綻放的運動影像：再見小川紳介

The Wages of Resistance is a feature-length documentary film that portrays an "extended span of time" of the protests against building Narita International Airport which have continued from the 1960's to today through documenting monologues of those whose lives were twisted by the movement.

After forty-five years, I revisited the Sanrizuka airport land. What did I see there and what attracted my attention that prompted me to film?

This film combines all the themes of their concern: farming, state violence, resistance, modernisation, and village time. It masterfully mixes the conventions of science films with Griersonian documentary sequences about ghosts and gods, along with fictional sequences featuring cameos such as the butoh founder Tatsumi HIJIKATA and Roman Porno star Junko MIYASHITA. It's a thoughtful meditation history and the way it is never quite "past" in village Japan.

Heta Village is an extraordinary documentary about time and place, the first of two masterpieces by OGAWA. OGAWA pushes the protests to the far background to concentrate on the village of Heta itself as one of its youth commits suicide and others are detained by police. The film is quiet, patient, and its 11 scenes are mostly rendered in single takes. This astonishing film is their attempt to render the "time of the village".

After Summer, Ogawa Pro attempted a more epic scale with Winter in Sanrizuka. It was roundly criticised as a failure. In the wake of this criticism, the collective became increasingly militant. They decided to make a quick and dirty report from the front, calling it a "bullet film." They shot this agit-prop film in three days, when 2,500 protestors battled 6,500 police. Even the school had been let out so children could participate in the action.

After the explosive success of Forest of Oppression, Jieiso organised their next film with labour unions and political activists/filmmakers. Bristling with scenes of clashing protesters and riot police, OGAWA (who appeared onscreen) carefully investigates the death of a young protester. The original title ironically refers to the daily reports written by police as well as the police surveillance under which the collective now found itself.