Satoru YOSHIKAWA in Enlightenment In a panel on Pacific Islander filmmaking organized by the Hawai’i International Film Festival final yr, a Native Hawaiian producer famous that fellow creatives within the area have been “not divided by land, but connected by water”—a thought on the coronary heart of the brand new Cinema At Sea Okinawa Pan-Pacific International Film Festival in Naha. The southernmost and westernmost area of Japan, made up of a number of islands geographically nearer to Taipei than Tokyo, Okinawa could also be greatest identified traditionally as the positioning of a number of bloody battles throughout WWII, or colloquially because the “Hawaii of Japan,” a sun-kissed trip dreamland of azure waves and tropical magnificence. But, like Hawai’i, there’s a far deeper historical past and extra sophisticated actuality throughout the dream. A once-mighty impartial kingdom and indigenous tradition that linked historic Japanese, Chinese and Southeast Asian kingdoms collectively in commerce, now without delay a part of and other than Japan, but nonetheless residing amidst American army bases, Okinawa has a wealthy (and tragic) historical past that’s impressed numerous movies. As a web site for an bold new pageant hoping to forge hyperlinks throughout the East and South China Seas, and throughout the indigenous cultures of the Pacific, it’s actually an intriguing one.
With curators from mainland Japan, Taiwan and Okinawa, the pageant was anchored by works from these three areas, with the strongest titles drawing upon their inter-connected histories, in addition to movies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Hawai’i, the Cook Islands and New Zealand. Spotlights supplied an opportunity for audiences to expertise works from such less-heralded filmmaking areas as New Caledonia (within the “Islands in Focus” sidebar) or featured up-and-coming filmmakers, equivalent to Māori director Mike Jonathan, whose historic motion epic Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle with out End supplied a key anchor to the pageant.
While a number of festivals are actually specializing in indigenous (and particularly indigenous Pasifika) movies, equivalent to Hawai’i or MāoriLand, Cinema At Sea gives a novel likelihood to see these works juxtaposed in opposition to one other facet of the Pacific, and to expertise the movies and filmmakers in dialogue. “In the past, Okinawa was called ‘the gateway to Asia’ during the Ryukyu Dynasty,” shares Japanese actor Shogen, who was born and raised in Okinawa and served as a pageant ambassador. “It has a long history of interacting with countries in Asia and the Pacific ocean.” And certainly, by pageant’s finish, it wasn’t unusual to see a Cook Islands filmmaker deep in dialog with a New Zealand actor or Indonesian producer, or a Hawaiian director praising their indigenous Taiwanese and Okinawan counterparts, in scenes that delivered to life the organizers’ hopes of the pageant—and Okinawa—uniting areas.
Created by artist Yuki Yamada, the pageant’s visible artwork tied into this theme. Yamada’s work explores the boundaries between people and nature, and the poster artwork and key motifs, titled Awai/Awahi [Between], was designed to align with this yr’s pageant theme, “Border/less.” “We are entering an era where the borders that were once necessary for ‘dividing’ can evolve into Awai (a space in-between),” stated Yamada. “Observing how plants and animals move freely as if borders never existed, and learning from the boundless curiosity of children, I am reminded every day of the endless possibilities we can embrace.”
Some of the pageant’s main titles have been nearer to house, born out of the shared histories and tragedies of Okinawa, Taiwan and Japan. Opening the pageant was Sean Hao Hsiang Hu’s documentary Ocean Elegy: The Tragedies of Mudan and Ryukyu, which focuses on the still-controversial Mudan Incident of 1870, the place a number of shipwrecked Ryukyuan (Okinawan) voyagers have been killed in Taiwan by Paiwanese indigenous villagers; the incident grew to become a pretext for Japan’s invasion of Taiwan in 1874, in addition to Japan’s later annexation of Okinawa. Merging archival supplies, interviews with historians and descendants and well-shot narrative re-enactments, the piece stirred feelings at its world premiere. A later panel dialogue with the director, activists and historians highlighted the pageant’s skills to contextualize the movies. “When I was 15 years old, history textbooks told me that this incident affected the fate of Taiwan, but no teacher could clearly describe what happened,” famous Hu. “I hope that this film will be reflected in people’s hearts like a crystal-clear river.”
Also tackling historical past, nationalism and colonialism, Lau Kek-Huat’s bold From Island to Island chronicles the key histories of Taiwanese troopers conscripted into the Japanese Army throughout WWII. Annexed in 1895, Taiwan was Japan’s first colony and “test case” for expansionist hopes throughout Asia, which grew to become totally activated throughout WWII. At as soon as victims and perpetrators of Japanese colonization, Taiwanese troopers have been usually thought-about second-class residents in comparison with Japanese troopers, but nonetheless took half in lots of the identical massacres that the Japanese Army inflicted throughout Asia, whether or not in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, or Thailand. Those years and deeds, have hardly ever been mentioned or talked about within the a long time which have handed. Nearly 5 hours lengthy, woven from putting archival footage and interviews with aged survivors who’re observers, victims, perpetrators or all three), each interview and scene in From Island to Island appears to open up a unique means of trying on the previous. “As an intermediary who immigrated from Malaysia to Taiwan, it gives me the courage to make this film,” states Lau. “I do not deny that personally there is anger and incomprehension towards the 70 years of silence in Taiwanese society; in Malaysia, we live with constant reminders from our elders to remember the cruelty that has happened to us. I believe that humanity can be shaped; unless we accumulate maturity in our thinking through these intergenerational dialogues, we will continue to be mediocre. This is the beginning of my personal resistance, my refusal to become a mediocre person.”
Winner of Best Documentary on the 2024 Taipei Golden Horse Awards and Best Film and Best Documentary on the 2024 Taipei Film Awards, From Island to Island gained Cinema At Sea’s Jury Award and Audience Award. The screening this author attended was notable for almost each viewers member staying all through the period of the movie, and participating in a prolonged, shifting dialogue with the director afterwards. For the jury, the movie was “an emotional historical documentary that weaves multiple layers of story. It reminds us all of our humanity and the importance of learning from our past.” In a recorded video message delivered in the course of the pageant’s Closing Night, the director shared a shifting story on conducting interviews in Okinawa with related survivors of and witnesses to Japanese acts in the course of the warfare. “I have shared these stories with you,” he recalled one aged survivor telling him afterwards. “I am old and will be gone soon, but now that I have shared them, they live with you, and it is your turn to share, so that they are never forgotten.”
The hyperlinks between Taiwan, Japan and Okinawa have been additional underlined in a night retrospective screening of legendary movie collective NDU’s radical 1971 documentary essay, Asia Is One. Born out of the anti-military pupil protests that swept Japan within the late Sixties, NDU (Nihon Documentarist Union) have been a bunch of Waseda University college students who thought-about themselves activists first, filmmakers second. Contemporaries of the extra well-known Shinsuke Ogawa and his Ogawa Productions, NDU have been seen because the black-sheep wing of the leftist documentary movie scene, eschewing hierarchies and command in favor of a extra nameless means of filmmaking made by non-professionals to higher replicate the lives of on a regular basis individuals. “Everybody can push a button and shoot with a 16mm camera,” they famous. Beginning in Tokyo, the group later relocated to Okinawa, the place their revelatory Motoshinkakarannu (1971) profiled life on the margins of Okinawan and Japanese society, in a realm of intercourse employees, American Army bases, dingy residences and even visiting Black Panthers. Asia Is One (1972) was much more bold, an anarchically assembled take a look at the intertwined histories of Taiwan and Okinawa as seen by Taiwanese immigrants in Okinawa, pressured to work within the mining industries and going through abuse, oppression and uncaring employers. One scene on Okinawa’s most important island cuts to a different scene on a completely totally different island, because the movie hops from coal miners in Iriomote to parades in Okinawa, employees in Yonaguni and indigenous Atayal communities in Taiwan with barely a blink); soundtracks and testimonies merge, and what’s mentioned one second might not consult with no matter is occurring within the subsequent. The movie’s screening featured the collective’s surviving member, and two different specialists on the group, current for a dialogue.
Okinawan tradition and currents have been unfold all through the pageant. Partnering with the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI), the pageant showcased two uncommon Taiwanese industrial movies shot in Okinawa, Sunset Over the Horizon (1968) and The Love in Okinawa (1968). Long thought misplaced, prints of each movies had lately been found within the 4Star Theater in San Francisco’s Richmond District in 2019, and have been “repatriated” to Taiwan, then restored by TFAI. More modern ties to Okinawa have been discovered in brief movies made throughout the Okinawan diaspora, together with Harumi López Higa’s poetic Yonsei (Peru), Anya Vaughn’s The Tale of Mari (US) and Naomi Asato’s In Oba’s Sewing Needles: Fragments and the Work of Time (Brazil). An additional connection emerged within the Pacific Film Competition, the place Hawaii’s Alika Tengan offered his award-winning function narrative Molokai’i Bound; Tengan’s mom is Okinawan. An intimate panel on Okinawan cross-cultural id with Tengan, Higa and Vaughn, held in a comfy Brazilian restaurant-turned-performance/gallery venue, helped additional join audiences to filmmakers. For Tengan, the complete journey was a shifting expertise. “It was a special experience for me, as Tengan is an Okinawan name, and this was my first trip to any Asian country,” he shared. “I was deeply moved by the reception of Moloka’i Bound, and struck by the way Okinawan audiences resonated with some of the themes of our film, as they’re also still dealing with the long lasting effects of colonization, military occupation and the complex aftermath of having your native language banned.”
Other shorts applications solidified the concept of cross-cultural connections between the currents. A lovingly private, poetic work, Aephie Chen’s Mamu takes a standard, common storyline—a daughter cares for her immigrant father in London, who’s battling dementia—and weaves one thing extra outstanding out of it. We first meet the daddy in on a seaside by the ocean, taking part in together with his younger daughter, in what seems to be his personal reminiscence. In actuality, he’s not by the ocean, neither is his daughter younger. Immigration and creativeness, exile and nostalgia and the burdens of guardian and youngster are performed out each amidst each the broadness of London and the specificity of Taiwanese Amis indigenous tradition.
“To have the Asia premiere for Mamu in Okinawa gave me a chance to meet local audiences and fellow Pacific filmmakers. I’m impressed and could feel the festival is building a new destination to connect the filmmakers in the area,” Chen stated. “From the audiences questions and comments, I could feel the shared cultural struggles between Okinawa and Taiwan to maintain resilience in the present, acknowledge the wounded past and celebrate life with their craft and local philosophy.”
For a pageant in solely its second yr, this system was remarkably cohesive, wide-ranging geographically but remarkably concise thematically. For pageant programmer and Okinawan movie scholar Kosuke Fujiki, who was raised in Okinawa, the pageant can hopefully serve many functions: “By showing a wide range of films from across the Pacific Rim, our festival can place Okinawa’s local cinema within a broader context, not just limited to the boundaries of Japanese national cinema. I hope Cinema at Sea will continue to offer a fresh perspective on global cinema to Okinawan and Japanese audiences.” Asked in regards to the situation of movie-going basically in Okinawa, he famous, “While mainstream multiplex theaters remain popular, Okinawa also has a few arthouse venues (which are called ‘mini-theaters’ in Japanese), such as the Sakurazaka Theater in Naha and Theater Donut in Okinawa City. Since the 2010s, domestic films have dominated the Japanese box office, so these smaller theaters are vital for introducing international films to local audiences.”
As a first-time customer, it was troublesome to fairly grasp the pageant’s viewers, equivalent to what number of have been Okinawan or based mostly in Okinawa, visiting from mainland Japan or elsewhere or simply different friends of the pageant. There have been few Okinawan filmmakers round, so it was troublesome to get a portrait of the filmmaking scene itself. As of now, like Hawai’i a decade or extra in the past, movies made in Okinawa are primarily exterior productions—mainland Japanese or international movies that occur to be set in Okinawa, versus works made by Okinawans themselves. “In 2025, many mainland Japanese films set in Okinawa are going to be released. With the pandemic finally ending, Okinawa has once again become an attractive filming location for Japanese directors,” famous Kosuke. “As for local talent, I’m really looking forward to the new film from Ishigaki-born filmmaker Go Takamine, which seems to be in post-production.” Shogen shared additional insights on the manufacturing scene on the islands. “In recent years, the number of movies and TV dramas shot in Okinawa have increased every year. I appreciate that our distinctive culture will be showcased through them, but to be honest, I’d like to see more opportunities for local actors to play Okinawan roles.”
For Canadian-born, Okinawa-based actor and producer Jeffrey Rowe, whose culture-clash romantic comedy The Rules of Living performed to a very enthusiastic viewers, the Okinawan scene—and the pageant itself—remains to be evolving. “Both editions of Cinema At Sea have been inspiring experiences, particularly in how they brought together filmmakers from mainland Japan and international creatives based here. Interestingly, this time I didn’t meet any Okinawan filmmakers at the festival—though there were obviously Okinawan actors involved (such as Shogen and Aika Higashimori) —which speaks to both a challenge and an opportunity. If the festival continues to grow, I hope it can help cultivate a stronger local filmmaking scene, inspiring more Okinawans to tell their own stories rather than just having their homeland serve as a setting for outside perspectives. There’s a very real opportunity to build a more self-sustaining film industry rooted in Okinawan perspectives. The question is how to create the infrastructure and opportunities to make that happen.”
Somewhat buried within the “Okinawa Panorama” program was Ryuichi Ishikawa’s Enlightenment, one of many highlights of the pageant and one of the crucial distinctive, unique works I’ve skilled previously yr. A former aggressive boxer, avant-garde dancer, auto-factory employee and host-club worker, Ishikawa found pictures throughout his early twenties. Primarily self-taught, he quickly discovered some notoriety by uncooked snapshots of underground, marginalized communities inside his Okinawan hometown; inside a decade, he has turn out to be one of many key figures in Okinawan pictures.
Fittingly for a photographer, Enlightenment is a movie of almost static pictures, every about one to 5 minutes lengthy, that quietly observe an grownup hikikomori, or shut-in, in his tiny residence. Looking like a Ramones member by accident deserted in an Okinawan residence complicated, he performs the guitar for nobody however himself, tries on seemingly historic items of his wardrobe, stares at a pc display screen, listlessly eats convenience-store meals dropped off by unseen fingers exterior the door or systematically tries out a dozen or extra cigarette lighters. Now and once more, he approaches his window, the place the one trace that this takes place in Okinawa—the distant roar of army fighter jets overhead—bleeds by. Most of all, he seems to be slowly processing the technological detritus of the previous twenty years of his life, from Sony Walkmans, floppy discs and cassette tapes to previous magazines and cartoons.
Whether by the lead protagonist’s oddly mesmerizing silent charisma or extra probably as a result of Ishikawa’s capacity to border a scene, it’s nonetheless completely riveting. At first the movie appears to suit into the slow-cinema style, or presumably be a quiet, observational documentary shot over a selected size of time, however quickly different prospects start to emerge. Ishikawa indicators the passing of time not by the lead protagonists’ look or garments, however by refined modifications within the know-how he interacts with; his bulbous 2005-era Mac switches to a cumbersome laptop computer in some unspecified time in the future, after which later to a extra fashionable Macbook. A sudden shift in gear over the past ten minutes open up even wilder questions, and gives even stranger prospects.
Beautifully unconcerned with typical concepts of narrative or industrial filmmaking, Enlightenment is a real DIY piece of cinema. It’s each an embrace and rejection of Okinawan media illustration as effectively; for Ishikawa, it appears essential to remind audiences that right here, individuals and issues are precisely the identical as wherever; shut-ins and social points are discovered even amidst all tropical magnificence. It’s no coincidence that Enlightenment takes place completely in a single sealed-up residence constructing, with the one window going through an nameless highway, and the one reminder of Okinawa that fighter-jet echo from the skies. The movie’s riot in opposition to typical ‘tropicalia” recalls so much of the recent work from Hawai’i, with such filmmakers as Chris Kahunahana and Alika Tengan searching for a reality past the postcard.
Due to language points and time constraints, I used to be unable to talk with Ishikawa past a couple of temporary conversations (he’s additionally nonetheless a working photographer, and was even taking pictures the pageant’s gala occasions). Here’s hoping that Enlightenment can discover an viewers past Okinawa, Okinawan cinema can quickly come into its personal and Cinema At Sea can proceed connecting the currents between cultures.
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