Special Presentation by film scholar and former NHK producer, Jun’ichiro Ike

On Friday, June 20, AIU, and specifically the Japan Studies and Global Connectivity programs, hosted a special guest talk by Mr. Jun’ichiro Ike, entitled “The Politics of Looking: Reframing Reality in Japanese TV Documentaries.” This one-hour presentation was part of Japan Studies’ ongoing efforts to promote 24-hour learning beyond the classroom, integrating the study of extracurricular subjects such as cinema and connecting this study to deeper philosophical questions about reality and how it is framed in audiovisual media.

Mr. Ike covered three major topics during his talk, which was filled with exciting examples from both narrative fiction films and documentaries. After a short introduction, he began with the basic categories of film analysis: shots, editing, and the frame. Then he explored the alleged difference between narrative fiction films and documentaries by showing a few examples of the latter, as illustrations of the power and importance of the frame (our window into the reality we see) and also as demonstrations of the artificiality or reframing involved in documentaries. He quoted eminent filmmaker Hamaguchi Ryūsuke’s view that the camera is an ‘Other’ and also that there is essentially no difference, from a filmmaking point of view, between fiction films and documentaries.

In the final section of his presentation, Mr. Ike showed and analyzed several examples of how NHK-produced documentaries have reframed reality and how much earlier (1950s, 1970s) examples compare to more recent efforts (2024). A particular highlight was when he showed the audience the exact type of camera used to take footage for early postwar documentaries: since the camera had to be hand-cranked, it was only able to take a maximum of 18 seconds or so each time, and moreover, this type of widely used camera did not even have a mic! Clearly, documentaries made within the limits of existing technology had to reframe reality heavily through the power of editing, after-recording dialogue (and indeed all sounds) and splicing together many very short clips into a more cohesive whole. After his presentation, which was attended by around 50 (including students from JAS 375, Japanese Cinema II: The History Film) AIU community members, Mr. Ike answered several questions from the audience on the nature of documentaries. For example, one student asked whether there was anything unique or characteristic about Japanese documentaries, as opposed to documentaries around the world. Mr. Ike also had advice for those interested in watching high-quality documentaries: he highly recommended the works of Frederick Wiseman, who continues to make fascinating documentaries even today, in his 90s.