By Xenia Shin
The Chanoma Film Festival: "What's a Family to You?"
In contrast to the dominance of yakuza, or gangster films, in Japan, and Hollywood's reliance on sex, violence and special effects, the first Chanoma Film Festival offered three meditative films by Junichi Suzuki: "Remembering the Cosmos Flower" (1997), "Sukiyaki" (1995), and "Sandcastle" (1989). These admittedly "slower" films depict the tensions of family in Japan and aim to explore the richness of everyday life. Chanoma, which is Japanese for living room, provided a forum for the question, "What's a family to you?"
The trio of films explored families in three different cities. "Sukiyaki" depicts the Mihara family in Kanagawa: a grandmother who suffers from senility and incontinence, a father, and two twin daughters, one of whom is epileptic. Suzuki depicts the realities of aging, which are taboo and rarely seen in Japan. Suzuki's films often have a theme of defending the innocent against prejudice: in a scene where the grandmother has soiled herself, Mieharu's comic character says, "I feel very sorry. No one gets mad at a baby if it wets itself." "Sukiyaki" follows the twins up to the day of their coming of age--as they run the family restaurant, take care of their grandmother, deal with her death and meet their potential husbands.
"Remembering the Cosmos Flower" is the story of Akiko, a high school girl who contracts AIDS from a blood transfusion. Her wish is to die in her childhood town in Fukushima, where she spends her last few months reuniting with childhood friend Natsumi and fighting the prejudices of the townspeople. Suzuki says he created the film "to express a love for the province" and to portray a heroic character.
The most memorable moments in this film come from its unspoken subtleties. We first see Natsumi, her perky friend, sneak a porno tape to a boy with whom she has a budding relationship. By contrast, Akiko, an innocent victim of AIDS, is a girl who will not live to become a woman, and is so rebuffed by her schoolmates it's clear she may have already quietly given up the thrills of first love. American audiences may not understand the significance of the title, which Suzuki explains: "the cosmos flower in Japanese means the Autumn cherry blossom, [it is] a short-lived flower in Autumn."
"Remembering the Cosmos Flower" once again reflects Suzuki's concern for defending the innocent from prejudice: the townspeople are divided into those who, fueled by fear and ignorance, want Akiko kicked out of school, and those who support her, knowing her sufferings. However, the film deals with the issue of ignorance best when challenging the audience. It's established early on how one can and cannot get infected with AIDS; however, viewing a scene where Akiko and Natsumi exuberantly jump into a pool filled with high school kids makes the audience confront their own irrationality concerning infection. Likewise, an idyllic scene where the girls eat bowls of steaming noodles by the riverside ends silently with a shot of the dirty bowls.
"Remembering the Cosmos Flower" and "Sukiyaki" make an interesting contrast to "Sandcastle". If the first two are contemplative films exploring mortality with humor and gentleness, "Sandcastle" is bitingly funny with touches of surrealism. It is, however, tender, insightful and moving. Asked about the dynamic range between these films, Suzuki responded that he has often explored different styles of filmmaking over a span of 20 feature films.
"Sandcastle" is set in urban Tokyo, a different world from the rural Japan of "Remembering the Cosmos Flower." Shuhei Kido and his wife live in a cramped apartment in Tokyo with three children, perfectly cast: the bright eldest son, juvenile delinquent middle child, and cute youngest daughter. The TV room is a small box which barely fits the TV, Kido and his wife, and they use headphones to avoid waking the children. Kido rides on the Tokyo subways, which are infamously packed, and gets into trouble at work for saying the apartments are made more for rabbits than people. Things take a turn when the family wins the opportunity to receive a huge model house, one bedroom for each family member, if they can be live on display as the "perfect, model family" for a real estate firm for a year.
One of the most powerful scenes in the film is when the middle child joins a gang that rides around smashing windows. As he rides by to throw a rock through the window of his own home, he passes his father and they make eye contact. This moment of silent communication is repeated later on in the climax of the film. Meanwhile, Kido decides to resign from his job, quit the model home, divorce his wife and become homeless. Later, when the middle child goes out with his gang and beats up two homeless people, he suddenly realizes he is beating his own father. In a wonderful shot that lasts over a minute, father and son simply stare at each other in disbelief, shame, recognition, and love. The image is too complex for words, and is truly cinematic.
Kotaro Mori, one of the festival organizers along with Junichi Suzuki, was pleased with the success of the festival run and the show of the community. Mori says the festival will run again next year. In answer to what changes were occurring in the concept of family, Mori stated "In Japan it seemed that in the ideal family, Father worked all day to make money for the family and Mother took care of all the chores and kids... Now, it seems more like both parents work and it's hard to get together... that doesn't mean that it is a bad family...it is just a generational change. It is more important that the family is where they all go back to... As long as the love for the family is there, there is nothing to be concerned about."
www.chanoma.org (http: //www.chanoma.org)
Published: Friday, November 7, 2003
