In 1999, Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid
series' creator, used a specific term to describe the fact that several medium
are merging together; video games + films + japanimation; to create a
new way of expression/narration. <br>
<br>Matrix is a good example. Avatar, as well.<br>
<br>
Michael<br><a href="http://wildgrounds.com">http://wildgrounds.com</a><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 12:49 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:drainer@mpinet.net">drainer@mpinet.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
I think you bring up two good points here: I'd argue that the "natural" itself is based on conventions that span beyond merely Miyazaki''s work. One could make the case that the film is based on disparate conventions drawn up from anime (Cameron is a self confessed nerd, though press material suggests his influences would come from more "serious" technology based anime, something beyond the scope of Miyazaki), video games (as you mentioned, online RPGs--World of Warcraft came immediately to mind while I watched--not just the art, but also certain camera angles, especially during flying scenes. At times the influence was almost blatant, and drastically different from anime), and the broader genre of sci-fi, which Cameron has played an important role in, again, usually focusing on technology.<br>
<br>
The film has a multitude of influences, which is why I feel it is problematic to say "...this is Miyazaki's world," or to peg the style to any specific auteur, really. If anything, we have to analyze it from a postmodern framework and recognize its decentered influences, conventions, queues.<br>
<br>
The second point regarding the ideological celebration of nature is spot on, and I think the lack of depth there is fairly evident, not by accident, but perhaps even on purpose, given the target audience. "How can we provide a political message about the environment without making the audience think?" It's almost that the producers wanted general audiences to dismiss what you described as the incorporation of new technology in order to glorify the premodern "noble" society, world, etc...<br>
<br>
I won't go into the arguments about colonialism/Orientalism and fantasy, though that's the discussion people should have about this film...<br>
<br>
By the way did you watch it in 3-D?<br>
I watched it at Toho cinemas and aside from the seating (I like empty cinemas) everything else was perfect.<br>
<br>
Did you notice the audience reaction? This is something I am particularly interested in, as it seems that Japanese audiences are reacting differently than American audiences. As I mentioned earlier, the majority of theater patrons left immediately at the beginning of the credits. I also did not hear too much praise, and, again, unusual to Japan, I noticed quite a few people talking during the screening. I wonder if the movie about the dog (forgot the name) would have been better. Though of course, the 3D here was great, it was Captain EO on steroids.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-daniel<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Gerow" <<a href="mailto:aaron.gerow@yale.edu" target="_blank">aaron.gerow@yale.edu</a>><br>
To: <<a href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu" target="_blank">KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu</a>><br>
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 11:38 PM<br>
Subject: Re: Avatar<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Just a quick response:<br>
<br>
When you look at it, the similarities with Miyazaki are there: the image of the forest, the non-human world, of flying, etc. But I do wonder if this film doesn't have a very different vision of nature. Miyazaki's paean to natural forces is not unrelated to his insistence on sticking to some analog animation techniques, but Cameron's film falls into the contradiction that many cinematic celebrations of nature do: they praise the premodern, pre-technological world using the most advanced technology there is. Avatar, I think, tries to avoid this, but only by radically re-defining nature in a way I doubt Miyazaki would approve. Many can of course see that the narrative situation of Avatar is essentially that of video games, especially online RPG where you, immobile at your station, get to roam the world, kill people, and get the girl via your avatar. Avatar plays off the discontent with modern technological reality by offering the fantasy of really abandoning one's body for the game world. But the trick here is that the Avatar planet, with its database of souls and memories, of creatures with Firewire plugs, of trees that allow one access to the network, is essentially the Internet rendered into a Gaia-like deity. In other words, I think Avatar tries to have its ideological cake and eat it too by spouting a critique of industrial technological capitalism (mining and machines) and praising a natural, premodern society, while all the while defining that society as precisely the new media technological capitalism that we have today. I very much doubt Miyazaki, regardless of all his own ideological ambiguities, would buy this.<br>
<br>
That was my initial reaction upon seeing the film (albeit at a theater in Japan with a bunch of technological glitches--quite appropriate, I might add!).<br>
<br>
Aaron Gerow<br>
Associate Professor<br>
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures<br>
Yale University<br>
53 Wall Street, Room 316<br>
PO Box 208363<br>
New Haven, CT 06520-8363<br>
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