Women Directors Today Their Contributions in Japanese Films

Women Directors Today  Their Contributions in Japanese Films

Reiko Kishino

The fact that there have been very few women directors in Japan is due to Japan's major film companies hiring only men as assistant directors. Since assistant directors are most likely to become directors in the future, this employment practice has resulted in a small number of women directing films. The door into the world of directing has not been open for women.

In 1986 the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was enacted, which no longer allowed gender discrimination in employment legally. However, the film industry had started to decline. Not only did the industry stop hiring assistant directors, studios also had to face downsizing, selling off assets, and even closing down. The door almost closed for all future directors. The typical ladder from assistant director to director became difficult even for men.

After the 1980s, independent films became a common way to try to become a film director for both men and women. In other words, the time had come that anyone could become a film director.

I'd like to introduce the following directors not because they are women but because they are representatives of the Japanese film world."Family" and "Motherhood" - Feature Films with a Unique Point of View

 Miwa Nishikawa, born in 1974, had her directorial debut in 2002 (shown in 2003) with "Hebiichigo (Wild berries)." This cynical black comedy is about the breakdown of a family that revolves around a lazy brother and a methodical sister. Her script, based on her own family, caught the attention of Hirokazu Koreeda. Koreeda was the director for the film "Daremo Shiranai  Nobody Knows)," and offered to produce Nishikawa's film. It was a fortunate break for Nishikawa. Her work was original and received good reviews. She directed "Megamino Kakato (Heels of the Muse)" which appeared in the omnibus film "Female" (all the stories written and most of the directing done by women) as one of the six directors. After that, she scripted and released "Yureru (Sway)" in 2006. Although her original story revolved around a brother and a sister, "Yureru" is about conflict between two brothers. The older brother, who lives a simple life in their hometown, and his younger brother, who has a luxurious life in the city, meet for the first anniversary of their mother's death. This reunion reveals a hidden love-hate relationship between the brothers. It's a psychological mystery that involves the suspicious death of the brothers' childhood girl friend. Nishikawa's exciting way of developing the story glues the audience to the screen.

Miako Tadano, born in 1973, is a unique actor. Her directorial debut came with "Sannen Migomoru (Three Year Delivery)" (2005), a quite surprising film.(http://threeyeardelivery.com/)

The film revolves around a woman in the last month of pregnancy but not showing any signs of delivery. This unusual film shows the woman eventually becoming 27 months pregnant and her baby continuing to grow in her womb until it's a year and a half old. The baby does not want to come out into the world. Tadano says conclusions are not always easy to draw. In her own humorous way, she portrays the vague anxiety of modern Japanese young people who have physical satisfaction without having any spiritual satisfaction. By using delicious looking food and a number of natural-style maternity dresses, the producer Keiko Kusakabe and the director Miako Tadano showed details that have been scarcely touched on in many Japanese films. This film demonstrates that the particular tastes that women have can be used effectively to describe such details.

Documentary Writers Spread Their Wings in Japan and Overseas

Mizue Furui, born in 1948, is a journalist. She started reporting on the Palestinians in Israelicontrolled areas in 1988. She has also visited and documented women in Islamic countries such as Indonesia and Afghanistan. Furui had her feature documentary debut with "Ghada - Poem of Palestine" (2005). The film captures the daily life and the views of Islamic women through a Palestinian woman named Ghada, whom Furui had been filming since 1988.

Furui began suffering from mysterious joint rheumatism at the age of 37 and has difficulty walking well. She says the experience has given her an opportunity to reevaluate her life; she chose her career as a journalist as a way to express "living" through her documentary efforts. Through meeting Furui, Ghada, the subject of this film, also has shifted her career from being an interpreter to documenting the voice of Palestinian women. Her grandmother, whose generation was forced out of their homes by Israel, sings many folk songs describing how marriage doesn't make women happy. Attempting to escape from old tradition, Ghada made her own choice in marriage, but still sees women following their parents' decision on whom they should marry.

The collaboration between Furui and Ghada developed the film from a simple depiction of the personal life of Islamic women into an overview of women's situation in Muslim society. At the same time, in her film men also expressed their true colors.This is just a simple case of a film that enjoys the benefit of a woman director.

Kaori Sakagami was born in 1965 and, like Furui, is also a video journalist. In 1995 she visited Amity, a rehabilitation facility for criminals in the U.S., for a TV report. 10 years later her experience led her to make the feature documentary film "Lifers." A lifer is someone who is sentenced to life imprisonment. Her filmed interviews with prisoners, done inside the prison, are profound. The prisoners participate in different programs that are designed to prevent them from committing crimes back in society. The film shows the parole board discussing the inmate's case. When prisoners are denied parole, the reasons are explained to them. The film also shows how prisoners who are released back into society are helping to prevent crime. Sakagami's film raises the question why Japan doesn't have such programs.

(http://www.cain-j.org/Lifers/index_J.html)

Hitomi Kamanaka, born in 1958, had her feature documentary film debut with "Hibakusha" (2002). (The word hibakusha is often used to refer to survivors of the atomic bombing.) The film explores how the world now views the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima after 57 years. Kamanaka visited Iraq in 1998 and met children suffering from leukemia that was caused by depleted uranium ammunition used during the Gulf War. Children were dying before her eyes due to a lack of proper medical attention. Through that experience, Kamanaka went on a journey to listen to other hibakusha's voices. Kamanaka met Dr. Shuntaro Hida, an 85-year-old medical doctor, who himself is a victim of the Hiroshima bombing and speaks out on the importance of medical treatment and human rights for hibakusha. Kamanaka also visited the residents of Hanford in the U.S. who were exposed to contaminants from the plutonium production process for atomic bombs. Kamanaka explains that all nuclear victims are hibakusha.

I think there are two major reasons why many women like Furui, Sakagami, and Kamanaka are active in documentary film making; they can minimize the cost of film making by independently

producing films, and they are also able to gain a sense of fulfillment by using their own time and showing what they wish to express on film.

In conclusion, I'd like to mention the film "Dear Pyongyang" directed by Yonghi Yang. Yang is a second generation Korean who was born and raised in Osaka. After graduating from Korea University in Tokyo, she became a radiopersonality. Yang's film making career began in 1995. "Dear Pyongyang" portrays the feelings of Koreans living in Japan about their homeland being divided into a north and a south. She accomplishes this by showing her own family, and especially through conversations with her father. While loving her parents who are activists in the General Association of Korean Residents (supporting North Korea), Yang, as a second generation Korean, reveals that she has a difficult time viewing North Korea as her homeland. "I want you to hurry and get married to whoever you want, but not someone who is Japanese," her father says. Yang portrays her father in a humorous way that allows people to see Koreans in Japan trying their best to have honest lives under complicated circumstances; their lives are full of inconvenience and difficulty in Japanese society. Many of her neighbors came to see the presentation of "Dear Pyongyang" at the Dawn Center located in Osaka (Yang's hometown). I can still picture Ms. Yang asking the audience, "You can call me about my film, but please leave my parents alone." (

Using films as a means of expression, women have deliberately deviated from the methods and genres that male directors created and have constructed their own world. Women directors have made films beyond nationality and race. Their films are not limited to presenting Japanese society and its people. Being a woman by biological classification, is just one of their many characteristics but nothing more.

Source: dawncenter