Japan film in Venice captures tsunami aftermath (Reuters)

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) – Japanese movie "Himizu" is a twisted tale of abuse, violence and lost youth set against the backdrop of the devastation of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Director Sion Sono, renowned for hard-hitting, anarchic film making, wove real-life events into a screenplay he had just completed when the catastrophe struck.

"Every scene changed drastically," he told trade publication Variety ahead of Himizu's world premiere at the Venice film festival on Tuesday.

"The original manga had no hope in it, but after March 11, I didn't think I should make a film with no hope. I felt that I had to convey it in the film."

The narrative is interspersed with wide shots of flattened towns and mangled buildings destroyed by the tsunami, bringing the disaster to the big screen less than six months after it happened.

The immediacy of those images, visceral performances by the two central teenaged characters traumatized by abuse and a score that includes Mozart's "Requiem" won over many viewers in Venice, with warm applause at the end of a press screening.

Himizu is based on a manga by Minoru Furuya first published about 10 years ago.

ABANDONMENT, DEVOTION

The story centers around schoolboy Yuichi Sumida, who is regularly beaten by his father and abandoned by his mother yet wants nothing more than to live a normal life.

He lives in a shack by a lake where he hires out boats to day trippers, and on the land a small community of oddballs stay in makeshift tents, possibly because their homes have been destroyed.

His female classmate Keiko Chazawa falls in love with him, and, despite being an unwelcome distraction for Sumida, ends up trying to save his life.

Keiko is a rare source of innocence and optimism in a world where love and hope are crushed from an early age.

Keiko's parents build a gallows for her, which they paint and decorate with colored lights as they encourage her to take her own life.

Sumida is also told time and again by his father that he should never have been born, and he finally reaches breaking point by committing murder.

Despite its bleak portrayal of youth, and dialogue interrupted by screaming and tears, Sono insisted that it conveyed a message of hope.

"The entire Japanese community feels like they have no choice but to have hope, because their situation is so bad," he said in the Variety interview.

"Before I wrote the original script, even I didn't have that much hope, but that has changed drastically."

Shota Sometani, the 19-year-old actor who played Sumida, said something good had come out of the disaster.

"The young generation have started to consider many new things that they were not thinking about before the natural disaster," he told reporters in Venice, speaking through a translator. "There is a new way of thinking."

Himizu is one of 23 films in the main competition in Venice. The 23rd "surprise" picture was named on Tuesday as China's "People Mountain People Sea" directed by Cai Shangjun.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Living with the aftermath of Japan's tsunami nightmare

Kyoko Ogawa became depressed after losing her hotel in March tsunamiShe contemplated suicide after being afraid to talk to anyone about her troublesShe says a volunteer psychiatrist at an evacuation center saved herMental health specialists are worried about the impact of the disaster months later

Otsuchi, Japan (CNN) -- Kyoko Ogawa wore the brave face the world associated with Japan's tsunami survivors.

The March 11 catastrophe washed away all her earthly possessions. She watched as her hotel burned to the ground in a gas explosion triggered by the tsunami; a hotel that had been in her family for generations.

She was determined not to let the disaster break her.

But after the elation of finding her son alive, the reality of losing her livelihood started to erode the calm facade. She was in turmoil. She was afraid to talk to other people about it because she knew everyone was suffering as much as her, if not more.

They were "ganbaru," she recalls -- enduring, holding on, withstanding, and living with the pain. She couldn't be the only one to lose control.

"I was in shock because I realized that all that was precious to me was gone," she says, six months on from that terrible day. "I didn't know what to do from then on. I became tormented."

That was the start of a slippery slope down a dark trail of despair.

It's a familiar story in Otsuchi, northeastern Japan, where the devastating earthquake and tsunami turned much of the town in Iwate Prefecture into rubble. Today, much of that physical debris has been cleared away. But the emotional wreckage of the survivors is proving much more difficult to remove, as the mental scars from that day linger months later.

In Ogawa's case, depression could have had tragic consequences for her had she not met Suimei Morikawa, a volunteer psychiatrist who listened patiently to her troubles one day at an evacuation center.

Morikawa became the difference between life and death. She says she probably would have ended her life if the doctor hadn't been there for her.

"I was so moved by her approach to life," recalls Morikawa. "She may have been suffering and wanting to end her life because she had lost so much, but she also desperately wanted to get over that. I was moved by her willingness to get out of her own situation. I just helped her a little."

Concerns about suicide and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are growing among mental health specialists working in the region. PTSD in particular, a condition which can push people over the edge if not addressed, can show up months after the initial shock.

Suicide is also a major concern in Japan.

The sense of loss and deep grief can overcome you quickly and if you are alone when that happens, you lose all hope for the future.
Mariko Ukiyo, psychologist

According to the World Health Organization, Japan has the fifth highest suicide rate in the world. More than 30,000 suicides are reported each year, according to the country's national police agency, with Iwate Prefecture -- one of the regions hit hardest by the tsunami -- having one of the biggest problems.

Mariko Ukiyo, a psychologist and volunteer counselor, is part of a therapy group called "Team Japan 300." She and a number of other team members visit temporary villages in the devastated region hoping to treat symptoms of PTSD and ultimately prevent suicides.

According to Ukiyo, loneliness and despair take hold when the survivors move from their evacuation center to temporary housing.

"It is only then that people see how their life has changed from their pre-disaster life," she says. "The sense of loss and deep grief can overcome you quickly and if you are alone when that happens, you lose all hope for the future. I think this period is when they need help the most."

But getting help to the victims is proving to be a challenge in Japan, a country with limited experience in mental health care historically. Ukiyo says the amount of psychological support received by tsunami victims now is a tenth of what the victims of 9/11 in the United States experienced.

According to Ukiyo, the devastating 1995 earthquake in the city of Kobe started to raise awareness about the effects of post-traumatic stress -- particularly among the younger generation -- but many Japanese continue to find it difficult to talk about sorrow and loss because of the shame of appearing weak.

Ukiyo's strategy is to gather the residents in temporary housing for a regular get-together in a relaxed atmosphere. This gives her the opportunity to keep an eye on each of the participants, observing anyone that shows signs of severe distress. The hope is that what starts out as small talk will gradually evolve into people talking about themselves and their problems.

But despite her efforts Ukiyo is not optimistic about the region's future with trauma.

"We are only now starting to hear about sick or depressed people six months after the tsunami," she says. She believes suicide rates will only increase.

Meanwhile, Kyoko Ogawa vows not to be another victim. She says Dr. Morikawa pulled her back from the brink and she is now making plans for the future. She wants to rebuild her hotel and give back to those who helped her.

While Ogawa is a success story for Morikawa, he worries about those he will never reach in this devastated region.

"Now that I have met these people, I have grown attached to them," he says.

"It saddens me that there are still so many people suffering here. I can't stand the thought that there may be people who died because they had no-one to talk to."

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Japan film in Venice captures tsunami aftermath

Japan film in Venice captures tsunami aftermath Japanese movie "Himizu" is a twisted tale of abuse, violence and lost youth set against the backdrop of the devastation of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Director Sion Sono, renowned for hard-hitting, anarchic film making, wove real-life events into a screenplay he had just completed when the catastrophe struck. "Every scene changed drastically," he told trade publication Variety ahead of Himizu's world premiere at the Venice film festival on Tuesday.
7 Sep With television entertainer Shinsuke Shimada revealing last month that he had ties to organized crime, Zakzak (Sep. 6) speculates that gravure idols (pin-up models often appearing in magazines and on variety shows) will soon find difficulties as police work to eradicate the underworld from the entertainment industry. Starting in October, new anti-gang legislation will prohibit ordinary citizens from doing business transactions with gangsters. Years ago, it was not unusual for organized crime groups, or boryokudan, to associate in public with enka and kabuki performers, but today that is no longer allowable. Nowadays the relations exist through offices that employ models. (Tokyo Reporter)
7 Sep An 81-year-old man who sexually abused two pre-teen girls visiting his home to take part in an English conversation group was sentenced on Sept.6 by the Tokyo District Court to 18 years imprisonment, a year longer than prosecutors had sought. Yasutomo Obana was found guilty of a number of charges, including rape resulting in injury. "You used your position to take advantage of the lack of sexual awareness and immature judgment ability on the part of the girls to carry out what was a foul crime," Presiding Judge Ikuo Toishi told Obana. Toishi praised the girls for their testimony in court and slammed Obana for his behavior. (majirox news)
7 Sep Kyoko Ogawa wore the brave face the world associated with Japan's tsunami survivors. The March 11 catastrophe washed away all her earthly possessions. She watched as her hotel burned to the ground in a gas explosion triggered by the tsunami; a hotel that had been in her family for generations. She was determined not to let the disaster break her. But after the elation of finding her son alive, the reality of losing her livelihood started to erode the calm facade. She was in turmoil. She was afraid to talk to other people about it because she knew everyone was suffering as much as her, if not more. (CNN)
6 Sep In mid-August, Tsuneko Iwakura was finally moved into temporary housing, after five moves in as many months since evacuating her home near a damaged nuclear plant. 'We hear we can stay here for at least two years, so we are now relieved,' said Iwakura, 78. She and her husband left their home in north-eastern Japan when the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station started leaking radioactive material, only 5 kilometres away. When the magnitude-9 earthquake struck the area on March 11, Iwakura watched as the walls of her house cracked and tiles fell from the roof. (monstersandcritics.com)
6 Sep More than 30,000 fashionistas flocked to Japan's largest fashion event, the Tokyo Girl's Collection -- or TGC this weekend -- a bi-annual show that combines the country's top fashion brands with popular music acts. Now in its sixth year, the six hour show has established itself as the epicenter of Japan's "kawaii," or cute culture, a culture that has gained a global following in recent years. On Saturday, the Saitama Super Arena, just outside of Tokyo, looked more like a cross between a concert and circus than a fashion show. Popular models strutted their looks down the runway, as adoring fans screamed their names, while other show-goers crowded booths featuring everything from makeup to a foot massage. In between, the TGC stage featured a mini ballet performance, and an appearance by Cirque de Soleil. (ABC News)

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Japan film in Venice captures tsunami aftermath - Reuters

Director Sion Sono (R) poses with cast members Shota Sometani (R) and Fumi Nikaidou (C) during a photocall for their film Himizu at the 68th Venice Film Festival, September 6, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Eric Gaillard

By Mike Collett-White

VENICE, Italy | Tue Sep 6, 2011 9:20am EDT

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Japanese movie "Himizu" is a twisted tale of abuse, violence and lost youth set against the backdrop of the devastation of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Director Sion Sono, renowned for hard-hitting, anarchic film making, wove real-life events into a screenplay he had just completed when the catastrophe struck.

"Every scene changed drastically," he told trade publication Variety ahead of Himizu's world premiere at the Venice film festival on Tuesday.

"The original manga had no hope in it, but after March 11, I didn't think I should make a film with no hope. I felt that I had to convey it in the film."

The narrative is interspersed with wide shots of flattened towns and mangled buildings destroyed by the tsunami, bringing the disaster to the big screen less than six months after it happened.

The immediacy of those images, visceral performances by the two central teenaged characters traumatized by abuse and a score that includes Mozart's "Requiem" won over many viewers in Venice, with warm applause at the end of a press screening.

Himizu is based on a manga by Minoru Furuya first published about 10 years ago.

ABANDONMENT, DEVOTION

The story centers around schoolboy Yuichi Sumida, who is regularly beaten by his father and abandoned by his mother yet wants nothing more than to live a normal life.

He lives in a shack by a lake where he hires out boats to day trippers, and on the land a small community of oddballs stay in makeshift tents, possibly because their homes have been destroyed.

His female classmate Keiko Chazawa falls in love with him, and, despite being an unwelcome distraction for Sumida, ends up trying to save his life.

Keiko is a rare source of innocence and optimism in a world where love and hope are crushed from an early age.

Keiko's parents build a gallows for her, which they paint and decorate with colored lights as they encourage her to take her own life.

Sumida is also told time and again by his father that he should never have been born, and he finally reaches breaking point by committing murder.

Despite its bleak portrayal of youth, and dialogue interrupted by screaming and tears, Sono insisted that it conveyed a message of hope.

"The entire Japanese community feels like they have no choice but to have hope, because their situation is so bad," he said in the Variety interview.

"Before I wrote the original script, even I didn't have that much hope, but that has changed drastically."

Shota Sometani, the 19-year-old actor who played Sumida, said something good had come out of the disaster.

"The young generation have started to consider many new things that they were not thinking about before the natural disaster," he told reporters in Venice, speaking through a translator. "There is a new way of thinking."

Himizu is one of 23 films in the main competition in Venice. The 23rd "surprise" picture was named on Tuesday as China's "People Mountain People Sea" directed by Cai Shangjun.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

View the original article here

Japan film in Venice captures tsunami aftermath (Reuters)

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) – Japanese movie "Himizu" is a twisted tale of abuse, violence and lost youth set against the backdrop of the devastation of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Director Sion Sono, renowned for hard-hitting, anarchic film making, wove real-life events into a screenplay he had just completed when the catastrophe struck.

"Every scene changed drastically," he told trade publication Variety ahead of Himizu's world premiere at the Venice film festival on Tuesday.

"The original manga had no hope in it, but after March 11, I didn't think I should make a film with no hope. I felt that I had to convey it in the film."

The narrative is interspersed with wide shots of flattened towns and mangled buildings destroyed by the tsunami, bringing the disaster to the big screen less than six months after it happened.

The immediacy of those images, visceral performances by the two central teenaged characters traumatized by abuse and a score that includes Mozart's "Requiem" won over many viewers in Venice, with warm applause at the end of a press screening.

Himizu is based on a manga by Minoru Furuya first published about 10 years ago.

ABANDONMENT, DEVOTION

The story centers around schoolboy Yuichi Sumida, who is regularly beaten by his father and abandoned by his mother yet wants nothing more than to live a normal life.

He lives in a shack by a lake where he hires out boats to day trippers, and on the land a small community of oddballs stay in makeshift tents, possibly because their homes have been destroyed.

His female classmate Keiko Chazawa falls in love with him, and, despite being an unwelcome distraction for Sumida, ends up trying to save his life.

Keiko is a rare source of innocence and optimism in a world where love and hope are crushed from an early age.

Keiko's parents build a gallows for her, which they paint and decorate with colored lights as they encourage her to take her own life.

Sumida is also told time and again by his father that he should never have been born, and he finally reaches breaking point by committing murder.

Despite its bleak portrayal of youth, and dialogue interrupted by screaming and tears, Sono insisted that it conveyed a message of hope.

"The entire Japanese community feels like they have no choice but to have hope, because their situation is so bad," he said in the Variety interview.

"Before I wrote the original script, even I didn't have that much hope, but that has changed drastically."

Shota Sometani, the 19-year-old actor who played Sumida, said something good had come out of the disaster.

"The young generation have started to consider many new things that they were not thinking about before the natural disaster," he told reporters in Venice, speaking through a translator. "There is a new way of thinking."

Himizu is one of 23 films in the main competition in Venice. The 23rd "surprise" picture was named on Tuesday as China's "People Mountain People Sea" directed by Cai Shangjun.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

View the original article here

Japan s July jobless rate up amid quake aftermath - Moneycontrol.com

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Japan's unemployment rate rose to 4.7% in July from 4.6% the previous month for the second straight month of deterioration amid the continuing aftermath of the massive March earthquake and tsunami, the internal affairs ministry said today.

But some analysts were not necessarily pessimistic about the overall labor environment, as separate government data showed the country's job availability improved for the second straight month.

According to a preliminary report by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, the number of unemployed increased 50,000 from June to 2.94 million and the number of employed dropped 40,000 to 59.59 million, respectively, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

A ministry official attributed the outcome partly to the tough employment conditions in the accommodation as well as the eating and drinking services industries that have seen customers decrease after the March disasters.

He also said that the country's power shortage woes stemming from the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant may have negatively affected the hiring of temporary workers.

The jobless rate excludes data from three prefectures hit hardest by the March disaster -- Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima -- because of the difficulty of fully conducting the survey.

Ryohei Kasahara, an economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research, said that, while the unemployment rate data alone was "not good," signs of gradual improvement could be seen from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry data which showed the ratio of job offers to job seekers rise to 0.64 in July from 0.63 in June.

This means 64 jobs were available for every 100 job seekers.

"The impact of the quake is continuing in July...but looking ahead, the environment, such as for the accommodation industry, appears to be gradually improving and I believe the overall labour condition will recover from around the latter half of the year," he said.

As for the yen's recent sharp rise that may lead manufacturers to shift their operations overseas, Kasahara said that the factor is unlikely to take its toll in the short term, but warned that it could cause a decrease in jobs in the longer term.

The jobless rate for men rose 0.2 percentage point to 4.9%, while the rate remained unchanged for women at 4.5%.

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