Le Japon insolite

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Director François Reichenbach assembled 90 minutes of footage on Japanese rituals and customs, martial arts, evidence of Western commercialism, and the nearly blank faces of urban dwellers who seem to wrap themselves in anonymity as a protection against the crowded masses. Without the benefit of interviews or analyses of what is passing before one's eyes on the screen, the parade of Japanese scenes seems to take place at some distance -- making the viewer a definite outsider with no friendly interpreter to ground his or her perspective.