Meiko Kaji Film Festival in Shin Bungeiza
Though I could only drop by for 1½ days, I had a change to view Jailhouse 41, Beast Stable and Grudge Song in 35mm in Tokyo last weekend and see Meiko Kaji live as well.
First of all, the films.
Jailhouse 41 is simply one of the finest films ever made. The original movie was a bit of a salad bowl with exploitation and politics, art and entertainment, but in Jailhouse 41 the vision is much more focused with the movie playing out as a mesmerizing anti-patriarchal odyssey.
Beast Stable in turn is an amazingly well handled and atmospheric character study about two women, one of whom accepts her fate and the other one who hasn't found her identity yet. An under-rate near masterpiece.
Grudge Song is where it all goes wrong. It works as a 70s outlaw crime film for the first 45 minutes, but is inconsistent with the earlier films and once the prison stuff begins, it simply becomes a pale shadow of its predecessors.
Then, the prints
Unfortunately the 35mm prints were in pretty bad shape. A quick overview below:
Jailhouse 41: beaten but alright, colours leaning slightly towards pink(ish). Similar look to Toei/Discotek DVD except with the correct framing (like Studio Canal/Pathe DVDs) and inferior colors. No sign of blue/teal whatsoever. No contrast issues that plague Arrow (the harakiri scene shows all the detail missing from Arrow BD).
Beast Stable: slightly worse than Jailhouse 41, a beaten print missing some frames. Slight brownish/pinkish tint but entirely watchable. No sign of blue/teal whatsoever. No contrast issues that plague Arrow (Watanabe looking through the manhole cover clearly shows her red dress). Similar look to Toei/Media Blasters DVDs but inferior colours.
Grudge Song: the weakest print, faded with colours leaning towards brown/pink(ish). No sign of blue/teal whatsoever. No high contrast issues that plague Arrow. Similar look to Toei/Media Blasters DVD.
Even with beaten prints it was still amazing to see these in 35mm, obviously each print was heaps better than the Arrow BDs. Still, it's a shame Toei hasn't made / discovered new prints as these are clearly below par compared to most 60s and 70s films screening in Tokyo. It doesn't make sense Sasori has to suffer these kind of prints when Toei is releasing / discovering pristine 35mm prints of obscure Sharon Kelly films like
Shikijô Toruko nikki...
Kaji
Also, it was cool seeing Kaji live. She was very energetic, speaking 45 minutes nonstop without an interviewer. She spoke about her career and cinema in general, new and old. She recalled her meeting with Tarantino where she managed to silence the motor mouth by saying, after QT had mentioned he spends about two weeks with the crew going through the script, that
"that's all we took making the entire movies". Hah! She also recalled asking Takuzo Kawatani if he'd like to be an actor again in his next life, to which Kawatani replied
"Hell no! I'd be a director and make Kinji Fukasaku act like a slave in my movies"! Apparently no one ever survived a Fukasaku collaboration without stomach problems...
Also, she compared to modern and 70s filmmaking by noting that while nowadays they shoot 10-20 takes, back then they'd shoot usually one take only, even if it wasn't perfect. That actually helped the cast keep their performance consistent since they knew which shot would be used in the final film, she said. She also mentioned recently she passed a role in a film by an internationally acclaimed Japanese director whose films have screened in Venice. She didn't name the director. Oh, and she did not really talk about Sasori. It seems she's not too keen on talking about those 70s action and exploitation films. That being said, she's not keen on modern Japanese cinema either. Actually, I think she doesn't seem so keen on cinema in general! She actually mentioned she never really planned a career in movies... in the 60s she was always thinking that
"a few more days and then I'll quit".
As for photos, I have to attach a shot from the Japanese website
natalie.mu since photography was forbidden except from members of press. That kind of sucked. I also wish Kaji had spoken abot her 70s work in more detail... It was great seeing her live /and I'm sad I can't attend her concert this week) and all, but as far as live appearances go I prefer actresses like Yumiko Katayama (whom I saw at a Teruo Ishii retro last year) who are easier to approach, don't mind being photographed (and why would she, she looks beautiful at her mid 60s) and share juicy stories from exploitation film sets.
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https://natalie.mu/eiga/news/286998