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6 June , 2003
Finding Asian Culture at a Weekend of Films
Movies are the repositories of the passing whimsies of popular culture - fads such as disco are captured forever on celluloid. But they're also a reflection of ages-old, tradition and culture.
 The festival's evocative poster photograph was taken by Colorado artist Kimo Quaintance. |
In the decades to come, film fans may find a fascinating time capsule of contemporary Japan in the bucolic film "To Dance with the White Dog," one of two films about Japan that are being screened at the 6th Aurora Asian Film Festival, which runs June 5-8.
"To Dance with the White Dog" may already be familiar to many Americans as a best-selling novel by southern author Terry Kay, and a 1993 TV movie (and subsequent hit video) starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. A touching story about an elderly couple's love, the wife dies shortly after celebrating their 50th anniversary, and the couple's children become concerned when their father is convinced that a white dog that only he can apparently see is the spirit of his wife. Ironically, it was the real-life acting couple's final film together; Tandy died shortly after making the movie.
Kay's book was a huge hit when it was released in Japan, a country where the aging of the entire society and the care of the growing elderly population is an enormously important issue. In Japan, aging isn't just a family dynamic, it's a community concern. The story touches such a resonant chord with the Japanese that more than two million copies of the Japanese version of Kay's book have been published, and a children's book version of the story has also been produced. The novel even inspired a Japanese composer to write a piano piece in tribute.
 Takashi Tuskinoki waltzes with the mysterious white dog that appears after his wife's death. |
In director Takashi Tsukinoki's 2002 film, Tatsuya Nakadai (who played the title character in Kurosawa's late-career landmark 1980 film "Kagemusha") is the old man who becomes lost when his wife, played by Shiho Fujimura, suddenly dies. A tree farmer in the lush Japanese countryside, all we see of the character Eisuke Nakamoto's world is his home in the outskirts of a small town, the streets of the town itself, and lots of verdant countryside and forest-covered mountain scenery.
After his wife dies, Nakamoto sees a mysterious white dog around his home. His daughters try to help him go on with his life, but he becomes increasingly detached from them, and because the dog is never around when they show up, they fear their father has become delusional. The plot slowly takes shape as the film introduces the viewer to the tragedy of the death of Nakamoto's young son, and his need to reunite his wife's ashes with his son's grave.
The movie is slow in a typically Japanese-movie kind of way, but beautiful for its visual richness and touching for its vibrant narrative. Viewers in the future should be taken with the snapshot it gives of rural Japan in the early 21st century.
They'll also be presented with a subplot of racism within Japanese society, with the treatment of Koreans and sudden introduction of violence within the seemingly peaceful population. Early on we see one of the late Mitsue Nakamoto's best friends, a Korean woman who grew up in Japan who comes to the funeral in her han-bok, a traditional formal Korean dress, and stays afterwards to help the family. She owns a ramen shop in town with her son, who once worked with Nakamoto and his son. The son faces prejudice from Nakamoto himself, while the mother's ramen shop is harassed by racist thugs. It's a powerful subplot to the film.
| If Japanese only attend Japanese movies, the point of an Asian film festival would be missed. |
The other Japan-related film at the Aurora Asian Film Festival is "Sumo East and West," a documentary about sumo that focuses on what you might think would be the improbable popularity of the ancient Japanese sport in Hawai'i, and even the US.
The filmmakers, Ferne Pearlstein and Robert Edward, mostly follow a Hawaiian sumo wrestler, Wayne Vierra, who followed in the steps of other Hawaiians who went to Japan to compete in the tradition-rich sport. Despite his great potential, Vierra had to retire from the professional ranks because of an emergency appendectomy, which kept him out of competition too long.
In the documentary, he's rebuilding his sumo reputation among the amateur ranks, and helping to establish sumo in Hawai'i and the mainland. He's also shown traveling back to Japan for an amateur competition, speaking his flawless Japanese to a group of giggling schoolgirls before a match.
Pearlstein and Edward put a lot of history and context about sumo in their documentary, including interviews with other Hawaiian sumo stars including Akebono (Chad Rowan), Konishiki (Saleva'a Atisanoe), Musashimaru (Fiamalu Penitani) and Takamiyama (Jesse Kuhaulua). Some made it to the level of Yokozuna, or Grand Champion; Takamiyama didn't make the title but he competed in the highest division in the early 1960s, and helped to open up what had been a racially closed sport.
 Former professional sumo wrestler Wayne Vierra is interviewed after a victory in an amateur match. |
The filmmakers have approached this unusual sport as a cultural tradition - they clearly see sumo as a reflection of Japanese values, and as such it's well-captured for all time in "Sumo East and West."
Both these films will be shown on Sunday, June 8: "Sumo East and West" at 2:30 pm and "To Dance with the White Dog" at 4:30 pm, at the Aurora Fox Arts Center, 9900 E. Colfax Ave.
But if Japanese only attend Japanese movies, the point of an Asian film festival would be missed.
The weekend's 11 films offer a tour of Asian - and Asian American - culture that includes stops in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Philippines and Korea in addition to Japan.
The opening night film, "25 Kids and One Dad" (Thurs. June 5, 7 pm), a warm-hearted, award-winning Chinese film about a man's efforts to make his world a better place by becoming a father to 25 orphans, will be followed by a reception featuring Chinese entertainment and food. The movie and reception cost $30 and is a fundraiser for the Aurora Asian Pacific Community Partnership, the organization that sponsors the annual festival. Closing night's "Small Voices" (Sun. June 8, 6:30 pm) also comes with a reception ($20), and the director, Gil Portes, will be on hand to speak about the film, which is about a Filipino teacher's efforts to organize rural students to sing in a competition.
Although typically the Chinese attend only the Chinese movies, the Japanese theirs, the Vietnamese theirs, Filipinos theirs and so on, it's worth seeing more of the films than just the ones by your tribe - what audiences see is the richness and diversity of Asian culture, for today and the future.
For more information with a schedule and film descriptions, visit the Aurora Asian Pacific Community Partnership Web site or the Denver Film Society Web site.