by
Yutaka Tsuchiya
Yutaka
Tsuchiya has been a "media
activist" for the last decade,
producing everything from
free software to a documentary
raising questions about
Emperor Hirohito's war guilt.
His DV tape The New
God records his
(on-going) relationship
with Amamiya, female vocalist
with the ultra-nationalist
punk-noise band The Revolutionary
Truth.
He
lends her a camera to record
her trip to Pyongyang to
meet Japan Red Army terrorists
in exile, and she becomes
a compulsive video diarist.
Their exchanges of views
about race, history, group
identity and so on, founded
on a shared hatred of US
imperialism ("My enemy's
enemy is my friend"), achievesheights
of absurdity and self-delusion
which need to be seen to
be believed.
As
the title indicates, Tsuchiya
is well aware that the fundamental
issue is more theological
than political. This is
a film about right-wingers
so weak that they cannot
feel alive without a deity
to worship.
