Godzilla

[Peter B. High]

   "Re: Godzilla" 
   "amnornes at umich.edu (Abe-Nornes) said:

amnornes> Peter's take on Godzilla was really interesting. I have a question about
amnornes> the teisetsu, though. Considering how widely spread it has become, even if
amnornes> the films are "garbled" doesn't this teisetsu become a reading protocol? In
amnornes> turn, does it become a framework for sequel production throughout the
amnornes> permutations you point to? In short, can we dismiss it so easily? 
amnornes> 
amnornes> Markus
    ******  **********  ***********************  **************

Yes, I would say the teisetsu most certainly does become a reading protocol. In recent 
years it seems to have weakened somewhat, perhaps reflecting the relative decline of 
the high-brow film journals in Japan (the critical "superstars"  known now better via  
"tankobon," or small format paperbacks). Partly it is an aspect of
canonization-a-la-japonais --informing the viewer WHY he likes the Tora-san series or 
weeps at (or is expected to weep at) the "peace" films of Imai Tadashi. One ruling 
teisetsu about Ozu was that he was "uniquely Japanese," which in turn bred the 
one-time Western teisetsu that Ozu was "about" Zen and wabi/sabi etc. (the view Hasumi 
Shigehiko so furiously refutes). 
As far as I know (or have thought through, in any case), the teisetsu operates in the 
region of reception rather than production. Although it is not always the case, the 
teisetsu often contributes to the circumscription of readings within established 
categories or even the obfuscation of readings. Sometimes it invades film history--as 
seen in the manner in which the wartime war films of Tasaka Tomotaka and Yoshimura 
Kozaburo  have become indelibly imprinted with the label of "humanist warfilms," 
implying a secret, and non-existent, content questioning the war.The teisetsu 
circumscribing readings of the original versions LISTEN TO THE SOUND OF THE WAVES and 
HIMEYURI NO TO, as"anti-war" masterworks, has long disguised from view other aspects 
of their latent thematic content--allowing their villainous, recent remakes to pass 
among many viewers as genuine wear-hatred pieces.
Now I know analogius fiorces are at work in the West as well. The difference, I think, 
is to be found in the way the Japanese teisetsu ENDURES. But perhaps because Western 
opinionating tends to be more iconoclastic, established readings, I think, have 
shorter life spans. 
I'm not sure what you Markus means by "dismissing" the teisetsu. In fact I see it as a 
major primal force in criticism here. Whether it has direct or even substantial 
indirect influence on sequel production is open to question and probably very 
difficult to verify. 
Peter B. High
Nagoya University   






One arrant case is the way it has worked (here in Japan, at least) in reference to the 
so-called "peace" ideology of Imai Tadashi's films.

--
Peter B. High
j45843a at nucc.cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp