Manga and Japanese cinema

[Michael Hirohama]

I saw "The Medium" in June and did not recognize Marshall McLuhan's name
before the performance.  I didn't read anything by or about McLuhan till
Saturday, so please do you own investigation if what I have to offer is of
interest.  A source of information which I would recommend is W. Terrence
Gordon's _McLuhan for Beginners(TM)_, 148pp+viii, NY: Writers and Readers
Publishing, Inc. 1997, $11.00.  A less accesssible tome is Eric McLuhan and
Frank Zingrone, eds., _Essential McLuhan_, 407pp, Concord, Ontario: House
of Anansi Press, 1995 (now also NY:Basic Books, $17.50).  There are many
websites to explore including a commercial one,
<http://www.voyagerco.com/cdrom/catalogpage.cgi?mcluhan>, and an unofficial
one, <http://www.sfu.ca/~mathieum/MM.html>.

McLuhan catagorizes types of media (which includes anything that extends
the body, mind, or being of an individual) by how they affect the physical
senses and perceptions using the range from HOT to COOL.  HOT media include
radio, print, photographs, (U.S.) movies and lectures.  COOL media include
telephone, speech, cartoons, television and seminars.  COOL media are more
participatory [Gordon, p. 52].  Internet discussion is COOL.

When media change, meet and combine (e.g., filmed stories into manga),
"both their form and use change--so do the scale, speed, and intensity of
the human endeavors affected, as well as the ratios of senses involved--so
do the environments where the media and their users are found" [Gordon, p.
66].  So there may be some societal changes resultant from this new form of
media.  But at another level, perhaps film is "obsolete", so its
incorporation into manga is primarily a form of (comercial) artistic
expression.  See "Reading and the Future of Private Identity",
<http://www.icgc.com/mcluhan_studies/vol_1_iss_1/article1.cgi>, to
understand "obsolescence".

Someone who has studied manga (and manga of films) may be able to answer
McLuhan's Laws of Media and provide us with more understanding: [Gordon,
pp. 122-127]

1. What does it extend? enhance? intensify? make possible? accelerate?
2. What does it make obsolete? (parts of the environment)
3. What does it retrieve? revive? (older structures, environments, or forms
of action, human organization and thought)
4. What does it reverse into? (when pushed to its limit, overextended,
overheated)


One factor that may contribute to my love of pre-war Japanese films is the
sense of vagueness, uncertainty, and reliance upon non-verbal
communication.  These films are cooler than the stereotypical HOT movie.

>
>PS: I remember reading an article drawing similarities between Ozu films
>and manga (in EIGAGAKU, if my memory serves). Since Kurosawa's works are
>full of live-action and Ozu's far from it, it's interesting that films by
>both directors have manga-like or manga-tizable qualities.

Perhaps it is much more difficult to place a HOT movie into the COOL manga
form.  My sense is that the presence of action does not neccessarily make a
film HOT, although it would be more difficult to make it COOL.

At 01:05 -0600 11/24/97, Junko Tanaka wrote:
>I have been following the discussion on manga with enthusiasm. It's nice to
>hear opinions on manga and anime because not much attention is paid to them
>among the scholars in Japanese cinema. I also have a feeling (correct me if
>I'm wrong) that manga and anime have not yet been really theorized so as to
>be taught as a subject in college.
>
>Kurosawa's fame is amazing worldwide, yet his position as the
>representative of Japanese cinema may be taken over by anime soon, if it
>hasn't already. Whenever I tell friends of my age (mid-20s, that is) who
>are outside of the film studies circle that I study Japanese cinema, I get
>the following response:
>(in Japan) So you study Kurosawa? SEVEN SAMURAI?
>BUT when I ask if they've seen the film, they say No. They only know the
>title.
>(in the US) So you study Kurosawa? Have you seen YOJIMBO?
>And then their conversation goes to AKIRA in a minute.
>
>I often find Kurosawa's name and film titles just "float around" among the
>general public. I myself never had an opportunity or motivation to see
>Kurosawa films until I decided to major in film studies and went to a
>Kurosawa "all-night" at an Asakusa theater only a few years ago.
>
>So, my concern goes not to any one of us, who "give a damn," but to the
>general and young public. I haven't read Chuo Koronsha's "The Films of
>Akira Kurosawa," but by now, being a film studies student, it is hard for
>me to imagine SEVEN SAMURAI in any other form than film. Manga has been
>attacked for promoting "katsuji-banare" among kids, but it might even
>provoke "eiga-banare" as well in the future when SEVEN SAMURAI is known
>only in the form of manga? I guess my primary concern is similar to
>Joseph's when he writes:
>
>>What interests me in all this is the question of primacy and authority. What
>>is the authoritative version of these artforms?  And how does that change as
>>different generations become introduced to them through different media?
>
>Aaron, and others who have read the manga version of SEVEN SAMURAI, I'd be
>interested to hear how you've found it. It must be quite amusing itself,
>but would it possibly have some readers want to see Kurosawa's work?
>
>Thank you,
>Junko Tanaka


-- Michael Hirohama <kamesan at ricochet.net> --
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