A
Visit to Ogawa Productions
by Yasui
Yoshio, Producer; Oshige Jun ichiro,
Director
Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films,
Brooklyn, NY, 2001
VHS, 62 minutes, color
Sales: $390
Distributors website: http://www.frif.com.
Reviewed by Soo C. Hostetler
Department of Art, University of Northern
Iowa, USA
soo.hostetler@uni.edu
This film examines the creative ideology
of director Shinsuke Ogawa (19351992),
one of Japans greatest documentary
filmmakers, using an interview conducted
by Nagisa Oshima. The interview occurred
in 1981, in Furuyashikimura, Japan, where
Ogawa was filming a documentary regarding
the various aspects of rice growing. Most
of the interview was conducted during
a sit-down session inside the small house
that was used both as a home and a studio
for Ogawa and his crew. The film gives
us a truly in-depth look at the mastery
of a great documentary film artist.
Ogawas philosophy was to film not
only the cycle of rice growing but also
to fully immerse himself and his film
crew in the daily experience of being
a rice farmer. They built their own rice
fields and lived as if they were rice
growers to better observe and understand
the subject they were documenting. He
said that his intention was to record
the "language of rice" and to
show "rice as a life force."
He depicted rice as a living organism.
At the time of the interview, he had already
lived in the tiny village for eight years.
The first four years were considered pre-production
during which no filming took place at
all. Instead, he and his crew experienced
their subject by getting to know the villagers
and by engaging in research about rice
growing. They examined their rice fields
seven days a week, year round. Ogawa kept
detailed daily records of all his experiments
and research, even when they failed. As
a matter of perspective, he emphasized
the difference between looking into the
field, as opposed to being in the field,
as is the view of the farmer.
Ogawa was not only concerned with filming
a scientific record of rice growing but
was actually far more interested in recording
the people and their history of farming.
There was a collaborative relationship
between the villagers and his crew in
which they learned from each others
experiences, whether homespun or scientific.
When Ogawa was asked how he financed his
project, he candidly replied that he and
his crew had their own struggles. This
led to a discussion about whether farming
and documentary filmmaking sometimes both
struggle to survive in comparable ways.
Much of Ogawas motivation for creating
his documentaries comes from his own sense
of duty to the preservation of cultural
traditions. This film is very sensitive
in the way in which it portrays Ogawas
enthusiasm and his philosophical outlook,
which is reflected in his feelings for
the environment, all of humanity, and
the rich precision of his art.
(Reprinted by permission from Ballast
Quarterly Review, Volume 20, Number
4, Summer 2005.)