26/06/2009 by McAllister.

Best news of all was to be selected in competition this week for Japans leading doc festival set in Naoki’s small town Yamagata about 3 hours north of Tokyo. For me and Naoki it will be the end ceremony for the film. I must move on and so must he. It will be nice to celebrate the films success at being one of only 15 films to be selected out of 1150 other films for competition. I will get together with my japanese family for one last time. Sake all round no doubt.

Below is the email I wrote to the festival in acceptance. For some reason they want to show the very very long (110mins) version of the film that I made for NHK. I wanted them to show my 70min festival version but lost the fight.

Here is my mail to them…

I am pleased my mission was worthwhile to a japanese audience as well as to western audiences here. I get emotional mails everyday from japanese or westerners who worked as teachers in rural Japan some who had difficulty voicing their experiences as they run counter to the many misconceptions of japan often created by lazy western media who don’t take the time to understand and playout the usual stupid streotypes.

The film got enormous attention on the BBC playing twice at 9pm prime time many pages of news print reviews and Naoki tasted the fame and success he deserves at festival premieres in Sheffield and Amsterdam. The part time postman enjoyed being the movie star for a few days! The film won various awards at many festivals around the world so the icing on the cake for me was to be selected for your festival in Naoki’s hometown - and have my japanese family reunited once more to celebrate all their efforts in making our great film.

I have no objection to you showing the 110 min version if you feel it is more interesting for your audience. In my mail to Taichi I said I hope there may be a way of making the 70 min version available for people to see also maybe in the library. For me it is very personal, as you know it is a big part of my life. Whether I like it or not I feel kind of half japanese now anyway.
Thanks to everyone for selecting the film. I have no problem with you showing the 110 min version.
Cheers sean

Posted in Japan | Print | 2 Comments »

26/06/2009 by admin.

hi sean san

these are picture of newspaper.

one has using our picture which you took.

this is yamagata regional version of Asahi news .

Asahi is interested in your film.

Asahi is biggest news paper and tv company in japan.

ther article is sympathetic to your film.

another one is writen by a biggest news paper company in yamagata.

this paper has admiration for your film.cause this is the first time chosen which used object in Yamagata.

Naoki

Posted in Japan | Print | 1 Comment »

20/06/2009 by McAllister.

Japan: A Story of Love and Hate (YouTube)

It is really good that someone took the time to post my japan film on YouTube.

I was in the pub in my hometown Hull when I got a mail from  Kev (the
guy in  my first film ‘Working For the Enemy’ 1997 who now runs my website,
+ my friend Sean Langan’s site too) telling me he had just found it.   I had the pleasure of
watching my own film between pubs on my new Blackberry Bold, which was fun.

Then my friend Nick sent a mail to say he’d also seen the film on YouTube and it had
already had 3000 hits which was nice to know. When I got home I found the
following mail  waiting for me.

“This is one of the best documentary movies I have ever seen–very well
constructed into a compelling story that revealed much about contemporary Japan.
Your film hooked me to the point that I am very curious about what happened
to the couple after the happy ending.  I am waiting in anticipation for your sequel– any chance?”

It feels like there isn’t a day go by when I don’t get something like this. It is very encouraging for me as I
struggle to get a new film off the ground in the very very familiar setting
of my hometown where I started out gosh it must be over 20 years ago.

Funny, I still feel like the newcomer. The new kid on the block not quite sure what
I’m doing each time, navigating myself through similiar motions in different
places with different people. This time I am looking for a film to be part of a
new BBC season on the north of England. Slowly but surely I hope to be
getting somewhere.

Sean
19 june 2009

Posted in Japan | Print | 1 Comment »