The Shiranui Sea
The Shiranui Sea | |
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Directed by | Noriaki Tsuchimoto |
Produced by | Ryūtarō Takagi |
Cinematography | Kōshirō Ōtsu |
Edited by |
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Production company | Seirinsha Productions |
Release date |
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Running time | 153 min |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
The Shiranui Sea (不知火海, Shiranuikai) is a Japanese documentary made in 1975 by Noriaki Tsuchimoto. It is the fourth in a series of independent documentaries that Tsuchimoto made of the mercury poisoning incident in Minamata, Japan.
Film content
Four years after Minamata: The Victims and Their World, Tsuchimoto's camera focuses on the everyday lives of the victims of mercury poisoning. Fisherman still knowingly catch and eat the mercury-laden fish caught in the beautiful Shiranui Sea because that is what they have always done and that is how they relate to nature. Some patients who received significant compensation from Chisso, the polluter, may now live in good houses, but without doing work their lives seem somehow empty. The real victims remain the children, who are now getting older and in some cases increasingly conscious of the fact they are different from other children.
Reception
The film scholar Justin Jesty wrote that The Shiranui Sea is "the crowning achievement of Tsuchimoto's first five years of engagement with mercury poisoning. The film is a long and powerful meditation on the depth and breadth of the tragedy."[1] The documentarist Makoto Satō called The Shiranui Sea "the ultimate masterpiece" of Tsuchimoto's Minamata films;[2] and the filmmaker John Gianvito selected it as one of the ten best films of all time in the 2012 Sight and Sound poll.[3]
References
- ^ Justin, Jesty (2011). "Making Mercury Visible: The Minamata Documentaries of Tsuchimoto Noriaki". In Sharon L. Zuber, Michael C. Newman (ed.). Mercury Pollution: A Transdisciplinary Treatment. CRC Press. p. 153. ISBN 9781439833841.
- ^ Satō, Makoto. 講演「特集 小川紳介と土本典昭」 (in Japanese). Athenee Francais Culture Center. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
- ^ Davidson, David (8 April 2013). "The Films of John Gianvito". Toronto Film Review. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
External links
- CS1 uses Japanese-language script (ja)
- CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- 1975 films
- Template film date with 1 release date
- Articles containing Japanese-language text
- 1975 in the environment
- 1975 documentary films
- Documentary films about environmental issues
- Documentary films about health care
- Japanese documentary films
- 1970s Japanese-language films
- 1970s political films
- Mercury poisoning
- Films directed by Noriaki Tsuchimoto
- 1970s Japanese films