The Netherlands, whose citizens in the Far East suffered heavily from the Japanese in wartime, decides today who is to attend Hirohito's funeral. It is thought certain no royalty will go. The Opposition Labour party vants representation at ambassadorial level only. But the Centre-Right coalition government is expected to send the Foreign Minister, Kr Hans van den Broek. A REVOLUTION IN ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY IS COMING, AND THE JAPANESE BYLINE: BY ELAINE DUTKA and NINA J. EASTON, Elaine Dutka and Nina J. Easton are Times staff writers. ... global entertainment industry into the 21st Century. Who best understands the coming revolution and what it means to the movie business? Well, the Japanese seen to understand it very, very well. They Beware." Around town, filmmakers nervously assessed Matsushita president Akio Tanii's reluctance to assure then he wouldn't meddle in creative matters. Those concerns are not unfounded. Two years ago, Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" opened in Japanese theaters only after the portrayal of Japan's bloody 1937 raid on Nanjing was excised. Other films critical of Japanese culture have never been seen there. As Patrick O'Heffernan, director of Georgia Institute for Technology's Center for International Strategy, put it: "We revel in skewering our sacred cows. The Japanese honor their sacred cows. Will that lead to censorship? I don't think so. But it will be one more step in the process where some movies don't get made." O'Heffernan and others also express concern that the Japanese owners will be even more big-hit and bottom-line oriented than the Americans. But the larger issue, argues O'Heffernan, is that the ....... ... way of life so influential overseas. Some Hollywood insiders, however, don't expect those exports to look any different under Japanese ownership. "The Japanese aren't going to try to decide for people what pictures they should see," says David Geffen, who became a leading ... SECTION: Section 4; Page 5; Column 1; Week In Review Desk LENGTH: 1206 words HEADLINE: Ideas & Trends; The Deal for MCA: Why the Anxiety Over Japan's Latest Find in America WHEN Japanese companies announce that they have bought another American firm, there is now a nearly ritual patter that smoothes the way for the deal. First a senior executive of the Japanese company points out that this is a "friendly" deal, a polite way of saying that Americans who dislike the Japanese acquisitions should complain to the sellers. Usually the executive. But the fact remains that some unsettling things happen to movies in Japan, and to books as well. When Bernardo Bertolucci's epic, "The Last Emperor, opened in Japan in 1988 it was missing a key snippet: old nevereel scenes of Japanese soldiers in Nanjing, China, in 1937, gunning down Chinese and dumping their bodies. The Bovie's distributor, using an expression that often crops up here when debate over anything from politics to high prices seems likely to cause discomfort, explained that "ve had better avoid unnecessary confusion in the movie theaters." If Japanese are confused, it may be because the "Rape of Nanjing" is glossed over in schoolbooks as the "Wanjing Incident." So is Japan's 45-year occupation of Korea. The American-made movie "Mishima," about the writer Yukio Mishima, vho committed suicide by ritual seppuku 20 years ago as he called for a resurgent Japanese military, has never been shown in Japan. The ostensible reason is that movie distributors fear the reaction of powerful right-wing groups. Scarcely Mentioned The right wing is hardly the only group in Japan skilled at using intimidation tactics to manipulate what is written about it. Japanese I. APPENDIX 8.-REPORT BY THE PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, "THE TRADEMARK ACT OF 1946 AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR ALTERATION OF MOTION PICTURES," MARCH 15, 1989 Introduction. The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Administration of Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, has requested that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office examine the impact of new technologies for the alteration of existing motion pictures on consumers, artists, producers and distributors of motion pictures, and other affected parties. Examples of these technologies include colorization of black and white motion pictures, time compression and expansion, and panning and scanning, The Subcommittee asked the Copyright office to conduct a broad-based inquiry concerning the nature, extent and effect of the new technologies on creators and users of audiovisual works; the Patent and Trademark Office was asked to study the specific, narrower question of the extent to which the Trademark Act of 1946 (Lanham Act), 15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq., and particularly section 43(a) of the Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(a), may apply to use of the new technologies to alter existing motion pictures without the consent of the principal director and principal screenwriter who participated in their creation. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a Notice of Inquiry in the Federal Register on July 26, 1988 (53 FR 28048), soliciting written comments on the following two questions: (1) To what extent is it contemplated that problems relating to the use of new technologies (2) Should the Lanham Act be amended to provide Written comments were received from the Directors' Guild of America; the U.S. Trademark Association; Color Systems |