2003年12月02日 火曜日
Expect More Silliness
by Jane Pinckard
Movies
Ugh. I expect better from the BBC. "Captured by the Samurai"? "Bashido"? What, this news was so critical they couldn't wait for a fact-checker?
But we can all expect more silliness along these lines as we count down to the opening of Tom Cruise's new movie, The Last Samurai. I will go see it, of course. It's my bicultural duty.
But also, it's always interesting to me how Japan is portrayed in the West, even after all this time, all this scholarship, and all these attempts for cross-cultural communication. Some myths are too big to be taken down, some archetypes endure. And from an artistic standpoint, why shouldn't they? Movies aren't about life - they are about the epic, the mythic, the larger-than-life.
It will be interesting indeed to see how Mr. Cruise and Co. portray this mysterious Bashido, which is apparently so like Scientology.
Posted by Jane Pinckard at 2003年12月02日 21:14
Comments
Ugh is right.
Jane, I am glad you are going to see it because I don't think I could, bicultural duty or not. But I am curious. So let us know!
I think many of the modern philosophy/religions will remind people of many of the older philosophy/religions. That's because the new ones are all derived from the old ones. :-)
Pacific Time, the radio show on KQED had a piece exploring the shifting identity of Japan in Hollywood films (check out <a href="http://www.kqed.org/programs/program-archive.jsp?progID=RD37&ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&type=radio">the archives, the show was on November 4</a>. The piece was predicated on the upcoming Tom Cruise film you mention Jane. But the first part dwells more on Lost in Translation, and there's a second part, an interview with a subtitler, that deals more with Japanese-Hollywood exchange in the last century (translating Woody Allen, Apocalypse Now, Yojimbo).
Later, the translator preparing Tom Cruise's film for Japan says that she expected them to get it wrong, but they got it all right, all of it correct, for the first time! The net-radio piece isn't long on content, but it does whet my appetite for Jane's review.
I just grimace thinking about how Tom is going to sound speaking Japanese. Uma and Lucy had Japanese audiences falling out of their seats with laughter here in Tokyo when I saw 'Kill Bill.'
Hopefully, some kind dialogue coach will try and ease him past the "Sean Connery School of Film Japanese" stylings that were featured in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and RISING SUN.
Also, is this just another movie about the white fantasy of acceptance, a la DANCES WITH WOLVES?
Yes. Definitely Dances with Wolves. Tom's Japanese had a gaijin accent, as you'd expect. But it wasn't unnatural and he didn't try to sound fluent. It wasn't required. The scene where Koyuki puts her dead husband's armor on Tom is far more erotic than the scene where Yoko Shimada climbs in the furo naked with Richard Chamberland in Shogun. Speaking of acceptance, Will Adams was accepted, as far as I can tell, and the Miura Peninsula bears his name -- Miura Anjin.
When I saw The Last Samurai, something happened that I've never seen before. Everyone in the whole theater sat quietly while the credits rolled. They sat until the lights came up. And then quietly left the theater. Ordinarily, the moment the film is over, people rush for the exits while the credits roll and the ending theme plays. It was quite amazing.
Japanese acquaintances pooh-poohed Shogun, but everyone who has seen The Last Samurai seems a bit awed by Watanabe Ken's performance. The movie wasn't the way it was. But what movie is?
charlie
News is about money not about ethics :)
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