A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors. Alexander Jacoby

      Haneda made her first independent film with the acclaimed The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms (Usuzumi no sakura, 1977); this, in Eric Cazdyn’s words, was “a gorgeously haunting representation of a famous cherry tree’s seasonal transformations, punctuated by the coming-of-age changes of a teenage girl.” Shortly thereafter, Haneda left Iwanami Productions permanently to work freelance. Among her most important later films were two works documenting the problems of the elderly: How to Care for the Senile (Chihōsei rōjin no sekai, 1985) and Getting Old with a Sense of Security (Anshin shite oiru tameni, 1990). On a related topic, All’s Well That Ends Well (Owari yokereba subete yoshi, 2007) was a study of terminal medical care, posing the question of whether it is possible to achieve a “good death.”

      Elsewhere, Haneda has examined the place of women in Japanese society, particularly with a historical focus. Women’s Testimony: Pioneering Women in the Labor Movement (Onnatachi no shōgen: Rōdō undō no naka no senkuteki joseitachi, 1996) depicted the role of women in labor unions during an oppressive era, while Woman Was the Sun: The Life of Raicho Hiratsuka (Hiratsuka Raichō no shōgai: Genshi, josei wa taiyō de atta, 2002) related the life story of the noted early twentieth-century Japanese writer, peace activist, and feminist. Haneda has also realized a sequence of films, initiated by Welfare as Chosen by Our Town’s Citizens (Jūmin ga sentaku shita machi no fukushi, 1997), about local politics in modern Japan; these charted the efforts of a reforming mayor in a northern town to improve the lot of senior citizens and to boost local participation in politics.

      Haneda’s most consistent focus, however, has been the cultural traditions of Japan, particularly in the performing arts. Ode to Mount Hayachine (Hayachine no fu, 1982) recorded a devotional dance performed in northern Iwate Prefecture and juxtaposed this tradition, unaltered since the medieval era, with the changes reaching the mountainous region in a time of modernization. It won widespread commercial distribution in Japan, an achievement rare for a documentary. By contrast, Akiko: Portrait of a Dancer (Akiko: Aru dansā no shōzō, 1985) charted the work and life of one of the country’s most important modern dancers. Haneda has also made several films about Kabuki, including a series of documentaries charting the final years of actor Nizaemon Kataoka. More recently, Into the Picture Scroll: The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa (Yamanaka Tokiwa, 2004) used a famous picture scroll to retell the tragic legend of folk hero Yoshitsune’s quest to avenge his mother’s murder.

      Haneda has not only tackled a broad range of subjects but has also revealed a determination to explore them exhaustively, often making sequences of films in which each episode touches on a new facet of her theme. That her work remains almost unknown in the West probably says more about audience attitudes towards the documentary medium than anything else.

      1957 Mura no fujin gakkyū / Women’s College in the Village

      1958 Kodai no bi / Ancient Beauty

      1967 Fūzokuga: Kinsei shoki / Genre Pictures in the Late 16th Century

      1968 Monshirochō: Kōdō no jikkenteki kansatsu / Cabbage Butterflies (lit. Cabbage Butterflies: Experimental Observation of Their Activity)

      1969 Kyōgen / Kyogen

      1971 Hōryū-ji kennō hōmotsu / Treasures Donated to Horyu-ji

      1972 Gendai rinshō igaku taikei / The System of Modern Clinical Medicine

      1973 Fuyu ni saku hana wa dō naru ka / What Will Become of the Flowers That Blossom in Winter?

      Ōta-ku ni tsutawaru mukei bunkazai / Intangible Cultural Assets of Ota-ku

      1974 Ki to ie / Wood and Houses

      1975 Bamboo

      1976 Tenkoku: Kokuji / Writing Carved in Stone

      1977 Usuzumi no sakura / The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms

      1979 Karei: Hada no henka to sono shikumi / Ageing: The Change of the Skin and its Mechanics

      1980 Uemachi : Ima mukashi / Uemachi: Now the Past

      1981 Hayachine: Kagura no sato / Hayachine: Village of Kagura

      1982 Hayachine no fu / Ode to Mount Hayachine

      Kabuki no miryoku: Kanshōjō Kataoka Nizaemon / The Appeal of Kabuki: Nizaemon Kataoka as Sugawara no Michizane

      1983 Tsukuba 1983

      1985 Kabuki no miryoku: Ongaku: Osan Mohei daikeishi mukashi koyomi ni miru / The Appeal of Kabuki: Osan and Mohei the Great Fortune Tellers: Looking in an Old Almanac

      Akiko: Aru dansā no shōzō / Akiko: Portrait of a Dancer

      Chihōsei rōjin no sekai / How to Care for the Senile

      1987 Kabuki no miryoku: Shin kabuki / The Appeal of Kabuki: New Kabuki

      1990 Anshin shite oiru tameni / Getting Old with a Sense of Security

      1992 Kabuki yakusha: Kataoka Nizaemon / Kabuki Actor: Nizaemon Kataoka

      1994 Kabuki yakusha: Kataoka Nizaemon: Tōsen no maki / Kabuki Actor: Nizaemon Kataoka: Chapter of Tosen

      1995 Kadoya Shichirōbei no monogatari: Betonamu no Nihonjin machi / Tale of Shichirobei Kadoya: A Japanese Town in Vietnam

      1996 Onnatachi no shōgen: Rōdō undō no naka no senkuteki joseitachi / Women’s Testimony: Pioneering Women in the Labor Movement

      1997 Jūmin ga sentaku shita machi no fukushi / Welfare as Chosen by Our Town’s Citizens

      2000 Zoku jūmin ga sentaku shita machi no fukushi: Mondai wa kore kara desu / Welfare as Chosen by Our Town’s Citizens, Part 2: Questions Yet Remain

      2002 Hiratsuka Raichō no shōgai: Genshi, josei wa taiyō de atta / Woman Was the Sun: The Life of Raicho Hiratsuka

      2004 Yamanaka Tokiwa / Into the Picture Scroll: The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa

      2006 Ano Takanosumachi no sono go / Takanosumachi Thereafter

      Ano Takanosumachi no sono go: Zokuhen / Takanosumachi Thereafter: Sequel

      2007 Owari yokereba subete yoshi / All’s Well That Ends Well

      HANI Susumu

      (b. October 10, 1928)

      羽仁進

      If Imamura was the anthropologist of the Japanese New Wave, then Hani was its sociologist. During the nineteen-sixties, his subtle, probing films explored many of the social issues confronting postwar Japan, including the gap between rich and poor, the role of women in society, the alienation of youth, and the country’s relations with the outside world. His early documentaries, made for Iwanami Productions, focused particularly on children and paved the way for his first feature, Bad Boys (Furyō shōnen, 1960), a low-key study of the lives of juvenile delinquents in a reformatory. With its use of amateur actors and location shooting in a real reformatory, it seemed as much neo-realist as New Wave. Its non-judgmental approach would prove typical of Hani, who was to return to the theme of life in a community of children in Children Hand in Hand (Te o tsunagu kora, 1964), an engaging remake of a 1948 Hiroshi Inagaki film which observed teaching methods and the relations between schoolfellows in a progressive school.

      Meanwhile, in A Full Life (Mitasareta seikatsu, 1962) and She and He (Kanojo to kare, 1963), Hani crafted intricate miniatures of Japanese society, focused through the attempts of independent women to find meaning in life. The former linked its heroine’s struggle for personal emancipation with the political campaign against the U.S.-Japan security treaty. The latter examined the growing disparity between rich and poor through its portrait of the relationship between a middle-class woman, her husband, and a local ragpicker living in the slums adjacent to their modern apartment block. A detailed examination of the attitudes of the prosperous towards the poor and the gulf between bourgeois and working class morality, this was also a penetrating psychological study of the motivation behind one woman’s compulsive desire to do good. Hani’s most famous film abroad, the powerful Inferno of First Love