Japan

How do you tell a genuine educational travel film from a tax-deductible vacation? Advance scripting (or the lack thereof), which provides a solid overview of the who, what, when, where, and why of a country within the opening minutes of a production. In addition, the family of the filmmaker should not be prominently featured, and every minute of footage should be designed to tell a researched story rather than just show places or events that caught the filmmaker's fancy. This video fails in all of these regards. While there are several interesting vignettes of traditional Japanese life here, they're interspersed with ephemeral shots such as one of the filmmaker's wife posing with a deer (while the voice-over states: "there are two dears in this picture.") In addition to the tourist stuff, there are too many cute home movie items included for no apparent reason. One example: showing baby birds in a nest above a vent on a boat. Sure it's cute, but what, precisely, does it have to do with the ancient and modern culture of Japan? While designed for schools, the title is too completely disorganized to purchase for educational purposes. Public libraries that don't need (or already have) a good travelogue could consider this as a very optional purchase. A second title, Mexico, is also available. Aud: P. (R. Reagan)