Gokushiteki erosu: Renka 1974

inspiring documentary that shows one of a kind Japanese woman. featuring an alternative side of early seventies in japan this movie reveals the beginning of cultural and sexual new conflict of modern Asia. director follow his ex for three years or so through the islands. see her bisexual and interracial relationships with a neutral acceptance and even cries showing a fragility rare in Japanese manhood. walk around contacting dancers, strippers and bar girls of Okinawa. take the risk of putting his new wife in contact with the intelligent, brilliant, helpful former wife. and shows an out of focus amazing scene of baby being born without any help. beautiful, subtle, honest and strong. and the director was one of the kids on National Kid TV series! fantastic...

I was fascinated by Kazuo Hara's THE EMPEROR'S NAKED ARMY MARCHES ON, so I thought I'd try of his earlier documentaries. In this one, he follows his ex-girlfriend Miyuki Takeda and their child to Okinawa where she bounces from a lesbian relationship to an interracial hetero relationship to a self-run day care facility and back to the mainland where she gives birth without medical assistance. Although Takeda is a fiercely independent, modernized woman and her relationship to the filmmaker provides some tense and compelling material, ultimately she's not nearly as engaging a subject as Okuzaki from NAKED ARMY. The most revealing aspects come from the interactions between Hara and Takeda, especially when he brings his new girlfriend into the picture! I also found the scenes of Takeda arguing with her nearly-silent girlfriend very interesting. However, there's a lot of "downtime" without much that's very compelling. The film is also plagued with technical problems... out-of-sync sound, a noisy camera, and the entire lengthy birth scene is out of focus (which Hara rightfully excuses because of his emotional state). This film might make a good companion piece to SHERMAN'S MARCH, although McElwee does a lot more to keep momentum going.