Kyoto, My Mother's Place

Nagisa Oshima: Kyoto, My Mother's Place (GB/JP 1991). [The Japanese title is a transcription of the English original].

The Director's Place: Kyoto, My Mother's Place.

GB/JP © 1991 BBC Scotland. D+SC+ Presenter: Nagisa Oshima. DP: Yasuhiro Yoshioka – shot on film – Eastman Kodak. LOC: Kyoto. A documentary film. Format: video. Original in English: Oshima speaks in English, and the interview parts have English subtitles. 50 min. Viewing format: Betacam SP. Viewed at Finnish Film Archive Orion: Nagisa Oshima retrospective, Helsinki, 29 Aug 2009.

An affectionate portrait of Nagisa Oshima's mother – she loved flowers in her garden – interviews with two of her childhood friends – Kyoto was traditional, the dress was the kimono – the wife's place was tough and hard – Kyoto was hot in the summer and cold in the winter – her fingers hurt with frostbite – serious, frank, tenacious – the woman's place: impossible to do anything but marry – arranged marriage – I was born in Kyoto, the family moved, but then the father died, the family returned to Kyoto – the history of Kyoto, the capital of Japan until 1868 – a city like a castle, strictly North-South = Up-Down - we lived South – Genji monogatari – Kyoto became the city of commerce – people believed in the spirits of the dead – I was the bespectacled schoolboy in an age which admired physical strength – I was crazy about history – Oshima was a long established samurai warrior family – Genji and Heike the samurai clans – the double power of the Emperor and the Shogun – slowly Kyoto changed into the capital of commerce and manufacture – during wartime, there was no big bombing of Kyoto – we were shocked by the defeat – the shortage of food was very serious – mother had to sell her kimonos for rice – calligraphy – KANNI = PATIENCE – Shingaku philosophy of the heart: don't gossip, don't meddle, careful with fire, patient with everything, clean up carefully – I could not be patient – student movement, student theatre: I was a clumsy actor, and not a promising director – 1954: assistant director at Shochiku Ofuna studios, expelled – Chiomi – graveyeard, husband's family, Japanese cemeteries different from the Western ones, paradise is far away in the West – my mother was not an original Kyoto woman, she was different, a stranger, but she looked like a born Kyoto woman – she kept to that way all her life – when I became a film director in 1959, married an actress and our first son was born I invited my mother to live with us – she devoted the rest of her life to our two sons – she said that she was deceived to become a nursemaid – there was a terrible truth in that joke – only once she left our home, but she returned on the same day, and my wife apologized – she was always cheerful, always with a sense of humour, always joking, never stopped smiling – never free – forced by Kyoto – Kyoto had such power – I hated Kyoto – but my life, my work, my kimono are from Kyoto

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SUOMEN ELOKUVA-ARKISTO

FINLANDS FILMARKIV

PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON JAMES QUANDT

Kyoto, My Mother's Place

Iso-Britannia / Japani 1991. Tuotantoyhtiö: BBC Scotland. Ohjaus, käsikirjoitus, esiintyjä: Nagisa Oshima. Kuvauspaikka: Kioto. Dokumenttielokuva. Formaatti: video. Englanninkielinen. 50 min

    Arkiston ensiesitys Helsingissä: Orion 29.8.2009 – Betacam SP, englanninkielinen

    

Kyoto, My Mother's Place, viehättävä ja paljastava muotokuva paikkakunnasta, kasvaa ohjaajansa omakuvaksi. Elokuvan tilasi BBC Scotland, ja se on Martin Scorsesen valinta "kätketyksi aarteeksi" Nagisa Oshiman uralla.

    

Oshima aloittaa äidistään. Hän näyttää kuvia tästä ja haastattelee äitinsä ystäviä kuvatakseen aikakautta, jolloin hän eli. "Yksin elävä nainen, muukalainen, saapuu Kiotoon. 'Hänen on toteltava niitä joilla on valtaa, huolehdittava naapureista, vältettävä ristiriitoja, sisustettava kauniisti, vältettävä sytyttämästä tulta ja kestettävä kaikenlaisia koettelemuksia'. Kiotosta kasvaa kokonaiskuva, ja Oshiman viha-rakkaussuhde Japanin entiseen pääkaupunkiin nousee esiin. Toisin kuin Oshiman aikaisemmat dokumenttielokuvat politiikasta ja yhteiskunnasta Kyoto, My Mother's Place on hyvin henkilökohtainen elokuva Oshiman äidistä, tämän nuoruudesta Kiotossa ja Oshimasta itsestään" (Yamagata Documentary Film Festival).

– James Quandtin mukaan ("In the Realm of Oshima", Cinematheque Ontario, ohjelmalehti 17.10.2008) AA 29.8.2009