Japanese 'Campaign' Has Already Begun

The first film about politics that I remember seeing was The Candidate, in which Robert Redford starred as an idealist faced with the compromises of a Senatorial campaign. In the 35 years since that film's release, political features have been few and far between, but documentaries about politics -- campaigns, candidates and hot-button issues -- have become much more common, not only in the US but also in other lands.

The independent Japanese documentary Campaign had its Word Premiere at Berlin this year, then played at South by Southwest and other key festivals (Hong Kong, Hot Docs, Buenos Aires) before opening theatrically in Japan last month. Mark Schilling of The Japan Times called it "a funny and revealing cinema verite look at Japanese democracy in action," and now Midnight Eye has published an interview conducted by Jason Gray with director Kazuhiro Soda. The filmmaker recognizes his responsibility to promote the film like, well, a politician: "It is a campaign for Campaign ... It's up to me, nobody else ... unless I do a lot of hard work nobody will recognize it. Until a certain point I need to push hard, and then after a certain point maybe it'll take on its own life."




Take a look at the director's blog and you can see that he's busy running around to screenings in Japan right now. As the Midnight Eye interview explains, Soda became friends with his film's subject, Kazuhiko Yamauchi, at Tokyo University when they were both schoolmates there: "He rarely showed up to class but he always came to parties." The interview also delves into the veteran filmmaker's very different approach to this project and his desire "to capture the essence of society through the election process."

One more thing: Mr. Soda answers e-mails promptly! He responded to my inquiry within 30 minutes to confirm that Campaign will be broadcast on PBS's POV series in 2008, and that it will be screened at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York on Sunday, July 21. New Yorkers - mark your calendars; everyone else - keep on the lookout for Campaign. In the meantime, have a look at the trailer.