A Fond Face from the Past

A Fond Face from the Past is also set in a rural community specifically a village outside Kameoka near Kyoto In some ways this short thirtysixminute film is Naruses most moving negotiation of the militarist restrictions of the time perhaps because it is also his most direct engagement with the culture of war When a newsreel comes to Kameoka featuring a local man named Yoichi it causes some excitement in the community and of course in Yoichis own family First of all his mother makes the newsreel Nippon News no 14 which begins with the same marching music that opens his own film followed by a curious baby judging context in Los Angeles featuring two hundred Japanese babies Released in January 1941 almost a year before the pacific war begins this found footage is indicative of Japanese imperialist ambitions beyond Asia long before Pearl Harbor