JAPANEMA

JFLA provides high quality Japanese film screening every second and fourth Wednesday. 

7:00pm at JFLA Auditorium (5700 Wilshire Blvd, #100, Los Angeles, CA 90036) 

Free to attend. Reservation is not required.

Street Parking is available. https://www.jflalc.org/about-us#parking

10/25/2017@ 7PM

Bow to Everything, Even to An Electric Pole

Campaign  (選挙)   (120mins, 2007)

Directed by Kazuhiro Soda

©2007 Laboratory X, Inc

A documentary that closely follows the Kawasaki city assembly by-election in 2005.

Yamauchi Kazuhiko, a local stamp and coin merchant, ends up standing in the city assembly election as the official candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The LDP and the Democratic Party are in a head-to-head competition in Kawasaki City. The LDP will no longer be the ruling party of the city assembly should they lose this seat. The Party pumps in LDP congressmen who have been elected from the area as well as experienced election staff in the campaign to ensure Yamauchi is elected. Heavyweight politicians including the then Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro rush to the campaign to lend their support, and the campaign is quickly blown up to be a large-scale organizational battle. Yamauchi, in the meantime, launches a "Bow, even to an electric pole" campaign. He visits fetes at shrines, nursery's sports days, and even stations and bus stops to shake hands with the electorate. Yamauchi's struggle sheds light on the backstage of elections.

This is a directorial debut of Soda Kazuhiro, that has been entered into a number of film festivals, including the official invitation from the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007.

*In Japanese with English subtitles

Click HERE to watch the Trailer