Japanese and Indonesian films reflect social changes<\/p>\n
By Jane Freebury<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A two-day symposium and Japanese-Indonesian film
\nshow at the Japan Cultural Center this week brought together a
\nvery eminent Japanese film critic, prominent figures in the
\nIndonesian film world and a rare screening program.<\/p>\n
Mr. Tadao Sato, author of over 100 specialist books on film,
\nwas in attendance with Dr. Salim Said from the National Film
\nCouncil, J.B. Kristanto, film actors, directors, and film and
\ntelevision students at the Jakarta Arts Institute.<\/p>\n
The screening program brought together four films, two from
\nJapan and two from Indonesia. All four in their different ways
\nreflected concern with society and the impact of social change.
\nThe purpose of the event was to herald a week-long festival of
\nJapanese cinema, which will be held on Nov. 3-10.<\/p>\n
Sixteen films will be screened. Curated by Mr. Tadao Sato,
\nthere will be films from the masters - Ozu, Kurosawa - and
\nothers which reflect on Japanese society in the 50 years since
\nWorld War II, which, in the festival, actually begins in 1947
\nwith Yasujiro Ozu's Nagaya Shinshiroku (The Record of a Tenement
\nGentleman) and ends in 1993 with Yoji Yamada's Gakko (A Class to
\nRemember).<\/p>\n
Tadao Sato's work includes books on directors Akira Kurosawa,
\nKenji Mizoguchi, Nagisa Oshima and Yasujiro Ozu and writings on
\nthe history of Japanese film theory and documentary film in
\nJapan. He has also written books on third world cinema, Chinese
\ncinema and Korean film. Recently, he brought Mongolian films to
\nthe attention of cineastes. \"Two hundred a year are made and
\nthese films are very good,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Japanese cinema has also been remarkably prolific. Before
\nsound technology put words into actors' mouths, Japan was
\nproducing 700 films annually. That was in 1927. In 1946, despite
\nits fractured state from defeat and occupation, Japan was
\nnevertheless able to produce 67 films, many by filmmakers who had
\nbeen working in the industry prior to the war. Director Yasujiro
\nOzu was once voted by the British Film Institute as \"one of the
\ngreatest artists of the twentieth century in any medium and in
\nany country\".<\/p>\n
Ozu is remembered as a stylist and in particular for his long
\nstatic takes and close-to-the-floor framings. You are offered a
\nseat, or rather a place on the floor matting, and perhaps with a
\ncup of tea in hand you watch. With minimal cutting, the camera
\ngaze is unblinking, as the details of ordinary life assume a
\nquiet dignity. The characters in Nagaya Shinshiroku are dyers,
\ngrocers, metalworkers - people typical of the world of Ozu.<\/p>\n
An apparently homeless child is cared for by an older woman,
\ngrudgingly, until she realizes her loss when he is reunited with
\nhis father. The final frames at the close of the film make an
\nappeal on behalf of the truly homeless -- the hordes of destitute
\norphans in postwar Japan.<\/p>\n
Gakko is the contemporary story of a shambly, avuncular
\nteacher at night school who so enjoys his classes that he doesn't
\nwant to accept a promotion, which would take him away from his
\nproblematic part-time students. They are his problems and the
\nproblems of society in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
For an occasion such as this, Ucik Supra's Badut Badut Kota
\n(City Clowns) would be strictly archival. It won a prize at the
\nAsia-Pacific Film Festival in Sydney last year, but had a short
\nand unsuccessful season locally. Even some kind words from Tanao
\nSato couldn't have stoked the fires and rescued it from public
\napathy. Badut Badut Kota was in sharp contrast with Matahari
\nMatahari (The Sun) a 1985 film directed by the late Arifin
\nC.Noer. Both films center on families struggling to survive in
\nthis evil metropolis.<\/p>\n
But while Matahari Matahari is the tragedy of a rural family
\nwhich splits its timbers on the rocks of barely-submerged avarice
\nand treachery, Badut Badut Kota is an upbeat and energetic
\ncomedy, which begins and ends with what can only be called a
\ncelebration of Jakarta. Facing eviction at the hands of Mrs.
\nCaptain, the young married couple, Deddy and Menul, take the
\ncity's materialistic values to heart and make them work for them.<\/p>\n
In this cheerful rags-to-riches fairy tale dreams can come
\ntrue if you are lucky. But Matahari Matahari is a cautionary
\ntale exhorting the rural poor to stay away from winking city
\nlights. It is the more honest. There is no sense in Badut Badut
\nKota that accepts the notion that skills and educational levels
\nare usually prerequisites for success; but never mind, this film
\nis playful and not to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n
More interesting in Badut is a discourse on the local film
\nindustry. Deddy, employed as a sometime clown at Ancol, has a
\nnext door neighbor, a former movie director, who spies on his
\nyoung neighbors' lovemaking through holes in their adjoining
\nwalls. He is also glimpsed shopping and ironing and acting as a
\npembantu for his wife. During the film he progresses to 'direct'
\nextras at the new warung that Deddy and Menul fill with their
\nfriends to attract real customers. At one point one of the
\ncharacters in Badut Badut Kota says that something \"doesn't make
\nsense\" and that it's \"just like (the decline of) our movie
\nindustry\".<\/p>\n
The success of the Japanese film industry is in sharp
\ncontrast, although Mr. Sato spoke of a drop in the viewing
\naudiences for the locally-made film. Dr. Salim Said spoke of the
\nneed to see film as cultural expression, not as a commercial
\ncommodity. The fact that films selected for a major festival of
\nJapanese films have been selected for their reflections on
\nJapanese society makes the point that film, at its best, is both
\ncultural expression and social document.<\/p>",
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