NOW IS THE PAST – MY FATHER, JAVA & THE PHANTOM FILMS

A Filmmaker Tracks Down and Redefines His Father’s Work

Venue(s): Hibiya Library / Museum
Jan. 29 (Sat), 2022: 11:00 am
Language: Japanese, English, Indonesian with Japanese and English subtitles with barrier-fee audio
Official website: note.com/isefilm/n/nb6ef3b4cb46e
Theater website: www.library.chiyoda.tokyo.jp/hibiya/
Trailer: https://bit.ly/3IkIXSV
Tariff: ¥1,500 (Disability discount: ¥1,000, Children under the age of 15: Free)
Advance tickets: Inquiries: 03-3406-9455 (Ise Film)
Talk event: Post-screening talk in Japanese with dir. Shin-ichi Ise

Title: いまはむかし 父・ジャワ・幻のフィルム (Ima ha Mukashi Chichi Jawa Maboroshi no Film)
Director: Shin-ichi Ise (伊勢真一)
Duration: 88 min

In this highly personal documentary, a filmmaker goes on a journey in search of his father’s past, and uncovers “truths” from nearly 80 years ago. The filmmaker’s father was Chonosuke Ise (1912-1973), a documentary film editor who had gone to Japanese-occupied Indonesia during WWII as a member of Japan’s "Cultural Front," and created numerous propaganda films in the name of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. His son’s search for the work he produced there spanned 30 years. There will be one English-subbed screening at Hibiya Library.

The Cultural Front sought to justify Japan’s hegemony in Asia, claiming that it had liberated other countries from colonialism. Shinichi Ise traces his father’s path, curious about why he barely spoke to his son about the war or Indonesia, seemingly reluctant to discuss what he’d done there.

Ise’s quest takes him to film studios in Jakarta that were built by forced laborers, to eyewitnesses who recall the atrocities committed by the Japanese military police, and to women who fled from Japanese rapists.

Joined by his eldest son Tomoya Ise (a director) and eldest daughter Kayo Ise (an actor), Shinishi Ise’s long journey results in the discovery of 130 “phantom” propaganda films stored at the Dutch National Archive in The Hague. At last, he’s able to watch his father’s work on such subjects as Japanese efforts to control malaria and the work of railway laborers. “Why did he make them?” he wonders. And what would he have done in the same situation?

The Ise family’s noble pursuit was a healing one for many of the Indonesian participants, and a new “truth” has now been preserved on film for future generations.

Hibiya Library & Museum