September 11, Voyeurism, and Goslolis

Filmbrain had only enough time this week to catch one program at the 2004 New York Video Festival held at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater. The program notes describe Yutaka Tsuchiya's Peep "TV" Show as a film about a group of young people in the Shibuya section of Tokyo who are obsessed with voyeurism and Internet porn. While that's not entirely incorrect, it fails to mention a much larger subject surrounding it all -- the reaction to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Specifically, the difficulty some "borderline personality" types had in grasping the reality of the incident. As a New Yorker, Filmbrain's initial reaction while watching the film was one of slack-jawed disbelief -- nobody who was in New York at that time had any difficulty with the reality of it, and the air we awoke to for weeks afterwards was an olfactory reminder of the day. Needless to say, any film that incorporates the events of September 11 is going to be judged rather harshly by those of us who lived through it. A film like Love Collage, which worked 9/11 into the film purely for exploitation purposes, received a rather cold reception at the Tribeca Film Festival. There was mixed reaction tonight to Peep "TV" Show, and much whispering could be heard amongst audience members when footage of the planes hitting the towers was shown, and when this oft-repeated quote came up: 2,843 people were blown to hell when a fireball hit the World Trade Center. It was such a beautiful sight. With a beer in one hand, I was glued to the TV. Everything is going crazy. I want to peep at the corpses under the rubble. Shocking words, but as the film progresses you begin to understand what Tsuchiya is getting at, and he is mighty brave to take the chance. The film begins with the premise that to many people in Japan, the events of September 11 (which were splashed non-stop all over the media) looked just like a film. The events that followed, leading up to and including the war in Iraq, became extensions of that "entertainment". Taking place between August 15 and September 11, 2002, it follows a group of disparate characters (all societal "outsiders") who seek a new reality -- but it's not clear at first if this is catharsis or rather a simple voyeuristic need. Filmbrain was reminded of American reality TV shows, and how with each passing year audiences desire/require an even greater invasion into people's lives. Seeing another human's weakness, frailty or humiliation has become tantamount to entertainment. As the film opens, Hasegawa (Takayuki Hasegawa) is sitting on a crowded street in Shibuya, taking voyeuristic shots with the pinhole camera he has sitting at his feet. At night he secretly films young women and couples through their windows. He has just launched a website (Peep "TV" Show) that contains not only his voyeur videos, but also text about the movements of terrorist Mohammed Atta in the days prior to September 11. Moe (Shiori Gechov), a young gosloli (or Gothic Lolita -- one who dresses in elaborate Gothic looking baby doll outfits), suffering from post 9/11 malaise, stumbles across Hasegawa's site, but his depictions of reality (which include putting a cat in a plastic bag) don't do much for her. Soon the two join forces, and the content they capture (a couple arguing to the point of violence, voyeur shots of a crowded ladies bathroom in a shopping mall, or simply Moe's lonely existence at home laying on her bed) helps them to recapture the reality they feel they have lost. The film includes portraits of other individuals who are suffering from similar symptoms, and Tsuchiya used real people in these roles -- the boy who hasn't left his room in years, and lives solely through the internet; the businessman who is angry at "those in charge" and who lives for nothing more than his pill-induced sleep; the convenience store clerk who dreams of being a revolutionary. Their on-camera confessions are the most powerful sequences in the film, and really quite moving. Tsuchiya takes full advantage of the video format and succeeds in giving the film a truly voyeuristic feel with various CCD devices, and POV shots from the floor, high corners in rooms, through windows, etc. Filmbrain spoke (in extremely broken Japanese) with Tsuchiya and his co-screenwriter (a gosloli herself) after the film, particularly about their thoughts on showing the film to a bunch of New Yorkers -- something they were both understandably very nervous about. The film is clearly not for everybody, and it's possible that some will be offended (Filmbrain witnessed at least three angry people after the screening.) Filmbrain needs a few more days to fully digest the film, but it was the first time he gave serious thought to how the events of September 11, 2001 played out in other countries. Not on a political level, but simply in terms of human reaction. (More may be added to this post in the next few days.) Peep "TV" Show is clearly one of the most controversial films of 2004, and Filmbrain hopes it has the chance to reach a wider audience. (It will be shown at the Chicago Underground Film Festival in August, according to the director.)

Comments

[STBD1]

I was sitting in a restaurant here in Pittsburgh about a year ago when a college girl and her mom, who were talking very loudly at a nearby booth, changed topics to 9/11. As I recall, the conversation included the following comment from the daughter:

"... and I remember laying in bed on my one day to sleep in and the phone rings, so I let the machine get it and it's you, and you said, "Turn on the TV, they just flew planes into the World Trade Center!" And I was just like, "What's the big deal? It's not my city." So I went back to sleep."

These comments were not delivered with the hindsight of a girl who was amazed at her own callousness but with the I-still-don't-get-it disaffection of a girl who then changed the subject to her summer vacation.

Even as a non-New Yorker, I was appalled, not just by her individual ignorance but by her "shrug it off mentality." I don't believe in ultimate reverence or "how any topic SHOULD be covered," and I applaud the endeavors of others to explain their own point of view of any event. But when that point of view includes base ignorance, then I have issues. I get the feeling this Japanese film handles things much more perceptibly and tactfully than this girl did...

[Filmbrain]

Beautifully said, STBD1.

I've had similar experiences with people outside of NYC who expressed a similar reaction to the one you describe.

Then of course there were the jackasses, like Stockhausen and Elizabeth Wurtzel who made ridiculous statements just too appear controversial.

Peep "TV" Show, while far from perfect, does approach the subject in a manner I've not witnessed before.

[Wiley Wiggins]

I had a weird and horrible feeling as the events of 9-11 were unfolding. I wasn't in NYC the day it happened (I was in Toronto for the film festival. We were supposed to show our movie the day it happened.) but I was back a few days later to deal with the post-attack hysteria and the anthrax scare. One one level I was shaken to the point that I was barely functioning, but on another level I found myself almost addicted to the adrenalin-rush feeling that the world was unraveling around me and we might all die. I was glued to the television, waiting for the next horrible thing to happen, letting it bark disaster-porn at me until my head rattled with it. In a weird way, I think I wanted it to get worse, and was alternately horrified that I could feel that way on any level. Anyway, I don't think I've been the same since. Weird panic attacks have become a regular occurance and I think they may be here to stay.

[STBD1]

I wonder if it's an American thing or a human thing to be dissatisfied with the amount of horribleness in the world and to always hope for more. I'll admit, I do the same thing. Seen one bit of disaster on TV? Well, obviously we're desensitized to that now; what's next?

I'm beyond panic attacks. I've reached full-fledged disinterest, which frustrates me.

A year ago I was appalled at the girl in the restaurant. Now, I wonder if I wouldn't BE that girl in the restaurant, hearing that the world was collapsing around me and rolling over because, really, it'll just be worse tomorrow...

And yet somehow we just keep moving. Maybe our own brand of indifference is something like a survival technique.

[Shikaku]

Hello. I'm sending from Tokyo.
I've seen "Peep TV Show" at Festival. However it's not released on screen in Japan yet.

Anyway I was very shocked when I saw this.
It's very curious. I think that they are unordinary but their problems are very close to us.
Also I'm afraid of that foreign audience may feel Japanese are stupid people.

[colinr0380]

Indifference as a survival technique? I think you may be right, but I think we should also consider the way people as individiuals feel disconnected from their society, in the sense that it seems that it is pointless to get worked up about such a large situation - better to just go to work and try and keep your head above water, especially when it seems most people have troubles and fears over even being able to do this.

I think this isn't just an attitude that has appeared out of nowhere, it has been actively encouraged whether by companies or governments. It stops people from thinking that they can make a difference, or at least isolates them in their communities. It allows things to go on unchallenged or mostly unchallenged, with debate allowed but no guarantees that anyone is going to listen!

Of course this isolation and individualistic society is then confronted with a major catastrophe and calls for people to 'band together' against a menace. But having created a collection of individuals how easy is it to call for people to come together? Is it even a hypocritical call for unity since the government has actively disenfranchised its citizens to be able to persue its own policies with the minimum amount of dissention. Wanting a unified response, especially put in the terms of the Bush speech after 9/11 that 'you are either with us or with the terrorists' reveals how togetherness is wanted without the ruling hegemony giving up any of its powers to the 'masses'!

No wonder people were confused! But it is not just the huge events like 9/11 - here in the UK there have been talks of why when so many children are being given comprehensive sex education lessons that the rate of sexually transmitted diseases is high and getting higher. My opinion is that it the same reason why the UK also has a 'binge drinking' culture (drinking to the absolute limit of endurance!) and that is an extra factor in the individualism mentioned above, and that is short-termism. Not thinking of the future because, to be honest, the future doesn't look good! We can see it in business as well, when short-term profits are sought at the expense of the company's future. People do seem to take the same approach on both an individual and societal level (perhaps suggesting something like Kids is even more frightening than just on the 'teenagers having sex' level!)

I haven't seen Peep "TV" Show yet, so I don't know whether many of these issues are picked up on, but it sounds interesting!

[colinr0380]

Sorry, when I said 'something like Kids' I was talking about the Larry Clark film!

While I was posting again, I thought I would talk about Wiley Wiggin's comments about 'disaster-porn' on the TV at the time. I was actually feeling a similar way at the time, kinda glued to the coverage even though there was nothing new to report. Interestingly my father when he got home from work watched the main news, got up and switched the TV off saying 'well there's nothing more to report'. He was able to get what he needed from the news then turn off. Perhaps he was from an earlier generation while I'd been glued to the TV waiting for 'new' news!