Abstract

This article analyzes Kazuo Hara’s documentary Sayonara CP (1972), examining the tension between its activist potential and the ethical problems of its gaze. The central hypothesis argues that the film, while standing as a direct challenge to the myth of postwar Japanese homogeneity, does so from an ableist perspective. Through textual analysis and the application of theoretical frameworks such as documentary performativity (Bruzzi) and dialogism (Bakhtin/Stam), it demonstrates how the film generates a clash of perspectives that, on the one hand, gives visibility and agency to the Aoi shiba no kai collective, but on the other hand, reproduces power dynamics inherent to ableism. The study explores key sequences (from public confrontation to the intrusion into the protagonists’ domestic sphere) to argue that Hara’s lens, while collaborative, instrumentalizes bodies with disability. It concludes that the film’s value lies precisely in making these contradictions productive, acting as a fundamental document that expands the Japanese identity horizon while critically questioning the limits of cinematic representation.

Keywords: Documentary Films | Disability | Cultural Identity | Motion Pictures-Japan