![]() ![]() Spirits might have played a role in the challenge which came up, but machismo culture could also be to blame. You know, just to compare, just to see which one was the better filmmaker. The story goes like this, at some point Tsutsumi wondered if it would be possible for the both of them to shoot two Chainizu dina sequels concurrently. This first meeting, in a hotel bar in Cologne, Germany, may have been rendered possible through the presence of a third protagonist, that of Shin’Ya Kawai, the executive producer on the aforementioned anthology. This huis-clos had given Tsutsumi some ideas, wouldn’t it be cool to reduce the cost of filmmaking by only shooting in an enclosed space, with only two or three characters ? At some point, they may have talked about Jam Films, a 2002 Japanese short film anthology on which they both worked, although it appears they never met on set. Truth is, Kitamura also liked the movie and we can picture the happiness which arose in him when Tsutsumi admitted that Chainizu dina was in part inspired by Kitamura’s opening to his Heat After Dark movie. Tsutsumi at the time was already an established filmmaker in Japan, even though he worked more intelevision, his movie Chainizu dina - pronounced Chinese Diner - had its fair share of success. This might be why he wasso astonished when Yukihiko Tsutsumi, fourteen years his senior, sat in front of him across the table. People were drinking on this very night of 2001, in the CineAsia Film Festival in Cologne, Germany, and Ryuhei Kitamura - who would go on to become famous for movies like Azumi or Godzilla : Final Wars - was sitting alone, not yet known. ![]() But this is a story for another time, as of now, this is just an example, a precedent for what happened in Japan sometimes around 2003. A rivalry which culminated with pieces such as the Tarquin and Lucretia Titien and Tintoret both delivered to world. A battle of will, wit and clout to see who was the literal king of the art world of the city. In the sixteenth century, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese actually fought real wars, with actual strategies and very real briberies in the heart of Venice. We don’t think of art as a response to someone ele’s creation, as a means to fight another art piece with. There is no sense in debating whether Alien or Aliens is better, because, at the end of the day, the whole question only comes down to tastes, yours and those of the person you’re talking to. We like to think of art as some abstract concept which, by being positioned just outside the realm of reality, is actually devoid of competition. ![]()
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