Some nagging and some good news-Donald Richie at Super Deluxe

Okay, even in New York once in a while one finds oneself paying high by standing on a long line for a Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky or their likes’ talk. However asking to pay for it on regular basis is unimaginable, at least when it’s sponsored by a university. Thus I was dumbfounded when I arrived at Roppongi’s SuperDeluxe for a film screening and was asked to pay 1500 yen, no ‘beverage’ included. A free beverage would have consoled me, and the club would normally offer a free drink when charging so much for admission. But it did not happen at the Temple University event.
The event was another in a series of screening of short films curated by, well, a “superstar” critic of Japanese film, an American living in Tokyo, who has been writing about, introducing Japan and Japanese cinema to the rest of the world for many decades now, Donald Richie.

I had passed on a free French- Japanese fusion meal the night of the event. Wrapped up in a plastic raincoat, I rode my bike at night in pouring rain–it took about half-hour of torturous ride each way– to see Donald Richie’s hand-picked selection of Japanese underground and experimental 1960s and 70s Japanese shorts. He charismaticly spoke about them before and after the screening. (The circumstances seem more like my imaginary French or Polish grandmother crossing the woods and mountains to escape the violence in the midst of WWII than a 2006 Tokyo film outing.)

Leaving behind how I got there, now here’s what I found.

The Superdeluxe room was largely filled with Temple University crowd of foreigners– I think. And guess what! Not only is Temple University an educational institution, it is also a private, American institution. And what about some public service that they should be prepared to deliver? There seems to be nothing. I had to pay, as did the students of the institution(honestly what do they think?), even though I was more than happy to “honestly” and thus positively review the event on TABlog.

The selection of the shorts was excellent, and even and thankfully at times lightly shocking. Among others, it highlighted the dialogue between the world’s film undergrounds of the period. Shuji Terayama’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup seemed like a “showcased” piece, but there was also a film by Shintaro Tanikawa with then his composer Toru Takemitsu. Richie drew connection between the New York underground and Japanese underground. The films he chose were erotic, but not sexual, poetic and scandalous at once.

There is at least one more installment of the series; It’s coming up in early October. And unless hundreds will read this and show up at the next event, one can be sure to be able to chat with Mr. Richie, or at least pass one’s New York uncle’s regards to him, as I did.