Day: March 4, 2013

By Joe Bendel. Gen. Bonner Fellers was a principled anti-Communist with a deep affinity for Japanese culture. He sounds like our kind of guy. Known as Gen. MacArthur’s protégé, he was no favorite of Eisenhower’s. Yet, it was the former who assigned him a nearly impossible task. In just ten days, Fellers must determine Emperor Hirohito’s culpability in Japanese war crimes and recommend whether he should be executed or retain his position as formal head of state. Just what did the Emperor know and when did he know it are the driving questions of Peter Webber’s Emperor, which opens this Friday in New York.

As a college student, Fellers really did visit Japan several times. In Webber’s film, he is pursuing Aya Shimada, a shy but admirably progressive Japanese woman, who was forced to withdraw from Fellers’ small Midwestern college when tensions between their countries escalated. While in Japan, he writes his thesis on the psychology of the Japanese military, particularly with regard to their loyalty to the emperor, so he is relatively prepared for his military investigation. However, while he chases down former government and military officials for MacArthur’s inquiry, Fellers also searches just as doggedly for traces of Shimada.

Of course, Shimada’s storyline is a fictional construct. We can only imagine what Gen. MacArthur would have thought of a senior staff officer dividing his efforts between a time-sensitive assignment and personal business. On the other hand, it gave Webber an excuse to cast Eriko Hatsune in a prominent role. Although not especially famous in Japan (an assumption confirmed by a Japanese colleague at the press screening), Hatsune generated international notice for her brief but devastating supporting turn Tran Anh Hung’s Norwegian Wood, which she has now parlayed into a co-starring role in a major English language production. Would you jeopardize re-igniting the bloodiest war in human history to find her again? Sure, probably.

Indeed, Hatsune is exquisitely sensitive and rather soulful as Shimada, developing some surprisingly appealing romantic chemistry with Matthew Fox’s Fellers. While Fox hardly ages a gray whisker in his transformation from Earlham undergrad to one-star general, he projects an intelligent presence and a reasonably credible military bearing. At least he does not look out of place in the uniform.

While Tommy Lee Jones (who as you might have heard, did not win an Oscar for Lincoln) sounds perfect for MacArthur, he might just be too perfect. It is all very cool early on when he tells his men “let’s show them some old fashioned American swagger.” However, we have seen this sort of act from Jones before. Frankly, the strutting about, and telling down-home one-liners with his corncob pipe clenched in his teeth gets pretty shticky over time.

If Emperor does any business to speak of, you should anticipate the Fellers blowback to start with a vengeance. He was definitely a right-winger, but his vision of a free and democratic Japan counterbalancing the Soviets’ influence in Asia has essentially been vindicated by history. Likewise, his judgment on Hirohito (which historically literate viewers should expect whether or not they are familiar with Fellers) has proved entirely justified. Expect much to be made of his time as the U.S. military attaché in Egypt before the war, during which the code for his sensitive reports back to Washington had been cracked by the Germans. Although everyone concedes Fellers was blameless in the affair, there is no denying the awkwardness of it. There is another ultra-PC complaint decrying Fellers as yet another white savior figure. Of course, this ignores the reality of Japan’s unconditional surrender and the pressures from Washington to swing Hirohito from a rope.

Emperor presents the challenges of peace in a rather thoughtful manner. Frustratingly, for reasons of presumed convenience, screenwriters Vera Blasi and David Klass let claims of moral equivalency go unchallenged. Yes, America was in the Philippines long before the war, but what happened in Nanjing is an entirely different matter altogether. Watching Emperor one would conclude nothing of the sort had happened under the watch of Hirhito and Tōjō, which does an enormous disservice to history, ultimately cheapening the film. Decidedly mixed, Emperor earns moderate credit for telling the unacknowledged story of Fellers and nicely showcasing a future international star like Hatsune. It opens this Friday (3/8) in New York at the AMC Village 7 and the Brooklyn Heights Cinema.

LFM GRADE: C+/B-

Posted on March 4th, 2013 at 3:13pm.

By Joe Bendel. Is there anything more penny wise-pound foolish than stiffing your hitman? Sure, they can’t take you to court, but killing people for money is what they do. Nonetheless, a Kobe vice lord (don’t the words “Kobe” and “vice” naturally seem to go together?) does exactly that in Teruo Ishii’s Yellow Line, which also has its official New York premiere as part of the Japan Society’s 2013 Globus Film Series, Into the Shintoho Mind Warp: Girls, Guns & Ghosts.

Our nameless hired gun offs the new, incorruptible Kobe customs chief. The killer’s clients thought they were setting him up to take the fall, but merely calling the cops while he is at the scene will not nearly be sufficient. Suddenly needing to leave Tokyo in a hurry, the unnamed man forces his company on Emi Kozuki, a rather high maintenance dancer, who just so happens to be traveling to Kobe for a dubious gig. Hiding out in Kobe’s “Casbah” red light district with his pouting hostage, the hitman starts tracking his double-crossers while Kozuki’s journalist boyfriend pursues them both.

There are so many coincidences, near misses, and chance encounters in Yellow, one half expects to see the Marx Brothers spring out of a closet at any time. That is just how this movie rolls. Indeed, the lurid atmosphere and crazy plot contrivances are a heck of a lot of fun. Still, despite the absence of nudity and relative paucity of blood, Yellow is pretty forthright in its depiction of sex slavery and drug abuse, especially by the standards of 1960.

Shintoho regular Shigeru Amachi is all kinds of awesome as the hitman. Hardnosed in a way that would make Nouvelle Vague auteurs ecstatic, audiences will whole-heartedly root for him, regardless of his amoral code of conduct. As Kozuki, Yôko Mihara is a bit of a pill, but she can definitely shake it on the dance floor, fulfilling the requirements of any good exploitation film. Throughout the Casbah, they are surrounded by a wildly cinematic Rogues Gallery of supporting characters, even including an American in a ragingly politically incorrect role, appearing in blackface as the exotic dancer dubbed “The Moor.”

Frankly, you had better see Yellow Line while you can, because it will be way too hot for most programmers to handle. This is a great, greasy crime drama that delivers satisfaction in spades. Highly recommended for fans of film noir and Japanese cinema, Yellow Line concludes Into the Shintoho Mind Warp next Sunday afternoon (3/10) at the Japan Society. The entire series then continues on a three city tour, spreading joy to Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Vancouver.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on March 4th, 2013 at 3:12pm.

By Joe Bendel. Growing up in a small country divided between French and Flemish speakers in the shadow of the ever arrogant France must make developing a Belgian identity tricky under any circumstances.  For a Korean adoptee like Jung, the coming-of-age process is profoundly more complicated.  Jung (as the artist simply bills himself) adapts his own graphic novel-memoir, incorporating footage of his emotionally ambiguous return to Korea in Approved for Adoption (see clip above), a multi-hyphenated animated genre-hybrid, which screens during the 2013 New York International Children’s Film Festival.

Jung never knew his birth parents.  He was discovered by a policeman on the streets of Seoul, presumably abandoned.  It was a common fate for children after the Korean War.  Through the Holt international adoption agency, Jung is placed with a Belgian family.  As he matures, Jung mostly gets along with his four Belgian brothers and sisters, especially his sister and closest confidant, Coralie.  However, his relationship with is mother is a different story.  Frankly, most children would have issues with his severe mother, but his are exacerbated by behavioral problems at school and lingering doubts about his place in the family.

Although Jung is a very humane and forgiving film, it is probably the most mature selection of this year’s NYICFF.  There is even brief animated nudity (breasts clearly discernible beyond mere anime fan service).  It also forthrightly addresses Jung’s family drama and eventual tragedy, which might be troubling for younger viewers.  Yet, for adoptee children, it could be quite consoling—even cathartic.

Approved is visually elegant, rendering its expressive characters in 3D animation, against 2D backdrops, with Jung’s original sketches and Korean video integrated throughout.  Young Jung often tries viewer patience as much as his parents’ but at least we can understand where it is coming from.  Indeed, it is easy to understand how art has served as therapy for him.

To his credit, Jung is unflaggingly honest, never dodging significant episodes that might cast him in an unsympathetic light.  The results are revealing and sometimes beautiful.  Recommended for fully informed families who think their children will find it rewarding, Approved for Adoption screens this Sunday (3/10) at the Alliance Française as part of the 2013 NYICFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on March 4th, 2013 at 3:05pm.