Americans in Japanese films

[Graham Steward]

Imamura has often stuck random gaijin into his films: 'Pigs and Battleships' 
and 'Vengeance is Mine' both have GIs in them (but only incidentally) and 
'Eijanaika' has that weird-talking American consul. I can't remeber 
'Kanzo-Sensei' (called 'Dr.Akagi' in the U.S.) very well, but I think the 
gaijin was supposed to be a Dutch man who could speak German.

Ozu had one American in his films as far as I know (he briefly appears in 
'Kohayakawake no Aki' (a.k.a. 'The End of Summer'). He's definitley worth a 
watch, because he's either deliberately made to look like a rather 
ridiculous bully from a Japanese perspective, or he just comes across that 
way - he's either poorly directed or just can't act.


Looks like you'll have a bundle of suggestions before long....

Cheers,
G Steward

>From: Lori Hitchcock <lohitchc at indiana.edu>
>Reply-To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Americans in Japanese films
>Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 12:02:48 -0500 (EST)
>
>Also, "Baka-yaro 1" has a segment (the all-English household) featuring
>a gaijin (American) businessman.   Iwai's Ghost Soup also has the
>ever-wonderful (yes, tongue in cheek) Dave Spector.   And Seto-naikai
>yakkyu-dan (?also forgot the English title...) has the military baseball
>players.  Kurosawa's Mada da yo also has occupation guys.
>
>Since Teahouse of the August Moon was a joint-production with Daiei, you
>might have a look at that as well.
>
>If you get interested in more general gaijin depictions: Shiko wo
>funjatta (Sumo Do Sumo Don't) has a British exchange student.  The
>gaijin-dressing of many TV dramas is also something maybe to consider -
>all the gaijin sitting in cafes, bars, etc., in the background.  Imamura
>Shohei's Kanzo-sensei (forgot the English title) also has that Italian?
>German? character.
>
>Hope this also helps.
>
>Lori Hitchcock
>
>
>
>
>
>

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