Okinawa—Nexus of Borders: Ryukyu Reflections
- Part 1: Oriental Ryukyus: Showa Era Pre-war Perspectives on Okinawa
- Part 2: The Battle of Okinawa: The Final Conflict between the U.S. and Japan
- Part 3: The Battle of Okinawa in Relief / A Chronicle of Memories
- Part 4: Americanization and Japanization
- Part 5: Caught between Different Worlds / When the 27th Parallel Disappears
- Part 6: Okinawan Diaspora / Leaving Okinawa
- Part 7: Okinawa: Colonial Landscape
- Part 8: Earth Songs and Celestial Fantasies
- Part 9: The World of Takamine Go: Blood (chi), Earth (chi), Wisdom (chi), Foolishness (chi), and “chi”
- Part 10: Diffused Reflections of Okinawa
- Symposium: “Alienation and Crossing Borders: Okinawa—A Cinematic Topology”
“In this forest of images, as the ‘nexus of borders’ that is Okinawa arises, assumptions of a monolingual Japan begin to waver, and people transform into mirrors and windows. A brand new cinematic journey through Okinawa begins.”
“Ryukyu Reflections” exceeds the boundaries of documentaries, feature films and TV documentaries. Comprised of ten themes—from works that depict the Battle of Okinawa and occupation by the U.S., to the upheaval before and after Okinawa’s reversion to Japan, and rare pre-war films to the most up-to-date offerings—this retrospective offers a diffused reflection of Okinawan imagery. A diverse program is scheduled, including symposiums, screenings featuring talk shows and live performance. Other related events to look forward to are “Ryukyu Exotica,” a live performance of Okinawan Folk Songs by Oshiro Misako; photo exhibition “Fruits of the Sun: Okinawan Photographic Rhapsody”; an Okinawa Bazaar featuring a wide selection of goods from the Ryukyus.
- Part 1: Oriental Ryukyus: Showa Era Pre-war Perspectives on Okinawa
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In 1879, according to the terms of the Ryukyu Shobun (The Disposal of Ryukyu), the Ryukyu was incorporated into the boundaries of Japan and became Okinawa. However, it continued to mark by the unique binary aspect of the region in the southern seas; it was Japan, and yet it was not. How was the South visualized and desired by Japan’s modern This riddle and quandary is clearly expressed by the precious images that remain.
Okinawa
1936 / 35mm / 14 min
Scenes from the Main Island of Okinawa and the Surrounding Islands (Unedited film)
Photography: Kawamura Tadao / 1936-40 / Video (orig. 8mm) / 40 min
Ryukyu Arts
Supervisors: Yanagi Soetsu, Shikiba Ryuzaburo / 1939 / 16mm / 11 min
Ryukyu Scenes
Supervisors: Yanagi Soetsu, Shikiba Ryuzaburo / 1940 / 16mm / 13 min
Southern Ryukyu Islands
circa 1940 / 16mm / 11 min
People of the Sea: Okinawa Island Story
1942 / 35mm / 28 min
- Part 2: The Battle of Okinawa: The Final Conflict between the U.S. and Japan
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The American military imbedded cameramen within its units and faithfully recorded “Operation Iceberg,” the name given to the invasion of Okinawa. These films bear a record without mercy. When put into this context however, they express entirely different meanings. This section provides an opportunity to fundamentally rethink war reportage and documentaries themself.
- Records without Mercy
Records of the Battle of Okinawa—from the Collection of the One-foot Film Movement
1945 / 16mm / 120 min - Records and Propaganda
- From Newsreels,
The World in Film (Welt im Film)
GERMAN / 1945 / 35mm / 60 min - From U.S. Military Official Publicity Films
Pacific/Ryukyu Operations
The Conquest of Okinawa
The 6th Marine Division on Okinawa
USA / 1945 / Video (orig. 16mm) / 90 min
- From Newsreels,
- The Production of Memory and Transmission of Narrative
A Document of the Battle of Okinawa, Told One Foot at a Time
1995 / Video / 57 min
- Part 3: The Battle of Okinawa in Relief / A Chronicle of Memories
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Discribed as a “Typhoon of Steel,” the Battle of Okinawa was more than a struggle between the armies of America and Japan; it also revealed the structural deformity of modern Japan, and the complicated interplay between Japan and Okinawa. The battle illuminated the state of education and the military; the mainfold structure of victim and oppressor; testimony and the shape of memory; and the darkness that resides within man. As we approach this darkness, the Battle of Okinawa enable shine a light on a century of war.
- Endless Questions
Monument of Star Lilies (English subtitled version)
Imai Tadashi / 1953 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 131 min
Turbulent Showa History: Battle of Okinawa
Okamoto Kihachi / 1971 / 35mm / 149 min
Star Lily War History: Questioning Education and the State Today
1979 / Video / 48 min
A Gap in History: Thirty-five Years Since the Massacre of Okinawans
1980 / Video / 25 min
An Overdue Decision
1988 / Video / 45 min - Voice and the Narration of Trauma: Memory and Living Words Today
War Stories Told in Shima kutuba <Six Parts>
2003 / Video / 360 min
- Part 4: Americanization and Japanization
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The 1952 San Francisco Peace Accords left Okinawa under American administration. Okinawa became a military cornerstone in the Far East for the USA, while Japan used it as a pawn for bolstering the “national body,” that had been weakened by wartime defeat. This section revisits the ways in which Okinawa was exploited by America and Japan, and reconsiders the historical shifts in Okinawan dreams and resistance.
- Promotion in the American Era
Raising Ryukyu
Video (orig. 35mm) / 37 min
These Ten Years, Part 1
Video (orig. 35mm) / 14 min
A Selection from Ryukyu News
Video (orig. 35mm) / 60 min - Soul-graphy of the A-Sign Era
Okinawan Boys
Shinjo Taku / 1983 / 35mm / 117 min / English subtitled version
Via Okinawa (English subtitled version)
Sai Yoichi / 1989 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 111 min / English subtitled version - Longing for the Mother Country / Across the 27th Parallel
Okinawa: Road to the Homeland
1967 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 22 min
The Voice of Okinawa
1969 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 30 min
Cries Coral Reef
1965 / 16mm / 41 min
Eighteen in Okinawa
1966 / Video / 25 min
History of the Reversion Struggle
1977 / Video (orig. 16mm) / 40 min - The Return of Okinawa: Behind the Scenes
As Okinawa Goes, So Goes Japan
1997 / Video / 45 min
Whistle-blowing: Thirty Years Since the Leak of Secrets from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—The Truth That Can at Last Be Told
2002 / Video / 45 min
News Film Those Times (from Yomiuri International News)
No. 1044 Turbulent Okinawa
No. 1168 Signing of the Okinawa Reversion Agreement
No. 1215 Okinawa Returns Home
1972 / 16mm, Video (orig. 35mm) / 15 min - In the Gulf between America and Japan
Okinawa Islands (New Print)
Higashi Yoichi / 1969 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 90 min
Breaking through Hard Ground—Okinawa ’71—
1971 / Video / 25 min
Forty Years of the Post-war Series: The Footsteps of Young Okinawans
1985 / Video / 50 min
- Part 5: Caught Between Different Worlds / When the 27th Parallel Disappears
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In 1972, Okinawa reverted to Japanese sovereignty. In contrast to the surging tide of assimilation to mainland Japan, the contradictions that had been obscured by the reversion movement were exposed: sometimes distorted, sometimes creating sharp conflicts. A number of films were produced that intervened in various phases of these changing eras. At the same time in Okinawa, a quest for a new visual style began.
- Accumulated Voices, Entangled Gazes
The Gentle Japanese (New Print)
Higashi Yoichi / 1971 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 118 min - In the Place of Violence: The Labyrinth of Resistance
Okinawa Yakuza War
Nakajima Sadao / 1976 / 35mm / 96 min
The Miracle of Joe, the Petrel
Fujita Toshiya / 1984 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 134 min / English subtitled version - The Penetration of the “Yamato Era” and the Construction of “Okinawa”
1975 Okinawa Summer
Tomimoto Minoru / 1975 / 16mm / 15 min
When Calling Jahana Noboru
Tomimoto Minoru / 1976 / 16mm / 30 min
Yamangunutida
Jahana Yuzuru / 1978 / 16mm / 35 min
The Life of Okinawa Part 1: Indigenous Island Fauna
Yoshida Yutaka / 1978 / 16mm / 75 min
Act 1, Scene 1 Okinawa Jinruikan
1978 / Video / 25 min
- Part 6: Okinawan Diaspora / Leaving Okinawa
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Okinawa is known for froducing multitudes of emigrants. Before the World War II, they left to escape from the economic crisis known as “Sago Palm Hell,” in order to aid the ones they left behind; after the war, they were scattered by the forced confiscation of their land by the American military. The present day, the modern times experienced by these Okinawan exiles. Light and shadow, Nostalgia and the Sea... We see the trace of the Okinawan diaspora.
Leaving Port: Okinawa
1972 / Video / 25 min
Okinauense: Okinawans Living in Latin America <In Bolivia> <In Peru>
1977 / Video / 50 min
Hia Sá Sá—Hai Yah!
Olga Futemma / 1985 / Video / 27 min
Memories of Betrayal
1988 / Video / 25 min
- Part 7: Okinawa: Colonial Landscape
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More than a few foreign filmmakers listened to Okinawan voices and concerned Okinawan memories that were buried under a colonial landscape of immigrants, World War II, the U.S. Occupation, and the turmoil of changing eras. The films in this section evoke the visual poetry born of contact with other cultures.
- Colonial Elegies, Occupation Clichés
Hill of No Return
Wang Tung / TAIWAN / 1992 / 35mm / 165 min
The Teahouse of the August Moon
Daniel Mann / USA / 1956 / Video (orig. 35mm) / 124 min / Japanese subtitled version - Sharing the Battle of Okinawa
Let There Be Light
John Huston / USA / 1946 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 58 min
Level 5
Chris Marker / FRANCE / 1996 / 35mm / 106 min
- Part 8: Earth Songs and Celestial Fantasies
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A chain of islands from Japan to Taiwan, scattered in a crescent like a garland of flowers. Here rituals are performed by women who communicate with ancient gods, and a snakeskin shamisen weaves melodies in a pan-Asian scale. Mysterious heavenly beings born of the power of the subtropical imagination travel freely between heaven and earth. Deities playfully wander the land, song overflows, and fantasies grow luxuriously...
- A Banquet of Sound and Fantasy
Tsukishiro Story
Ohinata Den / 1959 / Video (orig. 16mm) / 40 min
The Yoshiya Chiru Story
Kinjo Tetsuo / 1961 / 16mm / 96 min
Ultraseven: The Young Messenger
1968 / Video (orig. 16mm) / 25 min
Song of Ajima (YIDFF 2003 Closing Screening)
Aoyama Shinji / 2002 / 35mm / 88 min / English subtitled version - Wandering of the Deities and Spirits
Nanamui / Part 1 Ceremonial Songs
2003 / Video / 79 min
Nanamui / Part 2 Yuqui
2003 / Video / 79 min
- Part 9: The World of Takamine Go: Blood (chi), Earth (chi), Wisdom (chi), Foolishness (chi), and “chi”
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Takamine Go’s emergence has clearly punctuated the history of Okinawan film. In this chronicle of his world, a retrospective within a special program6, we are able to deeply appreciate the magic realism and multiple Okinawas that arise from his works. We can see clearly how much Okinawan cinema has changed before and after Takamine arrived on the scene.
Sashingwa (Dear Photograph)
1973 / 8mm / 15 min
Okinawan Dream Show
1974 / 8mm / 180 min
Okinawan Chirudai <Special Edition>
1976- / Video / 78 min / Japanese subtitled version
Paradise View
1985 / 16mm (orig. 35mm) / 113 min / Japanese and English Subtitled version
Untamagiru
1989 / 35mm / 120 min / Japanese and English Subtitled version
Kadekaru Rinsho: Songs and Stories
1994 / Video / 59 min / Japanese subtitled version
Tsuru-Henry
1998 / Video / 90 min / Japanese subtitled version
Private Images of Ryukyu: J.M.
1996- / Video / 54 min / Japanese subtitled version
- Part 10: Diffused Reflections of Okinawa
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Okinawa is a cinematic archipelago. This is not simply because of the sheer number of works that have been produced; it is true as far as the quality suggested by its imagery, and the way it has traversed and expanded across borders. Why is it that so many eyes have turned to Okinawa, and why has Okinawa provoked so much desire for expression? Setting off from this diffused reflection of images of Okinawa, what kind of cinematic voyage will the new generation of filmmakers embark upon?
- The Reflection of Okinawan Images
White Mural
Chiba Yasuki / 1942 / 35mm / 96 min
Sonatine
Kitano Takeshi / 1993 / 35mm / 94 min - Okinawa Mixed and Split
Pineapple Tours
Makiya Tsutomu, Nakae Yuji, Toma Hayashi / 1992 / 35mm / 118 min / Japanese and English Subtitled version
Fighting Rabbit
Gushiken Tsuyoshi / 1992 / 8mm / 42 min
Hitchhiker
Jahana Yuzuru / 1977 / 16mm / 15 min
- Short Film Collection by New Talent from Okinawa
TOBUKOTSU
Komatsu Hashihito / 2001 / Video / 8 min
Ninja 2000 Millennium
Kawabata Shoji / 2001 / Video / 13 min
Wonder Frog
Matayoshi Hiroshi / 2001/ Video / 6 min
The Summer Vacation Experiment
Matayoshi Hiroshi / 2002 / Video / 3 min
Unfixed
Kameshima Makoto / 2003 / Video / 10 min
Call
Miyahira Takako / 2001 / Video / 19 min
Ryukyu Underground “Hana—A Flower for Each Person’s Heart”
Gushiken Tsuyoshi / 2003 / Video / 5 min
Yachimun “Sky Blue”
Toma Hayashi / 1994 / Video (orig. 8mm) / 6 min
Yachimun “Kitamae Song”
Toma Hayashi / 1994 / Video / 5 min
Yachimun ’93 LIVE in OFT Opening Movie
Toma Hayashi / 1993 / Video / 11 min
- Symposium: “Alienation and Crossing Borders: Okinawa—A Cinematic Topology”
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How has Okinawa been represented in films? A discussion of the attractions of Ryukyu reflections and the actuality arises from this place called Okinawa.
Date/Time: October 12 (Sunday), 15:10
Venue: Solaris 2 * Admission is free.
Panelists: Takamine Go (Filmmaker), Nishitani Osamu (Critic), Aaron Gerow (Japanese film scholar)
Other Guests: Higa Toyomitsu, Murayama Tomoe (Ryukyu Islands Historical Society), Fukuchi Hiroaki (Okinawan Historical Film Society), Moriguchi Katsu (Journalist), Oshiro Misako (Okinawan Folk song singer)
YIDFF 2003 Information • Jury Comments • International Competition | New Asian Currents | Okinawa—Nexus of Borders: Ryukyu Reflections | Yamagata Newsreel! | New Docs Japan | Other Screenings • Schedule • Map of Venues | Tickets | Accommodation | FAQ • |