Japanese Renaissance Filmmaking PDF

Preview

Summary

Involves Japan, WWII, and Rashomon....

Description

Kameron Cross Prof. Kreger FILM 102 2/20/20

JAPANESE RENAISSANCE FILMMAKING

Japan and WWII •

Over 2 million military deaths, 700,000 civilians during War.

• Japan was occupied by the US from 1945-1952. •

The country underwent a transition to democracy, adopting a Bill of Rights, giving women the right to vote, etc.

•

Their society changed dramatically in a very short time

•

By the mid-1950s, films were no longer censored for political content.

•

The Japanese were taught to respect the emperor as a god and were steeped in stories about a Samurai who is prepared to die to protect his lord.

• Japanese soldiers had been trained to fight against all odds, never surrender. • During WWII, Japan censored all film productions to make them nationalistic. • After the War, the US took over rule of Japan and prohibited films that were undemocratic, anti-foreign or militaristic, which meant that Samurai films were banned for “favoring or approving feudal loyalty” until mid 1950s. • At the end of the War, Japan surrendered after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As part of the surrender, the emperor admitted to his people that he was not a god. •

Japanese audiences, who had lost the unifying faith in their emperor, were living in a state of flux between their traditional hierarchies and a new social order. They had been living in a state of constant war for many years

Feudalism and Samurai Films • Feudalism is a system in which an individual’s power is related to his job and status.

• In the mid 1950s, nearly 40% of Japanese films were set in the distant past, like Samurai films.

• By 1969, only 8% were—the rest were focused on contemporary society. • Common conflict is between duty and personal inclination. The Sengoku Era (The Time Of Rashomon ) •

As smaller provinces were defeated and subsumed by more powerful warlords, many of their Samurai became ronins (masterless samurai)—loners, wanderers, sometimes “hired swords" while some others became bandits.

• There was a brief blurring of social boundaries. Samurai were bound by their code, yet they lost some of the privileges of their position.

• Agriculture increased in order to generate money for the warlords’ armies, making peasants more important, however, vunerable.

The Rashomon Effect • Even eye witnesses have contradictory accounts of what “really” happened. •

Each person tends to remember an event in the way that is most flattering to themselves....