A true master in our midst

Film is art, commerce -- and fashion. Actors, directors and even national cinemas are in vogue one year, out the next. Not long ago the British were hot, now it's the turn of the Chinese. The forces that drive trends, including festival programmers, critics and buyers, are attracted by talent, energy and originality, but there is also a herd mentality at work. Yesterday the trendsetters sneered at Hong Kong martial-arts fantasies as silly cult stuff for fan boys; today everyone is looking for the next "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

What does all this have to do with Jun Ichikawa? Despite a long string of awards for his television commercials -- his day job -- and his 11 feature films, Ichikawa has been out of step with trends that have boosted several of his colleagues to international acclaim. Unlike Takeshi Kitano, he has never gone in for the brand of black-comedy violence that Quentin Tarantino made so sexy in the early '90s. Unlike Hideo Nakata, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and other purveyors of "Japanese horror," he has never latched onto a hot genre. In fact, name the cinematic movement of the moment, from art-house minimalism to pop-culture pastiche, and Ichikawa is conspicuous by his absence.

What he has done instead, with flawless craftsmanship and intelligent passion, is produce a body of work that redefines the best traditions of humanist cinema for contemporary Japanese society. Ichikawa may pay homage to such masters as Yasujiro Ozu and Eric Rohmer, but he has developed his own distinctive style and vision for his own time.