Just a quick post to draw your attention on a significant book that the London-based Hurst will publish next September. The volume is titled Dissenting Japan – A History of Japanese Radicalism and Countercultureand is written by the Tokyo-based writer and translator William Andrews, who by the way runs an excellent blog on the same topic here.
Here’s the description from the publisher’s homepage:
Following the March 2011 Tsunami and Fukushima nuclear crisis, the media remarked with surprise on how thousands of demonstrators had flocked to the streets of Tokyo. But mass protest movements are nothing new in Japan. The post-war period experienced years of unrest and violence on both sides of the political spectrum: from demos to riots, strikes, campus occupations, factional infighting, assassinations and even international terrorism.
This is the first comprehensive history in English of political radicalism and counterculture in Japan, as well as of the artistic developments during this turbulent time. It chronicles the major events and movements from 1945 to the new flowering of protests and civil dissent in the wake of Fukushima. Introducing readers to often ignored aspects of Japanese society, it explores the fascinating ideologies and personalities on the Right and the Left, including the student movement, militant groups and communes. While some elements parallel developments in Europe and America, much of Japan’s radical recent past (and present) is unique and offers valuable lessons for understanding the context to the new waves of anti-government protests the nation is currently witnessing.
Who’s is familiar with documentary cinema (and cinema in general) knows very well that radicalism, dissenting, resistance and counterculture are a very important part of the vocabulary that defines the post war Japanese non-fiction landscape, and the fiction as well, especially during the 60s and 70s. Ogawa Production and Sanrizuka, Tsuchimoto Noriaki and Minamata, NDU and Okinawa and the borders, but also Kamei Fumio and his Sunagawa Trilogy, maybe the first Japanese works to fully embody this “philosophy” of resistance and struggle on film (excluding the Prokino before the war of course).
For all these reasons, Dissenting Japan will probably be (I haven’t read it yet) a very important read not only for historians but also for film scholars interested in Japanese cinema and in documentary in general. I’ll certainly write more about it when the book is out.
Disclaimer: as I wrote few days back on twitter, I’ll kick off 2015 with a little experiment. I’ve translated (and partly rewritten) in English my post on Minamata: The Victims and their World. As English is my second language, inevitably some subtleties and nuances of the original Italian piece are probably lost. Feedback and/or suggestions are welcome.
Minamata: The Victims and Their World (水俣 患者さんとその世界, 1971)
Director: Tsuchimoto Noriaki
Production: Higashi Productions
Producer: Takagi Ryutarō
Camera: Ōtsu Kōshirō
Editor: Tsuchimoto Noriaki, Sekizawa Takako
Year: 1971
Links: review by Cathy Munroe Hotes, DVD by Zakka Films
Tsuchimoto Noriaki is one of the major figures in Japanese documentary history, and although he also made works about Afghanistan, road construction and other diverse topics, he is best known for the series made in more than 30 years about the victims of Minamata disease. Tsuchimoto first came into contact with the reality of Minamata, a city located in Kumamoto prefecture, in 1965 when he was commissioned to make a short documentary for television, Minamata no kodomo wa ikiteiru. After this experience, when approaching the victims was not as easy as one might expect, he went back to Minamata in 1970 and started to film the lives of the residents in a different manner and to uncover a Pandora’s box of horrors. Minamata had been the scene of one of the largest poisonings perpetrated by man to himself and to the environment, and the city’s name will remain forever linked to the chemical company Chisso, which from 1932 to 1968 polluted the Shiranui Sea and the Minamata Bay with huge quantities of mercury. The metal entered the food chain and caused what is now called Minamata disease (Minamata-byō), a neurological syndrome that was first discovered in 1956. Over the years, the disease has affected more than ten thousand people and killed more than two thousand, but these are just the officially recognized, numbers; the damages and effects of this crime sadly are not always quantifiable or legally provable, and there have been accusations of collusion between the Japanese government and the Chisso corporation to cover up the disaster.
Structurally Minamata: The Victims and Their World consists of a series of interviews, conducted by Tsuchimoto himself, with the victims and relatives of those who had been affected by the disease. These interviews reveal the daily lives of the inhabitants damaged by the poisoning: their relationship with the sea, the sickness and the painful memory of the deceased. The interview scenes are interspersed with moments in the lives of fishermen, their habits and traditions, and meetings and rallies in the streets to protest Chisso and the government. It is worth pointing out that the crime perpetrated by Chisso is something inherent in the capitalist system, a tragic result of the dynamics of exploitation of poor and marginal areas and not merely an incident in the course of normal industrial activities.
As a documentary director, Tsuchimoto had to face two big problems, (re)gaining the trust of the people whose lives and tragedies were often spectacularized and exploited by the media, as he experienced firsthand when making the aforementioned TV documentary, and secondly deconstructing the contrasting feelings of hate and gratitude towards Chisso that were present in many residents, even unconsciously. Tsuchimoto was well aware of all these contradictions, and one of his major achievements was his ability to achieve a balance between the anger with which he was unmasking the dark side of modernization in Minamata, and the human touch with which he always managed to present the victims and give them dignity.
We are introduced to the world of Minamata by a series of information about the poisoning and the Chisso corporation, displayed at the beginning of the documentary. These words substitute for the initial narration, the voice-of-god so often used in mainstream documentaries, and are soon followed by the first images of the area, the lapping of the water and a fishing boat in the sea. This is a highly symbolic start, as the water that dispenses life to the fishing community and upon which the community’s life is based, is the same water that, polluted by mercury, destroys their lives. The lack of sync between the image and the sound, due to the lack of the right technology, was very common in Japanese independent documentary of the time; most of Ogawa Pro’s works of the Sanrizuka period, for instance, were affected by the same “problem”. This technical limitation forced directors, including Tsuchimoto, to combine images and sound in highly creative ways. The words and cries of the victims and of their families are often overlapped with images showing the tragic effects of mercury poisoning upon the residents of Minamata, in the fishing scenes that often punctuate the documentary, a beautiful and almost ancient music contributes to creating an epic atmosphere that envelops the lives of these fishing communities, the most impressive and famous of these shots depict an elderly man, who has lost his wife because of the disease, fishing for octopi.
As a viewer watching the movie at the beginning of the 21st century, it is also worth noting that the images in black and white and the aforementioned lack of sync, pose as a further filter for the viewer, allowing Tsuchimoto to successfully avoid spectacularization of grief and the subsequent exploitation of the lives of the victims. We still see sick people and children whose lives were completely ruined, particularly touching is when in a series of harrowing scenes we are introduced to a young boy, who is drooling, staggering, and unable to move and speak freely. But the way the camera follows him and presents his and his family’s grief, is a form of respect that reveals his dignity as a human being. This attention towards the weak and the other is one of the highest achievements of Tsuchimoto’s body of work, it is a cinematic touch that serves also as a very powerful ethical statement on the meaning of being human, an approach that will reach a new level and culmination in The Shiranui Sea (1975), another documentary dedicated to the victims of Minamata.
In the second part of the documentary, we follow the journey of the victims and their families to Osaka, where the Chisso biannual shareholders meeting took place in 1970. This trip to the second largest city in Japan is also important because Osaka is the place that in the same year (1970) housed the International Exposition. Together with the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, this international event helped to reposition Japan in the international political map and in doing so marked the complete admission of Japan to modernity and the Western world. Exposing the dark side of modernization, Tsuchimoto is thus making a very powerful political statement about the development of Japanese society and modern societies in general, revealing the unavoidable part maudite.
The meeting between the leaders of Chisso corporation and the Minamata representatives almost resulted in a riot, with a sort of guerilla filmmaking reminiscent of the cacophony of Sanrizuka and the student protests, Tsuchimoto and director of photography Ōtsu Kōshirō show us the people of Minamata invading the stage and surrounding the CEO and his staff as if symbolically destroying the verticality between the zaibatsu and the people. Again here, as in the Sanrizuka documentaries of Ogawa Pro of the same time, the soul of the protest was feminine, and the ones who verbally confronted the Chisso CEO more than anyone else were in fact women and mothers driven by rage and grief.
The opportunities to see Japanese documentaries outside of the archipelago are really few, and usually restricted to film festivals, especially when these works were shot in 16mm or 35mm. It is thus noteworthy that Minamata: The Victims and Their World, together with The Shiranui Sea and other Tsuchimoto’s works, is available on DVD with English subtitles through the dedicated work of independent label Zakka Films.
(Special thanks to Ono Seiko and Tsuchimoto Motoko)
Regia: Tsuchimoto Noriaki. Fotografia: Otsu Koshiro. Produzione: Higashi Production. Produttore: Takagi Ryutaro.
Durata: 120’. Anno: 1971.
Reperibilità: DVD Zakka Films
Tsuchimoto Noriaki entra in contatto per la prima volta con la realtà di Minamata nel 1965 quando realizza un documentario per la televisione, Minamata no kodomo wa ikiteiru, ed inizia a calarsi in quella che nel corso degli anni sarebbe diventata l’avventura della sua vita, non solo artisticamente parlando. Tsuchimoto nato nella prefettura montuosa di Gifu, nel 1970 ritorna nell’isola meridionale di Kyushu per scoperchiare quella scatola degli orrori, ed è l’orrore del sistema non quello dell’incidente di percorso, che è stata e continua ad essere, per quanto gli stessi abitanti del luogo vogliano dimenticare, la città di Minamata. Luogo e teatro di uno dei più grandi avvelenamenti perpetrati dall’uomo verso sé stesso e l’ambiente, il nome della città rimarrà per sempre legato all’industria chimica di Chisso che dal 1932 al 1968 riversa nel mare, come materiale di scarto, quantità enormi di mercurio. Il metallo entra nella catena alimentare e finisce per causare la cosiddetta malattia di Minamata (Minamata-byō) che nel corso degli anni colpisce più di diecimila persone uccidendone quasi duemila, ma questi sono solo numeri di superficie, i danni e gli effetti di questa tragedia non sono sempre quantificabili e legalmente dimostrabili ed è questa un’ulteriore tragedia che lascia coloro che ne sono colpiti ancora più umiliati.
Fin dapprincipio però Tsuchimoto si accorge come molte delle famiglie rifiutano di lasciarsi filmare dopo che i media, già all’epoca, avevano sfruttato la tragedia ed il dolore delle persone per creare spettacolo. In più, in molti abitanti dell’area colpita era presente un contrastante sentimento di odio e gratitudine verso la Chisso che grazie al complesso industriale costruito nelle zone aveva sollevato, almeno secondo alcuni, dalla povertà la popolazione locale. Conscio di tutte queste condraddizioni Tsuchimoto riesce a realizzare un vero e proprio capolavoro di equilibri, da una parte la rabbia con cui smaschera i processi con cui la modernità si evolve nell’arcipelago giapponese e nel particolare nella zona di Minamata schiacciando i ceti inferiori, dall’altra l’umanesimo con cui riesce sempre a presentare le vittime e a dare loro dignità.
Il film inizia con lo sciabordio dell’acqua e una barca di pescatori da sola in mezzo al mare, l’acqua che dà la vita alla comunità dei pescatori ma che allo stesso tempo, inquinata dal mercurio, le vite le distrugge. Il bianco e nero nelle scene, liriche, tramuta il blu del mare nell’argento del mercurio portatore di morte. Il fuori sincrono delle interviste (dovuto probabilmente alle limitazioni tecniche) costringe Tsuchimoto ad inventarsi un montaggio di immagini che scorrano sulle parole, pianti e grida delle vittime e dei loro familiari. La bellissima musica poi in alcune scene contribuisce a creare quell’epopea della vita dei pescatori e della loro comunità, per esempio nelle scene di pesca del polpo da parte di un anziano pescatore che ha perso la moglie a causa della malattia.
Le foto dei deceduti, bambini di meno di cinque anni e di una ragazza nel fiore dei suoi anni scorrono con il sonoro delle parole delle loro famiglie, sono immagini che muovono lo spettatore, molto forti ma allo stesso tempo molto empatiche, la bravura di Tsuchimoto e del direttore della fotografia Otsu Koshiro sta proprio nel rispetto verso il soggetto filmato, le immagini in bianco e nero pongono poi un certo filtro verso lo spettatore e non si soffermano mai con morbosa volontà su coloro che parlano, evitano di usare il dolore cioè come eccitante per coloro che guardano. Si vedono comunque dei bambini e un giovane ragazzo malati e sono scene strazianti, la bava, i movimenti spastici, l’autosufficienza negata e la difficoltà di comunicare, ma la mdp li segue con leggerezza e rivelando sì il loro dolore e quello dei familiari, ma rispettandoli e rivelando la loro dignità di esseri umani. Sono proprio questo equilibrio e questa cura ed attenzione verso il debole ed il diverso alcuni dei più alti conseguimenti del cinema di Tsuchimoto e che raggiungeranno forse il loro coronamento in The Shiranui Sea (1975), sempre dedicato alle vittime di Minamata.
Strutturalmente il lavoro è composto da interviste alle vittime, ai genitori ed ai parenti di coloro che sono stati colpiti dalla malattia che raccontano la loro vita di ogni giorno, una quotidianità che gira attorno al mare ed il doloroso ricordo dello scomparso. A queste scene sono intervallate altre di vita nel mare dei pescatori, le loro abitudini e tradizioni, e scene di riunioni e comizi in piazza per protestare contro la Chisso e lo stato che ha aiutato a coprire il crimine perpetrato. Nella seconda parte del documentario vediamo il viaggio delle vittime e dei loro familiari verso Osaka ed è importante perchè la processione per le strade della città è diretta verso l’ufficio centrale della Chisso ma anche perchè Osaka è la città che ospita nello stesso anno, il 1970, l’Expo, evento che assieme alle Olimpiadi di Tokyo del 1964 sancirà la definitiva apertura del Giappone al mondo dopo la sconfitta bellica e l’accettazione del paese asiatico nella modernità occidentale. L’incontro fra i vertici della Chisso e la rappresentanza di Minamata sfocia in cacofonia e quasi in una rivolta, persone invadono il palco accerchiando il presidente ed il suo staff quasi a voler distruggere quella verticalità fra saibatsu e popolo sfruttato che ha contraddistinto la tragedia. Ancora una volta qui, come nei documentari coevi di Sanrizuka della Ogawa Pro, l’anima della protesta è femminile con le donne e le madri che nel dolore immenso per una vita distrutta aggrediscono verbalmente il presidente della Chisso. Il film si conclude con le immagini di pesca e col sottofondo musicale dei canti tradizionali di Minamata cantati dalle vittime e da tutte le persone del villaggio. Inizia con questo film come si diceva più sopra una vera e propria missione per Tsuchimoto che nell’arco di tutta una vita fino alla morte avvenuta nel 2008 dedicherà alle vittime di Minamata ben 14 documentari.
In un panorama internazionale in cui i documentari provenienti dall’arcipelago giapponese reperibili sono davvero pochissimi, è un fatto non secondario che il film, assieme anche al già citato The Shiranui Sea, sia disponibile in DVD con sottotitoli in inglese presso Zakka Films.
(Un grazie di cuore a\Special thanks to Ono Seiko and Tsuchimoto Motoko)
Asian Docs 
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