WORDS: RYAN HEWITT
IMAGES: http://zipangufest.com/home
On Wednesday the UK’s first Japanese Film Festival, Zipangu, officially kicked off its busy programme of features, shorts and live music. The day before, however, I’m sitting in Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. We’re at the unofficial warm up, settling into charmingly uncomfortable chairs with mulled wine and minced pies. The night is held in conjunction with treasure trove video library Close Up, but this is the busiest Tuesday night I’ve seen here. I hope the floor will hold out.
Jasper and his sidekick give a brief introduction to what we are about to see: two short films by American expat Donald Richie, who spent the majority of his adult life living in Japan, and is credited for alerting the UK to the work of seminal Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Next, Jasper moves on to Motoharu Jonouchi, and his enthusiasm and is plain to see. It’s exciting. We will see two of Jonouchi’s proudly experimental films, before a final short by Masanori Oe. 3 of these are going to be projected on 16mm, with the final two played out on video.
The lights aren’t dimmed; they’re cut. The industrial heater is unplugged and its red glow ceases. The room plunges into darkness and voices turn to whispers. It feels as though mischief is afoot. The projector strikes up, its reels clacking as they spin. The screen lights to a dull, flickering white and after a few anticipatory seconds, the ocean appears. Donald Richie’s War Games affirms my expectations. These are not going to be easy watches and I was naive to expect anything different. Through pre-teen warmongers and conscientious objectors, Richie’s point is interesting but laboured. Shots are held for more than a moment too long; elsewhere a cut lingers tiresomely on predictable imagery.
As the night continues, it becomes abundantly clear that this is not a night of cinema. It is a night of art, but more specifically, art on film. I find Richie’s Dead Youth to be far more interesting, although plagued with the same problems. Jonouchi’s Shinjuku Station is quite tedious, and I find myself counting the balloons suspended from the ceiling, waiting to drop. Will they drop? Will they…?
Despite finding it difficult to engage with the film itself, there is inspiration to be found here in the Working Men’s club, and that alone justifies my being here. Maybe this is the purpose of experimental film. Some of the things Jonouchi and his contempories have come up with may find their way in to the work of one of the more daring narrative filmmakers we have.
Masanori Oe’s 6 screen tale of 1960′s USA, Great Society, closes the nights screenings. It is a fantastic piece of work: both experimental and accessible, uplifting and sobering, confrontational and naive. In short, everything cinema should be. It is a fantastic end and I realise now that the festival directors have delivered on their promise. As the hosts return to the floor, the night really becomes special. It’s a real pleasure to listen to such deep knowledge as they place all that we have just seen in to context, fleshing out the ambiguity. Suddenly I’m willing to sit through another 15 minutes of Richie’s languid shots.
I came to Zipangu Fest knowing very little about Japanese film, and even less about Japanese art. Although I wasn’t exactly entertained, I was certainly inspired and informed, not least by the two hosts. If you don’t mind a bit of hard work to find inspiration, Zipangu Fest is the place to go.
Zipangu Fest runs until 28th November, between Cafe 1001 on Brick Lane, and the Genesis Theatre in Whitechapel.
http://zipangufest.com/
Thanks for the coverage, and for acknowledging that what Zipangu Fest is trying to do is not necessarily just about showing the films, but its also about how they’re presented and the background behind them. We’ve basically tried to get each of our events to be as different as possible to appeal to different types of audiences, but what we definitely do hope at the very least is that each is memorable.
For the record, my co-host here was Julian Ross, and he essentially put this whole evening together himself for Zipangu Fest, working closely with Close-Up, who I really want to thank for sorting out the logistics (Damien Sanville and our projectionist Louis). Look out for a lot more stuff from Julian, because he did sterling work here and I know he has a lot of even more exciting stuff planned for the coming year.