Japanese film and the political right

[M Arnold]

Allow me to re-introduce myself:  I've moved to Japan and am now reading the 
list from a new account (formerly n9344881 at cc.wwu.edu).

>4.) Something I really would like to know more about is the >"political 
>content" of influential anime.

I don't want to come across sounding like an expert, but I spent some time 
looking into this while I was an undergraduate student.  The last 1 or 2 
years of my B.A. I tried to find as much English-language information as I 
could to help build a critical political 'reading' of the films of Studio 
Ghibli directors Miyazaki and Takahata and others.  My final project was 
leading a research/ discussion group dealing with that and related issues.  
It was fairly frustrating to me that English-langauge work done on Japanese 
cartoons generally ignore political and historical issues in any shape or 
form.  Dealing with the work seriously takes away the "fun" for most, it 
seems.  I have a very limited background in film and political theory (I'm 
working to correct that), so I'd really appreciate some of your ideas on the 
subject.  Please excuse me if some of my comments seem a bit naive.

I haven't gone downtown to see Takahata's recent Tonari no Yamada-kun yet, 
but a lot of the work he and Miyazaki did in their pre-Studio Ghibli years 
to me seems explicitly political (eg Taiyou no Ouji Horusu no Daibouken 
(1968), Mirai Shounen Konan (1978)).  Also Takahata's 1994 film Heisei 
Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko.  If I remember correctly, it was the most popular 
Japanese film of the year, and it makes very clear references to post-war 
political events such as the Sanrizuka and AMPO protests.  Now does the film 
*itself* carry a political message... ?

Miyazaki's 1997 blockbuster Mononoke Hime could also be seen in political 
terms.  While Miyazaki tried to describe the work more or less as a "love 
story," dealing with the somewhat cliche (even within Miyazaki's body of 
work) struggle between "nature" and "humans," in the background we see a 
variety of other elements that could be taken in a different perspective.  I 
believe Japanese critics commented on this as well -- I've read a little in 
Japanese (probably Comic Box) about the Tataraba "commune."

A little over a year ago I traveled down to the University of Washington 
campus to see a lecture on Miyazaki's work. In the Q&A session that followed 
I decided to step out of the regular 'fan' discussion and asked how the use 
of firearms in the film could be interpreted politically, considering their 
well-noted role as a symbol of negative "Western" influence in many 
jidaigeki.  I remember getting a fairly dismissive response from one of the 
professors (?) in attendance.  The question itself was more or less ignored.

I want to stop before this gets too long, but before I do there's something 
else I've been meaning to ask about.  Recently I've been trying to find some 
more older films by Wakamatsu Koji, but I'm having a very difficult time... 
how should I say this... finding a good frame of reference from which to 
watch them.  They are, as I'm sure many of you know, often explicitly 
violent.  Again, the English- language writing I've been able to find so far 
is not helpful at all -- articles that celebrate the bloodbath with long 
descriptions in eloquent language of murder scenes, etc. are easy to find.  
I have yet to find any essays that put aside a simplistic fascination with 
the "taboo-breaking" display of brutality and try to see the films in 
historical, social and especially political terms.  Here too, though, I yet 
don't know where to start with Japanese-langauge resources.

Now finally:  Several days ago there was a discussion about where to find 
films (videos?).  I've been looking to rent some of the Terayama Shuji 
experimental film series, but my local Tsutaya doesn't stock them, and I'm 
not close enough to Shinjuku to easily rent from there. I found out that 
Tsutaya has a "request" service.  A couple of days ago I turned in a slip of 
paper asking for a few videos.  We'll see if that works or not.

OK, until next time,
Michael Arnold


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