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| Edited By: |Source: PTI |Updated: Oct 25, 2010, 04:00 PM IST
Japanese filmmaker Takashi Koizumi, who assisted the legendary Akira Kurosawa for 28 years, says his mentor believed in concentrating on the likes and tastes of his local audience rather than appealing to foreigners.
"He always said that philosophy of the film, and how you see life and death was important and he shared this viewpoint on filmmaking with Satyajit Ray. He made cinema that he believed in.. keeping in mind the likes and sentiments of his local audience," Koizumi said.
He is here at the Mumbai Film Festival with his 2005 movie The Professor and his Beloved Equation, which depicts the intertwining lives of a mathematical genius, his gentle housekeeper and her ten-year-old-son. The film was screened yesterday.
Akira Terao, who plays the mathematical genius is able to remember only 80 minutes at a time because of a car accident. The subject may be dense but the treatment is fairly enjoyable, he said.
Speaking about the screening of 43 Japanese movies at the festival, Koizumi said that this film package also needs to be shown back home because the younger generation of Japanese filmmakers and audiences get to know their film history.
"Japanese cinema without Kurosawa is like a tree without mainstream. Only leaves are left. At present the focus of Japanese cinema is not making a beautiful film but a fun film," he said.
"Contemporary Japanese cinema is more commercialised. The films are not what filmmakers want to portray but what the audience wants to watch. The studio systems have collapsed too," he added.
Koizumi, who has assisted Kurosawa in 55 films said he decided to become a full time director only after his mentor passed away.
"I hope his influence has remained on my work. But, I am still to reach anywhere near his calibre," Koizumi added.
In the 43 film package, there is Akira Kurosawa's 1946 movie No Regrets for Our Youth which is an epic drama of feminist self discovery.
Kurosawa's first major work, the film depicts the fate of a vivacious young woman who falls in love with her father's radical left wing student during the liberal 1930s in Tokyo.
Another film of Kurosawa is Ran made in 1985, his last one based on Shakespeare's 'King Lear'.
Set in the 16th century, it recounts the tragic tale of an old man's war with his two elder children. It is only the dispossessed youngest sibling who remains loyal to the father.
Universal in theme and epic in scope, Ran (chaos) is the summation of a majestic career. Koizumi will introduce both the films to the audience during the screenings and recount his experience of working with Kurosawa.
Earlier, at a seminar on Japanese cinema, Suresh Chabria, a faculty at FTII and former director of National Film Archives of India (NFAI) said national cinema embodies national culture and characteristics of a country which was the case with Japanese cinema.
He said the traditional values and practices influence the tone, pace and texture of Japanese cinema. Japanese films embodies universal themes and family dramas have remained the central focus in the initial years.
The home drama genre highlighted the ethos of hard work, self sacrifice, the rise of youth, culture. Horror films and animation genre have also grown over the years, Chabria felt.
Filmmaker Arun Khopkar said the grammar of Japanese cinema has changed radically.
"Over the years, a different kind of grammer has evolved. These films have helped us to discover ourselves and the universe around us. The films enable us to look within ourselves and become better human beings."
