Japanese Historical Process in Anglophone Cinema

Japanese Historical Process in Anglophone Cinema

• 1.
  Japanese Historical Process inAnglophone Cinema by Jonathan Dresner ASPAC 2014 Bellingham, WA
• 2.
  "...the visual seductionsof film can have a reductive effect, and perhaps especially in historical films. The brevity of a film necessarily compresses, forcing the viewer to grasp and grab everything on offer with little time for reflection, caution, or skepticism. The vividness of a gripping film comes too often with a concomitant loss of subtlety, the price we pay for the driving narrative and grand intensity that are so often the delight of a movie. Film, I would argue, tends to rely on the visceral. ...The heroic or villainous figure is an easier fit in a 90-minute production than a complex examination of systems and structures and that, for me, is the trouble with film." -- Philippa Levine
• 3.
  • "Perhaps it'stoo much to expect that our entertainments have a factual basis. But now I have to deal with the aftermath... and I have to hope that my careful deconstruction can make some dent in the technicolor, surround-sound, adrenaline- enhanced images in their minds." - Jonathan Dresner, "How True to History is Tom Cruise's 'The Last Samurai'?"
• 4.
  Sources Historical Chronology • early1600s: Shogun • 1603: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III • 1703: 47 Ronin • 1858: The Barbarian and the Geisha • 1870s: The Last Samurai • 1930s-1940s: Memoirs of a Geisha • 1945: Letters from Iwo Jima • 1980s: Karate Kid 2 Production Chronology • 1958: The Barbarian and the Geisha • 1980: Shogun • 1986: Karate Kid 2 • 1993: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III • 2005: Memoirs of a Geisha • 2005: The Last Samurai • 2006: Letters from Iwo Jima • 2013: 47 Ronin
• 5.
  Cinematic Narcissism • "I'vesaid it many times before, and I'll say it again, Hollywood can make a movie set anywhere in the world, in any era of history... and still somehow find a way for the movie to star a white guy. Even a movie about Bruce Lee." - Angry Asian Man (blog) (2 June 2014) [ellipsis in original].
• 6.
  Other Issues • "Destiny:what a drag!" tragic traditionalists. • ahistorical essentialism • tradition as isolating, drag on development • superstition against heroic/effective science; foreigner as "voice of reason" • decontextualized atypical figures • impact-response theory? • "Great Man" history, history as biography. • economic and political change as backdrop • Unnecessary claims to accuracy
• 7.
  Selected Sources • BackgroundImage: Kano Chikayasu, Scenes From The Tale Of Genji, c. 1850, Saint Louis Art Museum. Picture by Jonathan Dresner • Philippa Levine, "The Trouble With Film" Perspectives on History, Masters At The Movies series, 2010 March. • Angry Asian Man (pseud.), "Director Signs On For Bruce Lee Biopic 'Birth Of The Dragon'" Angry Asian Man (blog) 6.02.2014 • Jonathan Dresner, "How True to History is Tom Cruise's 'The Last Samurai'?" History News Network, 8-8-05 http://hnn.us/article/2746