CAMPAIGN 2
(選挙2)
dir. Kazuhiro Soda, production associate Kiyoko Kashiwagi, 2013
145 mins. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

SUNDAY, MARCH 24 – 8 PM – KAZUHIRO SODA AND KIYOKO KASHIWAGI IN PERSON!
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
(This event is $10.)

Soda’s sequel to CAMPAIGN is another showcase of Yama-San’s dedication to politics, but also sees him taking on a more cohesive electoral persona: this time running against the Liberal Democratic Party machine that propelled him to victory years before, with a strong anti-nuclear agenda in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima meltdown. Even if CAMPAIGN 2 picks up where the pyrrhic victories of the first film left off, it also complicates its goofier image: as Soda profiles other Kawasaki residents, candidates and dealmakers, he also shows us how his own celebrity has grown following (and because of) the first CAMPAIGN. The result is an absorbing survey of the relationship between Japanese politics and society, and a self-reflexive question of the role played by public debate in shaping mores on the ground.

“With people fretting over heightened radiation levels, to eat and to breathe is a matter of life and death – and Soda’s efforts in recording the quotidian around him makes perfect sense, as he captures images of masked commuters on train platforms and on the streets, signage about electric conservation, or even children playing in a park, bereft of the fear their parents might feel. Though at times protracted and repetitive, it’s a process which keeps track of a certain point in time when politics and real life converge – or, as seen in CAMPAIGN 2, how a disconnect remains between the two.” – Clarence Tsui, The Hollywood Reporter