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Thursday, October 29, 1998

UCLA Archive celebrates life, creative work of director

FILM: Å’Inferno of Susumu Hani' shows independent movies by Japanese artist

By Ricky Herzog

Daily Bruin Contributor

Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, independent films are all the rage in theaters across the country, but the genre was born far earlier than Uma Thurman's sleek black bob in "Pulp Fiction". Japanese genius Susumu Hani is considered one of the forerunners of this edgier, ground breaking, lower-budget cinema.

Thursday through Nov. 1, the UCLA Film and Television Archive presents "The Inferno of Susumu Hani," a series of the acclaimed director's documentaries and feature films.

Born in Tokyo, Hani started out as a still photographer then moved to documentaries and, in 1961, made his first feature film "Bad Boys". Throughout his distinguished career, Hani has received prizes from the Venice, Cannes and Moscow film festivals.

Hani's unique style is deeply rooted in his beginnings as a still photographer, and he is experienced in using hand-held equipment to understand different photographic techniques.

"I work with many still photographers ­ learning lenses and exposure techniques," Hani said in a 1969 interview with "Film Comment". "And I think this is lacking in commercial film studios. Commercial studios and old master directors never pay attention to the photo techniques. Most of the time they completely lack interest in the photography."

Hani's style contrasts sharply with the more sleek productions put out under the studio system. His films have different focuses than Hollywood's mainstream counterparts.

"His films aren't like the typical studio film where you shoot on a set," said David Pendleton, programming coordinator of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

"It didn't have the typical concerns of a big-budget production because it wasn't a period piece or a genre film. He was interested in using documentary techniques to tell a story that would have a direct relevance to life as it was being lived at the time."

Hani's history in documentaries molded the way he directs his feature films. He got his start in documentaries when the Japanese educational ministry commissioned Hani to direct a short film about disorderly children in school which would be screened for inexperienced teachers to show potential problems they might face. But Hani brought his own set of ideas to the project.

"I rejected their story and their plan to use child actors or child actresses because I was also one of the troubled children," said Hani in "Film Comment". "Many times I escaped from schools. Of course I was a stutterer, and I had a problem of expression by language, and when I entered the test for primary school I was completely disturbed by teachers and teachers were completely disturbed by me, and so they said Å’We will not let you in school.' I was six."

These traumatic experiences of his childhood allowed him to identify with the youth he worked with in his documentaries and features. He understood that anyone could draw upon their own emotional experiences in order to turn in a realistic performance; for this reason he opted not to work with actors ­ a move which furthered the documentary-like feel of his fictional films.

"In Japanese cinema he is kind of a missing link between some of the better-known Japanese filmmakers and the more radical new wave filmmakers," Pendleton said. "He worked outside of the studio system with non-professional actors ­ people who had never acted before. He used documentary training to be able to get them to reenact things that had happened to them or were similar to things that had happened to them."

One film in which Hani employs this pseudo-documentary style is "Bad Boys" (playing in the Archive series today). The film, a story about delinquent youths in reform school, uses boys who had actually served time at the reform school and who recreated their experiences in a fictional film. Various logistical difficulties prompted Hani to use a more unscripted method of filmmaking.

"When it was time to rehearse, it was hard to bring everyone together," said Hani in "Film Comment". "Some of them had no house, no telephone. I had to find them in the shops. So I gave them the printed manuscript, and the next day we gathered in a small room, and I hoped to start with reading the script.

"I found that half of the boys have not their script. Some said they don't know where it is and some said more simply, Å’I lost it.' So I understand: they are almost all very uneducated, so they dislike to read any kind of characters. So I changed my method."

The result is a realistic and intense look at their lives. With films like these, Hani was an important figure in the new wave of Japanese cinema and in the origins of independent films around the world.

"I think it's important that people realize that independent filmmakers have existed in all periods," Pendleton said.

"It's not just an '80s and '90s phenomenon, and it's not just an American phenomenon. If people are hungry to see films that don't rely on special effects or that don't rely on huge mega-movie stars, they might be interested in seeing Hani's films."

FILM: General admission is $6 and $4 for students and seniors. Showing Thursday at 7:30 p.m.: "Bad Boys", "Children Hand in Hand" and "Children in the Classroom". Showing Sunday at 7 p.m.: "The Inferno of First Love", "She and He" and "Children Who Draw."

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