Yasukuni (2007 film)

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This article is about the 2007 film titled Yasukuni. For the actual Yasukuni Shrine, see Yasukuni Shrine.

Yasukuni (2007 Film)

Directed by	Li Ying
Produced by	Li Ying
Running time	120 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese, with English subtitles
Official website
IMDb profile

Yasukuni (靖国, Yasukuni^?) is the title of a 2007 film made by Japan-resident^[1] Chinese director Li Ying (traditional Chinese:李纓, simplified Chinese: 李缨, hanyupinyin: Lĭ Yīng). It took 10 years to complete and had been screened at the Pusan International Film Festival 2007, World Cinema Competition Sundance Film Festival 2008 and Berlin Film Festival 2008^[1]. It also won the best-documentary award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival^[2].

The 120-minute film looks at the history of the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, where more than 2 million of Japan's war dead are enshrined. More than 1,000 of them are war criminals, including 14 Class-A war criminals, convicted at the 1946-1948 Tokyo tribunal, among them, Hideki Tojo. The film shows not only the well-reported political incidents associated with the shrine, but also takes an in-depth look at the shrine's sword-making tradition, the Yasukuni sword being the film's underlying motif^[1]. Serene footage of the last living Yasukuni swordsmith, 90-year-old Naoji Kariya, working on presumably his final creation, is interspersed with other scenes of chaos filmed at the site.

Li Ying stated that the film was a joint Asian project, noting that the cameraman was a Japanese with a relative enshrined in Yasukuni, and the editor was another Japanese^[1]. It also received 7.5 million yen from the Japan Arts Council in fiscal 2006 as a production subsidy^[3].

Despite the Japanese contribution to the film's production, this cinema has had some strong responses. The first was from Japanese right wing nationalists, who caused the initial screenings, planned for three cinemas in Tokyo and one in Osaka, to be dropped, with one of theatre operators, Humax Cinema Inc., citing safety concerns for its staff^[2]. The second was at a special preview on March 12, 2008 for Japanese legislators, arranged by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, and initiated by a group of conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party members, who questioned the film's objectivity, which is required in order to receive a public subsidy ^[3]. Those lawmakers, featuring Tomomi Inada, called for a boycott of the movie. ^[4] The third was that this movie is questioned about infringement on portrait rights of Naoji Kariya ^[5]^[6]^[7] and Yasukuni shrine ^[8], and they bore testimony about it. Nevertheless, this picture hit the screen with their scene.

The Directors Guild of Japan expressed apprehension about possible infringement of freedom of expression and as a result of the politicians' protests, only about 10 theaters will screen the movie while none in Tokyo. ^[9]

On April 3, 2008, a report from AFP indicated that some regional cinemas in Japan would go ahead with screening the film, defying pressures from the nationalists. The Seventh Art Theatre in western Osaka planned to screen the film in May. The report did not identify the two cinema operators from Kyoto and Hiroshima which were mentioned as also planning to screen the same^[10].

The film finally debuted to the public in Japan on May 3, 2008 in Tokyo amidst tight police security. The sold-out screening was described by the president of Argo pictures, Yutada Okada, as safe and smooth. Movie-goers queued two hours before the first show. Feedback reported from the audience has been positive, describing the film as being objective and anti-war, as well as enlightening Japanese citizens about the shrine itself.^[11]