Between Cinema and Theatre
Engeki 2
Dir. Sōda Kazuhiro
Japan 2012, 170’
Subtitles: Polish & English
Hirata Oriza is Japan’s leading playwright and director who runs his theatrical company, Seinendan. In order for his art and his not-so-commercial company to survive this highly capitalistic modern society, what kind of strategy does Hirata have and practice? If Theatre 1 (Observational Film Series #3) is about the world of Hirata, Theatre 2 (Series #4) is a feature documentary, which depicts the relationship between Hirata and the world we live in.
Seinendan is quite a large company based at Komaba Agora Theater in Tokyo, consisting of about 60 actors and 20 staff members. However, to maximize the experience of the audience, they basically do not perform in theaters with more than 200 seats. Furthermore, they never use star actors or actresses to attract the audience. To create an intricate scale model like play that precisely reproduces human lives and behaviors requires numerous rehearsals; it takes more than two months per play. It is virtually impossible to make ends meet with only the income from the box office. In fact, the economy of Seinendan cannot be sustained without grants from the government and foundations.
However, because of the long economic depression and the government’s financial difficulties, art-related budgets are shrinking year by year. It is not unlikely that even Seinendan, one of Japan's most important theatrical companies, will be shut down at any time from losing the grants they usually receive
Awards and Festivals
Nantes Three Continents Festival 2012 Young Audience Award
Sōda Kazuhiro
Sōda Kazuhiro (b. 1970), a Japanese citizen, lived in Japan until 1993 when he relocated to New York City and began his film career. After directing numerous documentaries for Japanese television (NHK) from his base in New York, Sōda transitioned toward creating independent feature length documentary films. Sōda is a Peabody Award winning filmmaker. He's also a recipient of the Marek Nowicki lifetime achievement prize awarded by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. He practices an observational method of documentary filmmaking based on his own “Ten Commandments" which prohibits him from doing pre-shoot research or writing a synopsis before filming. His latest film ZERO received the Ecumenical Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Best Film Award at the Festival des 3 Continents in 2020. He is also the author of eight books published in Japan.
Filmography
2007 Campaign
2008 Seishin
2018 The Big House
2020 Seishin 0/ Zero
Cast & Crew
Director: Sōda Kazuhiro
Screenplay: Sōda Kazuhiro
Cinematography: Sōda Kazuhiro
Editing: Sōda Kazuhiro
Cast: Furutachi Kanji, Genba Koichiro, Hirata Oriza, Maehara Seiji, Matsuda Hiroko
Producer: Sōda Kazuhiro, Kashiwagi Kiyoko
Production: Laboratory X
Language: Japanese
Colouration: Colour
