Uncertainty/unrepresentability

[Aaron Gerow]

>P.S.  The TV version was very straightforward, but I thought the ending of 
>the "Evangelion" film was anything but simplistic.  Did I miss something?

I was referring to the TV version, but less in terms of its stylistics 
(which for contemporary anime are challenging, while not always new), 
than its message: essentially: "If you realize that you are needed, then 
you can have confidence in yourself and come out of your shell."  
Tsuchiya also stressed this was too easy an answer.

>I was wondering, where does this attitude in Japan come from that Japanese 
>things (movies/music/art/etc) are crap, and yet anything and everything from 
>America or the UK seems to be revered?  I have my own ideas, but I was 
>wondering what everyone else thinks about this, in the realm of art and 
>film.
>
>And what is the place of Japanese film in Japan, where Hollywood films seem 
>to rule (like in most countries).  Is there recognition?  Is there more of 
>an "underground" atmosphere, where only the real movie fans enjoy Japanese 
>film and everyone else goes for the light Hollywood stuff?

Much of the attitude towards Japanese films is a historic product of 
imperialism/neo-colonialism and general Japanese attitudes towards the 
self.  The denigration of Japanese film starts in the 1910s and has 
continued ever since, especially among intellectuals, even though certain 
times like the 30s, the 50s, and maybe the 60s offered moments when 
Japanese film was more respected.  Foreign film was in the majority until 
the mid-1920s, but from that time on Japanese film was the film of the 
masses.  Especially from the 30s into the postwar, foreign film acheives 
a kind of distinction or cultural capital that made it the object of 
intellectuals, the educated, the higher class, Yamanote, etc. against the 
mass product. It was only in the 1970s that foreign film took over from 
Japanese film at the box office and I think it is at that point when 
foreign film, especially American film, become a clearly mass phenomenon. 
 There are still distinctions: non-American film, especially French still 
has a certain cachet, and some critics or intellectuals only focus on 
foreign art cinema.

Why did regular Japanese abandon Japanese film?  There are many reasons, 
some of which include the increased "Americanization" of Japanese culture 
that started to accellerate with the period of high growth.  But there 
are also lots of industrial reasons: imports of foreign films were 
restricted until the early 1960s; internal contradictions in the Japanese 
industry prevented it from effectively combatting the American onslaught; 
inherent inequality in the film trade war gives Hollywood an advantage, 
etc.  But one of the main issues is, I think, the rise of maeuri films 
from the late 1970s.  The way the maeuri system began to "insure" profits 
even before the film was released made audience reaction irrelevant to 
the film's success, inevitably leading to poorer films.  Since these were 
the films being released at the majority of theaters showing Japanese 
films (the monopoply over distribution that still prevails) and thus the 
films that actually were heavily advertized, people only knew of these 
films.  The interesting, small-scale films never reached their attention. 
 The impression thus arose that "Japanese films are bad."  That, I still 
think, is largely the fault of the majors.

What is interesting is that this is not necessarily the case with music 
and TV.  Compared to Europe, for instance, the percentage of Japanese 
product on TV and in the pop charts is much much higher.  In fact, 
American TV is only a fraction of what it used to be.  What I always 
wonder is why these two industries are different?  If Japanese hate 
Japanese things and love American stuff, why aren't their more American 
TV shows?  Why do Japanese songs still dominate?  Industrial issues are 
important here (e.g., the presence of karaoke, etc.), but I wonder what 
others think.

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
International Student Center
Yokohama National University
79-1 Tokiwadai
Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
JAPAN
E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
Phone: 81-45-339-3170
Fax: 81-45-339-3171