Oriental Elegy is the first film in the Japanese video cycle, a cycle that is still unfolding. The genre of this cycle can hardly be considered documentary; although it is possible that it is because real people are represented in their normal state and in their real environment. They are simple people, although neither ordinary nor typical of modern Japan. Its originality lies not in its adherence to antiquated patterns or routines, but in the specificity of its souls, in which poetry and mythology mean something more than the symbols of contemporary reality.
