RED PERSIMMONS

DIRECTED BY OGAWA SHINSUKE & PENG XIAOLIAN
JAPAN, 2001
90 MINUTES
IN JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Filmsource information

A REMARKABLY BEAUTIFUL FILM, OSTENSIBLY ON THE ARCANE SUBJECT OF THE GROWING, DRYING, PEELING AND PACKAGING OF PERSIMMONS in a tiny Japanese village. It was begun by Japanese director Ogawa Shinsuke and completed after his death by his Chinese acolyte, Peng Xiaolian, who has remained true to the delicate, wry sensibility inherent in the original footage. The larger subject is the disappearance of Japan’s traditional culture, the end of a centuries’ old way of life. The film’s point of view is elegant and often bemused. Several villagers demonstrate how they invented a mechanized persimmon-peeler from bicycle parts! Others boast of the perfect combination of earth, wind and rain that makes their village’s persimmons superior to those grown just a few miles away. And the gorgeous red-orange fruit, whether drying or in full blossom, has an unforgettably radiant beauty that speaks for itself.

• Red Persimmons webpage (in Japanese)
• The Japan Society Website
• Slow Food - a movement for the protection of the right to taste
• Persimmon facts
• Film making of Ogawa Shinsuke from Documentary Box
• Internet Movie Database page on Ogawa Shinsuke
• CIA world fact book Japan
• The Japan Foundation

Books on Amazon:

• Vanishing Japan: Traditions, Craft and Culture
• The Japanese Way : Aspects of Behavior, Attitudes, and Customs of the Japanese
• Japanese Culture

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