Text by Keisuke Kagiwada
Milkman Saito, a Kyoto-based filmmaker and a "non-designer" member of the design collective groovisions, made his debut as a film critic for a commercial magazine in 1994. The opportunity arose through the intermediation of Tanaka Tomoyuki (Fantastic Plastic Machine), a former part-time coworker and editor at Keihanshin Elle Magazine.
He belonged to a neighborhood in Kansai that embodied the Shibuya-kei movement, which was booming at the time. Indeed, his excitement over the appearance of Tarantino and its aftermath, and his amusement even in tasteless Mondo films, are reminiscent of the Shibuya-kei movement.
The insights from such insiders are also highly suggestive. For example, I was taken aback by the description of director Kato Ayaka's "I Hate Girls" that "it is perhaps the first to analytically portray the objectivity, fictionality, or even evil and discomfort inherent in the word 'cute' that was given meaning after the Shibuya-kei movement of the 1990s."
However, his identity as a critic seems to have been based on being a "Kansai native." His recent articles from 2010 onwards show that he has been actively taking part in film events in the Kansai region.
Of course, this may have been due to the fact that it was published in a Kansai information magazine, but it also seems like the magazine is fighting alone to change the "Kansai film situation," which was described as "nothing special" in 2006. Its identity also sometimes invigorates criticism.
In particular, his comment about director Yamada Yuki's "Drowning Knife" - "As a Kansai native, I just want to say that this film gives you a more intense and powerful sense of Nakagami Kenji than any of his other works that have been made into films so far" - is truly impressive.
In that sense, it goes without saying that it can be enjoyed as a collection of film reviews, but it is also an interesting book as a record of a certain era in film and Kansai.
"1994-2024 Milkman Saito Retrospective: Keihanshin El Magazine Film Criticism Collection"
In addition to film reviews, the book also includes interviews with directors and actors, including Kazuya Shiraishi, as well as essays by fellow writers who were close to the author when he was alive. An index compiling the vast number of films mentioned is included as an appendix. Keihanshin L Magazine Co., Ltd. / 3,200 yen.
