Senkyo

Apparently this film was shown in a BBC 4 season called "Why Democracy?", introduced by the question, "Can politicians solve climate change?" But this is clearly not a heavy serious-minded documentary. And there is no mention of climate change. There is barely any mention of political issues at all.

I don't think the director was making a great effort to raise "issues" or make serious "points". And I am sure he was not trying to make points that are relevant in all countries. Not all themes are universal. Many of the quirks of Japanese democracy result from the country's laws and are therefore probably unique to Japan. I think the director just made the film like this because he thought it would be interesting, funny, and entertaining.

There are many extremely funny scenes: the station staff jamming people on to trains; Yamauchi throwing his socks into the corner of the room, into a box of newspapers; his friends saying that he hadn't paid social insurance (this is an issue that has led to the downfall of several senior Japanese politicians).

There are several scenes that make you think, "How on earth did he get permission to film this?" And it is an impressive film in that way. But as you can see from the other IMDb pages, the director did the producing, photography, and editing himself, and he knew the candidate from university. I am sure Yamauchi would have been much more wary if a big crew from a major TV station had turned up and tried to film private conversations with his wife. But in the end all the main characters come across as good people.

I suppose you could say that Yamauchi is uncharismatic. But that is not a crime. He is just a person trying to do something. And after all, this is only a city council election.

The ending was slightly unsatisfying. When everyone else was in the office awaiting the result of the election, Yamauchi was inexplicably still at home. And when he finally arrived, he somehow did not seem to be himself. And then it was all over.

--- USEFUL THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU WATCH THIS FILM ---

(I agree with the previous comments that audiences who are not familiar with Japanese politics might find this film difficult to understand.)

Japan has very strict legal restrictions on how candidates are allowed to campaign. This explains why he does not use radio or TV to campaign, and why he has to start and stop campaigning on the streets at certain exact times of day.

In Japan, many people vote for the LDP unquestioningly. They are just conservative-minded and they prefer things not to change. This goes part-way to explaining why there is almost no discussion of issues and the whole campaign seems to be just an effort to get people to know the candidate's name.

Campaign screened at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It is a thoughtful cinema verite view of a campaign for a city council seat in a suburb of Tokyo. The film focuses on the race run by an uncharismatic novice politician for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party - a Conservative political party. This unusual film is at its best when it provides a lens to explain Japanese culture and politics - particularly the hierarchical nature of Japanese society. It clearly show that Japanese politics are as banal as an American politics. There is never any serious discussion of policy issues. Instead the candidate focuses on increasing his name recognition. The candidate speaks in slogans about being for "Reform." The biggest problem with Campaign is that its 2-hour running time is simply too long for the story it is telling. The film would be snappier and more interesting at 75 to 90 minutes. As it is, the scenes are simply too long and repetitive and much extraneous material is included. The cinema verite style also provides very little context for those who are unfamiliar with Japanese politics. Still, the film opens a window into the world of Japanese democracy that will be very educational for outsiders and may allow people to think about the flaws that are typical in all democratic systems as well as those specific to Japan.

Another reviewer has already commented that 90 minutes was too long for this film and I must agree with them despite having seen a shorter version. This film was shown as part of BBC4's Why Democracy? season of films and it was preceded with the words "can politicians solve climate change?". The answer to this question is the film itself and it is a depressing answer because watching this you can only really say "no". Looking at a comparatively low level in the game, we follow aspiring politician Kazuhiko Yamauchi on the campaign trail as he stands at a bus shelter telling passers-by how he is for "reform".

The film continues in the same vein and it is part of the reason why it works fine when it is not so long - even at sixty minutes it has made its point with time to spare. The essence of the film seems to be that democracy has the downside of being a bit of a popularity contest, with those seeking power unable to really challenge the big issues because their focus is all about getting in by pleasing as many people as possible, whereas the reality is that the solutions to some issues will not be vote winners but still need doing. This film will feel a bit banal to some viewers but this is the point and I was surprised by how I was engaged by the superfluous nature of the race to office. Yamauchi is hardly the most charismatic of men and says little about who he is or what he stands for – all that seems to matter is that he avoids contentious issues and that he gets himself well supported by Prime Minister Koizumi and other candidates.

It is a frank and surprisingly honest film to the point where I did wonder how the makers got such things on films. The banality of the campaign trail is one thing but to be able to film the personal conversations between Yamauchi and his wife made me wonder who agreed to this and what they thought they would get out of it. It does rather depress me as a voter but it is what it is and it is no different than the reality in elections in other countries (which I guess is the point). In the UK in 2000/01 Shaun Woodward was parachuted into Labour safe seat St Helens as reward for defecting from the Conservative party to New Labour. It didn't matter that Woodward was a million miles remote from his new constituents (St Helens is one of the poorest areas in Europe whereas Woodward famously had a butler), all that mattered was that politics was being played and Labour knew that the voters of St Helens would play along no matter who was put in front of them. This is one example of the problem, the film is another and I'm sure every constituency across the world has others.

The film is slow and superficial in some ways but this is the appeal. I agree that even at sixty minutes it is a little bit longer than it needs to be but it makes its point well and I was surprised by how honest some of the footage was and also how on earth the makers got anyone involved to agree to make this film considering what it is clearly showing the process of democracy to be. Almost makes you wish for an unelected Government to come in for 10 years and just force through unpopular resolutions through – but then I guess you know what they say about absolute power?

I really enjoyed this movie because I am Japanese-American, have never been to Japan, but am really interested in going someday (when I have extra money) and also because I study Japanese language as a hobby. I was in a university library and saw this movie, Campaign (or Senskyo, the Japanese word for campaign) in the 'new titles' section and grabbed it because it has an eye-catching graphic and because I love watching things in Japanese with subtitles; I chose this over 'It's Complicated.' I made the right choice.

I really loved this movie! I felt like I was in Japan and really felt like I was part of the campaign. You see a lot of shots of the train station, the Japanese houses, the inside of the tiny tiny apartments Japanese people live in (so different from the US--they don't even spend much money on furniture it seems), and the campaign people eating Japanese food and participating in Japanese rallies at schools or for elderly people who apparently exercise in groups doing aerobics like you would see on TV.

Aside from being able to see and experience some of Japan, I also enjoyed the comedy of this movie, or maybe the psychological aspects of it--the behavior and thinking of the different people who appear. You can see that people get irritated at the candidate for not conforming to the party's expectations, and there is some gossip and intrigue that makes it feel like the viewer really gets a sense of the people, even those who are not introduced. The campaign vibe is tense at times, formal/ritualistic oftentimes, and seems trivial once in a while. I really liked the shots of Japanese children who are actually the most excited about the campaign. They were really cute.

I recommend this movie, especially if you are interested in Japan and Japanese people or if you know any Japanese people, because this will remind you of those Japanese friends/relatives you have. I also recommend the extras on the DVD which are clips of the cute filmmaker and the star of the movie in Berlin. Lastly, I should mention that like the other reviewers said, this movie does feel a bit long because the conclusion/denouement doesn't come till maybe 100 minutes in, but I watched this over several days and felt it was well worth watching the whole thing.