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In an upcoming issue of <i>Mechademia</i>, I argue that Oshii's <i>Patlabor
2</i> depicts<br>
a state of emergency that suspends domestic Japanese law and reflects
on Japan's<br>
qualified military and strategic sovereignty due to continued U.S.
military <br>
occupation in the shadow of the Gulf War.<br>
<br>
In a book manuscript I'm currently working on, I argue that Yamamoto<br>
Kajiro's <i>The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malay</i> stages an
assertion of Japanese <br>
sovereignty that displaces that of the League of<br>
Nations' status quo, more or less grounded in the discourse of
political theology.<br>
I also argue that <i>Sugata Sanshiro</i> and <i>Miyamoto Musashi</i>
are wartime narratives <br>
directly engaged with the failure of liberal models<br>
of society organized around the individual before the law in favor of a
political <br>
theology that reinstates a moral and religious community understood to
transcend<br>
mere human law. Such discussions are much more explicit in the novels
than<br>
the films, but the problematic still organizes the films in many ways.<br>
<br>
Mizoguchi's <i>Red Light District </i>(Streets of Shame) thematizes
the legal status of<br>
prostitution in postwar Japan and the insights it offers into the
status of women in <br>
Japanese society. <br>
<br>
Oshima's<i> Death by Hanging</i> directly thematizes subjectivity and
Japanese law in more or less<br>
Lacanian terms.<br>
<br>
Hara Kazuo's <i>Yuki-yukite Shingun</i> arguably deals with how
postwar Japanese civil law<br>
actively restricts access to the truth of individual war crimes under
international <br>
and Japanese law.<br>
<br>
Mark Anderson<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Mark Nornes wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:72972014-76AB-474F-B62F-507E8DC1DB30@umich.edu"
type="cite">I have a grind interested in films on law in Japan. This
would be an easy lost to whip out for Hollywood film, but few titles
come to mind for Japan. How about you folks?
<br>
<br>
Markus
<br>
<br>
(Sent from my iPod, so please excuse the brevity and mistakes.)
<br>
</blockquote>
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