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Chinese director of 'Yasukuni' documentary feels heat

By Takaki Tominaga

TOKYO — Chinese director Li Ying says his documentary film about Yasukuni Shrine — a Shinto shrine which has generated political heat for its association with Japan's militaristic past — received keen attention on the international film stage at the likes of the Sundance Film Festival in the United States earlier this year.

However, in Japan ahead of its April release, the resident film director says he is feeling heat on him to shelve the production in the face of pressures from various quarters including lawmakers and others who apparently do not like his work financed in part by the Japanese government. One notable person central to the work itself has also expressed aversion to the release.

The 44-year-old Li said in late February he has been receiving threatening phone calls at his office in Tokyo demanding he not release the film, a work he spent more than 10 years on.

"Threats started after press previews and one of the callers said he would barge into our office to confront us if we release the film," Li said.

The 123-minute documentary is an assemblage of scenes about people of diverse backgrounds who may or may not like the shrine for its symbolism of being dedicated to 14 Class-A war criminals along with the war dead.

Among them are a group of Japanese men clad in uniforms of the Imperial Japanese Army hailing the emperor, who was the head of the now-defunct army, and a young Japanese man beaten up by a group of people for being mistaken as a Chinese protesting a memorial service held at the shrine.

There is an American showing his support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the shrine, acts that incensed Chinese, Koreans and other Asians that suffered under the Japanese occupation.

Also in the film are relatives of a soldier from one of Japan's former colonies who fought for Japan, died and is honored at the shrine against their wishes. The documentary also includes members of a Japanese family who make a pilgrimage to the shrine where they believe dwells the soul of a soldier who honorably died in the line of fire.

"The film is about what people recollect and what people throw into oblivion. Some people reminisce about the war dead honored at Yasukuni Shrine as heroes, but I also wanted them to know how their heroes caused all the pain in other Asian countries," Li said.

While the film interweaves the panoramas of those various persons, they are juxtaposed with footage of the 90-year-old swordsmith Naoji Kariya, who is seen steadfastly tempering swords while uttering few words. Known as Yasukuni Swords, they were taken by soldiers to the battlefront.

Asked if the swordsmith footage could be an allusion to Japanese citizens who helped the nation marshal into war by faithfully carrying out their everyday routines, Li said "it would be good" if it can be interpreted that way.

However, it is not just the phone callers, apparently of a nationalist background, who want the film to be kept private.

Swordsmith Kariya says he is uncomfortable with his role in the film and what the documentary represents, and hopes the film will not be released — a view director Li says he has become aware of.

Kariya said by phone in early March, "I was reluctant to appear in the film from the beginning and I don't agree with its contents." He did not elaborate on what about the film makes him uncomfortable but when asked if it could be perceived as an "anti-Yasukuni" or "anti-Japan" stance of the film, he answered in the affirmative.

Li said he thinks that those threatening him are not in the majority of the Japanese but alleges they may be connected with politicians or groups associated with Yasukuni.

In a rare action, a group of lawmakers of the governing Liberal Democratic Party requested a pre-release screening of the film because they are concerned about it. The film was financed in part by a fund under the Agency for Cultural Affairs, perceived by some to be "anti-Japanese."

Argo Pictures, the distributor of the film, was irked by such a request, saying it would be tantamount to censorship but eventually complied on condition that a screening be open to any lawmaker, not just those from the LDP. The preview was given in mid-March to more than 80 people, including 40 lawmakers.

"I did not at all intend to censor this film but I did wonder if this is a politically neutral Japanese film that should have received a subsidy," said Tomomi Inada, an LDP member of the House of Representatives who spearheaded the group to request the showing.

"I sensed a biased ideology regarding Yasukuni Shrine," Inada said after the screening. She neither endorsed nor opposed the release of Li's work, saying it is a matter that concerns freedom of expression. She did indicate that she would exchange views with the Agency of Cultural Affairs on subsidizing film production.

Li says he does not mind his work being criticized but only after its release. "The way you criticize the film is do it after you watch the released film," he said. "Threatening a filmmaker to stop its release is censorship and suppression of freedom of speech."

Born in 1963 in China, Li says he first worked in television in his homeland and came to Japan 19 years ago, expecting more freedom in filmmaking. In 1999, he made his documentary debut with "2H" about a former general of China's Kuomintang nationalist party living in Japan and has since produced other works.

In 1997, Li attended a symposium about the 60th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese people were killed by Japanese soldiers in the former Chinese capital.

Li says he was shocked to see Japanese cheering and applauding to scenes of the Japanese army marching along with the Japanese national anthem in the background in a documentary shown at the symposium, an event that eventually led him to launch a documentary project about Yasukuni and what it may stand for.

"Since I live in Japan now, I am obliged to inform about the Yasukuni issue, the war syndrome which Japanese people have been suffering since postwar days," said Li. "This film is not anti-Japanese at all. This is my love message for people in Japan since I believe a healthy Japan will improve the health of entire Asia."

The film is still scheduled for release at a limited number of theaters in Japan on April 12.

© 2008 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

March 14, 2008

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The way you criticize the film is do it after you watch the released film. Threatening a filmmaker to stop its release is censorship and suppression of freedom of speech.

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