As regards hand-held camera: Thanks to Aaron Gerow for that important reminder that Japan had a lively cinema in the 20s and 30s with lots of stylistic flourishes almost unknown to the emerging Hollywood cinema. And I'll remind everyone that the opening shot (rather lengthy) of Kurosawa's _Yojimbo_ relies on a hand-held camera at a quite close range to the star (Mifune); hand-held cinemascope, in fact--even more rare at the time (1960). And as for Takeshi Kitano: isn't it "Beat" Takeshi, as in a musical beat? And his _Sonatine_ played a number of film festivals and museum screenings in the US, including the Walter Reade Theater in New York. There are no films of his in circulation in film or video formats however, in the States. This is a shame. He is clearly the most interesting live-action filmmaker in Japan today. David ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]