Vegalta: Soccer, Tsunami and the Hope of a Nation

On 5th March, 2011, I was in Osaka to watch Gamba Osaka kick-off the 2011 J League season against local rivals Cerezo Osaka. Six days after the home side's 2-1 win, the Tohoku Earthquake struck, delaying the season for a month. Gamba went on the finish third that season, followed in fourth by Vegalta Sendai, a relatively recent addition to the J League Division 1 surprising against the odds: The team from the region most impacted by the resulting tsunami.

Douglas Hurcombe and Geoff Trodd's documentary tells the story of the team rising from recently promoted no-hopers to league runners-up the following 2012 season, naturally serving as a metaphor for the people of the local community overcoming natural disaster to rebuild their lives.

This story is split into three parts: To start, the story of the earthquake and tsunami themselves, with interviews from local Vegalta fans that had their lives torn apart by the disaster. Secondly, the focus shifts to the re-start of the J League season in the aftermath, with Vegalta's away trip to Kawasaki Frontale their first match. Going a goal down, the Vegalta side, backed by their emotional fans complete a fairy-tale comeback to win 2-1 in the final minutes. The concluding part looks at the 2012 season, the Vegalta players and fans having played their part in helping to rebuild the community, raising money and going out to various towns and villages in the area. Though perhaps their biggest contribution to the community was building on the club's most successful campaign of 2011 to go one step further, nearly taking the title itself.

Much is made of the Tohoku people's stoic, 'country-bumpkin' mentality and how this benefited them in the aftermath of the disaster. Indeed, the fans interviewed who had family members and friends killed show a coming to terms with what happened, emphasised by their desire for the Frontale game to go ahead, fans turning up in their thousands only weeks after their homes were destroyed; and the emotional season-closing message from the then manager, Makoto Teguramori.

A relatively low-key documentary by a British-based group, this recalls Neil Cantwell and Tim Grabham's 'KanZeOn', a documentary about traditional Japanese music. Focusing largely on interviews with the fans, players and manager involved, and Gary Lineker, it keeps things relatively simple and doesn't force sentimentality on what is an emotive subject. Any emotion intended is from a largely punk soundtrack, to reflect the more boisterous aspects of Japanese football fan culture.

Up until 1992 when the J League formed, football teams, very much like baseball teams in Japan, were owned by companies. The formation of the professional J League was to eliminate this corporate association, with teams to be named after their location and form a bond with the local community. Enthusiasm, as Gary Lineker testifies to, was big among fans.

Vegalta Sendai, founded in 1988 as the Tohoku Electric Power Co. Soccer Club, were part of a J League expansion, switching to the professional league in Division 2 in 1999 under their current name. However, due to limited success, the team struggled to gain any great affinity with the local community. Though being established in Division 1 from 2010 onwards and the 2011 earthquake created this bond, with the Vegalta success giving the community a distraction, an inspiration and a wider sense of community.

The complete fairy tale ending would be that Vegalta would have won the 2012 season, around only eighteen months since the disaster itself. Though this was not to be, Sanfrecce Hiroshima taking that honour. Though, unlike the Leicester City story (Gary Lineker's interview clearly done before last season's victory), their failure makes the story more human, and puts the perspective back onto the community itself and how far they had been able to come in such a short period of time. 

KanZeOn

'KanZeOn' is an interesting film - interesting in that sense that you're unsure as to how to react to it once completing its eighty-six minutes. Filmed in glorious high definition, this British-made documentary from the start seems to be a random collection of interviews and demonstrations from a random collection of Japanese that have some connection to traditional Nihon no ongaku, divided into seemingly order-less chapters. But as it continues, themes start to emerge and the different personalities come to the fore.

Setting the scene, demonstrating their talents, then explaining their philosophies regarding music and art and their place in the world, three main characters form the basis of the documentary: a Noh theatre master; a player of the Chinese instrument, sho; and an interesting hip hop priest, who beat-boxes and DJs in his own unique way. Interspersed with lots of slow shots of scenery, temples and shrines, this is a film designed to get the viewer into the tranquil state that the music creates in each of its performers.

There are many ways in which to make a documentary, with the approach to 'KanZeOn' one that lacks any real narrative structure nor extended or in-depth interviewing. Instead, it leaves those featured to say their piece and demonstrate their art, making it a very personal account of the meaning of the sounds and religious beliefs. This is watching and observing, without attempting to intrude on the impossible.

The message here is that music means something different to everyone, and so doesn't try and form any universal conclusions, perhaps a metaphor for how 'KanZeOn' itself will be received.