<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Trains and train stations in Japanese films? I can't believe the question is straightforward. Is Brian trying to seduce us into watching Otomo's <i>Steamboy</i> (sigh!) or perhaps inaugurate the longest-running thread in KineJapan's dear history? (Asking us about which Japanese films figure Japanese characters would have been just <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">too</span> obvious ... okay, I'm exaggerating here.) But then again, it's such a fun question for another one like me who grew up with a freight train running right down the main street of my small American hometown twice a day. (It was fun to watch during the daytime--and at night, as a little boy, I'd listen wistfully, awfully--as in awe-filled--from my bed to the rumble that shook our little city. )<div><br></div><div>Well, here are some of my favorites:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Wartime Train</span>: <i>Sanshiro Sugata</i>'s final scene--Sugata's subordination to moral order is matched by his containment within a train---and doesn't he even remove a piece of soot from his beloved's eye ... (now this was one year before David Lean's <i>Brief Encounter---</i>or am I confusing it with another film?)</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Postwar Golden Trains:</span> Nakahira's great shots of the train station and platform and kiosks in <i>Crazed Fruit </i>and Kurosawa's <i>High and Low</i> (that incredible action scene) and <i>Dodeskaden </i>(the phantasy trains that we never see, almost the inverse of Kinugasa's trains that we <i>do</i>) are beaten by the beautiful sentimentality of Noriko, Tomi's watch, and Kyoko's view of the train as it leaves Onomichi in <i>Tokyo Story</i>. </div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">New Wave Trains</span>: <i>Violence at Noon </i>gives us all kinds of trains: from the shinkansen--even fear of a murderer on a train--to the wild pans on a more local train as Shino and Matsuko (Koyama Akiko) head to a failed double-suicide--</div><div><br></div><div>Or how about the tunnel with no train ... in Kawase's <i>Moe no Suzaku ... </i>train as transport to a differently gendered world in <i>Summer Vacation 1999</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div>But now I've fallen for the question ... I must wrest my mind back. I look forward to other's responses.</div><div><br></div><div>Jonathan M Hall</div><div>UC Irvine</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 11 Sep 2008, at 18:27, Brian Ruh wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Since reading this article [1] in the Japan Times, I've been thinking about Japanese trains. (I love things like subway cars and trains. I think it stems from growing up in a place where there wasn't anything like that.) Can anyone recommend any good Japanese films that prominently feature trains, stations, etc.? (When I try a Google search on the subject, I'm inundated with results for Densha Otoko.)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Any time period or genre would be great. (I particularly like the train scenes in Shinkai Makoto's "5 Centimeters Per Second" even though they're animated.) Thanks in advance!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[1] <a href="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080909jk.html">http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080909jk.html</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Best,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Brian</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Brian's Essential Reading:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.oshiibook.com">http://www.oshiibook.com</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>