HEAVENHELL . CREAM in Japan Times (Updated)

My article on Yokohama's CREAM festival was published in today's edition of the Japan Times:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20091106a1.html

I didn't have enough room to address everything that I intended. One interesting work that didn't make it into the article was Chris Chong Chan Fui's collaboration with sound designer Yasuhiro Morinaga, "HEAVENHELL" (2009), exhibited in one of the residency studios of Koganecho Bazaar. The work is a six-channel projection ringing a small, rectangular room, with one screen on each end of the room and two on each side, all facing each other.



The work features two different "takes" or scenes in an imaginary film production, both shot in Koganecho, which has long been famous as a seedy, underworld haven. One scene shows hustlers, prostitutes and junkies in period clothing loitering on the streets of a loose recreation of 1960s Koganecho. The other shows punks and gyaru loitering in contemporary Koganecho (see below image). Both scenes were shot in crisp black-and-white video.

Each scene comprises three long tracking shots that extend the length of the street. One shot provides a broad view of the street scene, the other two shots use medium and tight focus to concentrate on the groups of loiterers. The ensembles of actors all do their best to stay in anti-social character, and then at the end of each take, a production assistant walks into the frame and all the actors suddenly relax, gather their things and return to normal socializing.



The film was inspired by Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film "High and Low" (Tengoku to jigoku) and shot with the assistance of students from Tokyo University of Art's Film and Media Department. I spoke with Chris Chong Chan Fui outside his studio. Here's an excerpt from our conversation, thanks to Chris for providing the still, installation view and production shot that appear in this updated version of my post:

AM: How long have you been here?

CCCF: About 3 ½ weeks. I came in June to research the space and to propose what I wanted to do so at the time I was interviewing people here in the community and seeing what was going on with the rejuvenation project. Then I bumped into one of the artists in residence who told me about this situation that Akira Kurosawa wanted to shoot here in Koganecho for the "slum scene" in "High and Low" but his plans fell through [because the neighborhood was considered too dangerous to conduct a shoot with a large crew].
So I started to research and ask around and while I was here met up with one of the people who was actually there on the film set in 1963 and he confirmed that they even tried to make a remote camera to shoot along the street but the technology wasn’t there yet so they scrapped the shoot and decided to do it in the studio. So I thought it was a really interesting story.

AM: So you decided to realize it.

CCCF: Well, it’s kind of a misnomer to say it’s a recreation or a remake, because it’s not, but the whole purpose of the residency was to respond to the community, or part of the community, in some way.

AM: Is that how you always work?

CCCF: I like to work that way. I like working from the environment. I like hanging around and seeing what happens and something always pops up that’s kind of interesting. But the idea of using Kurosawa as a starting point might never have occurred if I hadn't heard the story from the other resident, so a lot of it has to do with chance.




All images from HEAVENHELL (2009),
Courtesy Chris Chong Chan Fui.

More about HEAVENHELL here:
http://www.tanjungarupictures.com/2009/10/heavenhell.html