppose you saw the NHK Climber's High did you, Aceface? I see it's out on DVD, and it'd be interesting to compare the two versions.
OK,So New Zealand was used as New Zealand,not a stand in of Nippon as it was in LS and Dororo...
"I don't suppose you saw the NHK climber's high did you Aceface"
Talking about films I don't even watch is now becoming a habit of mine!No,I just saw the press release on NHK version,of which was a big surprise at the time.
And I also forgot about NHK using her for Spanish Language program.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%91%89%E5%B1%B1%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B3
Aceface
Such a sweet movie! I can't believe it is the same guy from In the Realm of the Senses! I knew he looked familiar...
i just heard about this movie, and am interested in watching it. does anyone know where i can rent or see the movie with english subtitles?
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