Pride

[Mark Schilling]

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> From: Mark Schilling (schill at gol.com)
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Pride
> Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1998 
> 
> 
I went a screening of Pride today and had the sense, for once, to arrive
early. The Toei screening room was packed with not only the usual industry
types, but visitors in reserved seats who looked to be of the WWII
generation. I'll post my Japan Times review later, but as for first
impressions: the film is surprisingly well-made, with a strong performance
by Tsugawa Masahiko as Tojo, and not as crudely propogandistic as its
origins would suggest. Much of it consists of courtroom and other scenes
that are taken directly from the films of the Tokyo tribunal and otherwise
follow the historical record fairly faithfully. (The operative word in this
sentence is "fairly.") . 

The main objects are to, first, humanize Tojo as a self-sacrificing
patriot, good family man and all-round decent, if deeply conflicted, guy
and, second, justify Japan's wartime policy as contributing to the
liberation of Asian peoples, mostly notably Indians, laboring under the
colonial yoke, while minimizing Japan's wartime atrocities and maximizing
the misdeeds and hypocrisy of her conquerors. The historical viewpoint is
highly selective and, especially for the majority of younger Japanese who
know next to zilch about their country's recent history, highly misleading.


Is the film, as are so many maeuri ken eiga, a turkey that, without its
corporate life support, would be DOA at the box office? The Westen media
reports I've seen finesse this question, because most of the reporters who
wrote them (1) did not see the film or (2) have no idea of how the market
works in Japan. My own guess is that, though the film's core audience is
the same crowd that worships at Yasukuni Shrine -- i.e, over fifties who
lived through the war and its aftermath -- it is also going to draw more
than a fewer younger Japanese who buy Kobayashi's "Gomanism" paperbacks,
with their revisionist arguments against the "official" history of the
Nanjing Massacre, and dig Beat Takeshi's sneers at craven politicians and
bureaucrats who suck up to their American overlords and crawl before Asian
professional victims. 

Far from being only the expensive hobbyhorse of a wacko rightist
businessman, "Pride" expresses sentiments that are gaining ground here
among not only ranters on sound trucks, but otherwise ordinary Japanese. 

After seeing the film, I asked a friend in the Toei Kokusai-bu if Toei had
any intention of selling it abroad. The answer, as one might expect, was a
resounding "no," though he said he would be glad to oblige anyone
interested in screening it. A middle-management type who is not in the
company union, he said emphatically that he "is not ashamed" of the film
and thinks it will "do well in the Japanese market." He also added,
half-jokingly, that rightists were "protecting the company" from assault,
though I didn't notice any khaki-clad punch perms anywhere near the
building. 


Was Toei driven to investing and distributing the film by balance sheets
woes? Perhaps the lure of quick yen in tough times made the greenlight
decision easier, but Toei has an industry rep as a "yakuza" company with
right-wing tendencies. Their 1995 film commemorating the 50th anniversary
of the end of WW II, "Kike Wadatsumi no Koe" (Last Friends) was the most
blatantly nationalistic of any of the war movies of that year. President
Tan Takaiwa told me in an interview that he viewed the film as a message to
younger generation aimed at making them better understand the glorious
sacrifices of their forebearers. No wonder Toei is presenting "Pride" with
pride. 

Mark Schilling