Thursday, October 29, 1998
UCLA Archive celebrates life, creative work of director
FILM: Å’Inferno of Susumu Hani’ shows independent movies by
Japanese artist
By Ricky Herzog
Daily Bruin Contributor
Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, independent films are all the rage
in theaters across the country, but the genre was born far earlier
than Uma Thurman’s sleek black bob in "Pulp Fiction". Japanese
genius Susumu Hani is considered one of the forerunners of this
edgier, ground breaking, lower-budget cinema.
Thursday through Nov. 1, the UCLA Film and Television Archive
presents "The Inferno of Susumu Hani," a series of the acclaimed
director’s documentaries and feature films.
Born in Tokyo, Hani started out as a still photographer then
moved to documentaries and, in 1961, made his first feature film
"Bad Boys". Throughout his distinguished career, Hani has received
prizes from the Venice, Cannes and Moscow film festivals.
Hani’s unique style is deeply rooted in his beginnings as a
still photographer, and he is experienced in using hand-held
equipment to understand different photographic techniques.
"I work with many still photographers  learning lenses and
exposure techniques," Hani said in a 1969 interview with "Film
Comment". "And I think this is lacking in commercial film studios.
Commercial studios and old master directors never pay attention to
the photo techniques. Most of the time they completely lack
interest in the photography."
Hani’s style contrasts sharply with the more sleek productions
put out under the studio system. His films have different focuses
than Hollywood’s mainstream counterparts.
"His films aren’t like the typical studio film where you shoot
on a set," said David Pendleton, programming coordinator of the
UCLA Film and Television Archive.
"It didn’t have the typical concerns of a big-budget production
because it wasn’t a period piece or a genre film. He was interested
in using documentary techniques to tell a story that would have a
direct relevance to life as it was being lived at the time."
Hani’s history in documentaries molded the way he directs his
feature films. He got his start in documentaries when the Japanese
educational ministry commissioned Hani to direct a short film about
disorderly children in school which would be screened for
inexperienced teachers to show potential problems they might face.
But Hani brought his own set of ideas to the project.
"I rejected their story and their plan to use child actors or
child actresses because I was also one of the troubled children,"
said Hani in "Film Comment". "Many times I escaped from schools. Of
course I was a stutterer, and I had a problem of expression by
language, and when I entered the test for primary school I was
completely disturbed by teachers and teachers were completely
disturbed by me, and so they said Å’We will not let you in
school.’ I was six."
These traumatic experiences of his childhood allowed him to
identify with the youth he worked with in his documentaries and
features. He understood that anyone could draw upon their own
emotional experiences in order to turn in a realistic performance;
for this reason he opted not to work with actors  a move
which furthered the documentary-like feel of his fictional
films.
"In Japanese cinema he is kind of a missing link between some of
the better-known Japanese filmmakers and the more radical new wave
filmmakers," Pendleton said. "He worked outside of the studio
system with non-professional actors  people who had never
acted before. He used documentary training to be able to get them
to reenact things that had happened to them or were similar to
things that had happened to them."
One film in which Hani employs this pseudo-documentary style is
"Bad Boys" (playing in the Archive series today). The film, a story
about delinquent youths in reform school, uses boys who had
actually served time at the reform school and who recreated their
experiences in a fictional film. Various logistical difficulties
prompted Hani to use a more unscripted method of filmmaking.
"When it was time to rehearse, it was hard to bring everyone
together," said Hani in "Film Comment". "Some of them had no house,
no telephone. I had to find them in the shops. So I gave them the
printed manuscript, and the next day we gathered in a small room,
and I hoped to start with reading the script.
"I found that half of the boys have not their script. Some said
they don’t know where it is and some said more simply, Å’I lost
it.’ So I understand: they are almost all very uneducated, so they
dislike to read any kind of characters. So I changed my
method."
The result is a realistic and intense look at their lives. With
films like these, Hani was an important figure in the new wave of
Japanese cinema and in the origins of independent films around the
world.
"I think it’s important that people realize that independent
filmmakers have existed in all periods," Pendleton said.
"It’s not just an ’80s and ’90s phenomenon, and it’s not just an
American phenomenon. If people are hungry to see films that don’t
rely on special effects or that don’t rely on huge mega-movie
stars, they might be interested in seeing Hani’s films."
FILM: General admission is $6 and $4 for students and seniors.
Showing Thursday at 7:30 p.m.: "Bad Boys", "Children Hand in Hand"
and "Children in the Classroom". Showing Sunday at 7 p.m.: "The
Inferno of First Love", "She and He" and "Children Who Draw."
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