Pearl Harbour and Japanese war films
mark schilling
0934611501
Thu Jun 7 23:27:24 EDT 2001
Aaron kindly asked me to post my "Japan Times" review of Merdeka -- so here
it is. I should add that it's done fairly well at the box office, if not as
well as the equally jingoistic "Pride," which benefited from the
international controversy over its portrait of Tojo as an ill-used,
misunderstood patriot. Foreign journalists evidently
can't be bothered with a film about the Indonesia independence struggle --
though it got some ink when the Indonesian ambassador voiced a protest about
its distortions of history. Imagine Canal Plus making a flag-waving film
about Lafayette and a brave band of Frenchmen single-handedly winning the
American Revolution, with a scene of an American woman kissing L's sword in
gratitude. That would stir "USA Today" into action, I think.
Mark Schilling
Rating: *
Director: Yukio Fuji
Running time: 114 minutes
Language: Japanese
Now showing
War movies have a hard time telling the truth about one of
humankind's most universal acts. Even when filmmakers loudly
proclaim their intention to get it right, they nearly always
make
their films as Americans or Russians or Japanese, with the
accompanying social, political and, needless to say, commercial
filters. In "Saving Private Ryan," Steven Spielberg created some
of
the most gut-wrenching battle footage in the history of film,
but he
still waved the flag. Tom Hanks' character had the shakes, but
he
was still an All-American hero, performing mainly for a paying
audience of his countrymen.
Junta Yamada in Yukio Fuji's "Merdeka"
Be that as it may, there is still a wide gap between the
red-white-and-blue, black-and-white approach of Edward Dmytryk's
1945 "Back to Bataan," with John Wayne as an American officer
leading brave Filipino freedom fighters against the evil
Japanese
invaders, and that of Terrence Malick's "Thin Red Line," in
which
war is stripped of ideology and reduced to its essentials,
including
its awful beauty.
On that spectrum Yukio Fuji's "Merdeka (Freedom)," which depicts
Japanese soldiers fighting for Indonesian independence, is far
to the right, deep in John Wayne territory. But the straight-up
jingoism present in "Back to Bataan," shot when Americans were
still dying in Philippine jungles, is less understandable in a
film made
at the turn of the new millennium, when Japanese have had half a
century to reflect on World War II and presumably distance
themselves from wartime propaganda.
There is, however, a streak of revanchism in the attitude of
certain
Japanese toward the war and its aftermath, with an accompanying
desire to not only oppose the victors' interpretation of Japan's
war
record, but display that record in the best possible light. The
result, in "Merdeka," is a revisionism that, in the guise of
presenting the reality of a little-known historical episode,
luridly
distorts it.
"Merdeka" is based on the experiences of the 2,000 Japanese
soldiers
who remained in Indonesia after the end of World War II -- and
never
returned home. Nearly 1,000 of those men, we are told, died in
combat, by the side of Indonesian freedom fighters battling
their
Dutch colonial masters. This is a story that deserves to be
told,
and the filmmakers evidently had the full cooperation of the
Indonesian authorities in telling it. They shot on location in
Indonesia, using Indonesian actors and crew.
But the film's war is mostly the one imagined by the boys on the
sound trucks in front of Shibuya Station -- all guts and glory
for
the warriors of Dai Nippon. First of all, the hero, Lt.
Shimazaki
(Junta Yamada), is a red-blooded, pure-spirited samurai in
modern
dress, who is battling fearlessly and tirelessly to free
Indonesia
from the corrupt, dissolute Dutch. Bursting into the
headquarters of
the Dutch commander at Bandung after the Japanese invasion in
December 1941, he does not negotiate surrender so much as
imperiously order it, with his eyes glaring, his voice
thundering
and his hand firmly on his sword -- the very embodiment of
Japanese
manhood.
How are a rabble of mere Westerners and their native puppets to
resist such an overpowering display of yamatodamashi (Japanese
spirit)? The poor commander can hardly wait to sign the
surrender
papers.
Soon Shimazaki and his men, including the gentle-spirited,
poetically inclined Lt. Miyata (Naoki Hosaka) and the
gone-native
but doggedly loyal interpreter Yamana (Naomasa Mutaka), are
training
bright-eyed local youths as an elite fighting force.
"You must struggle for your own independence!" Shimazaki never
tires
of telling them. The training is harsh -- and some of the young
soldiers rebel -- but Shimazaki whips them into shape, while
winning
their understanding and deathless allegiance. He is later
undercut
by the Japanese High Command, who want to exploit Indonesians
for
the greater glory of the Empire, not raise up a potential third
column. Even so, Shimazaki perseveres, never losing sight of his
ideal.
When the war ends in Japan's defeat, he faces a difficult choice:
protect the Emperor's arsenal, as is his soldierly duty, or
follow
his heart and open it to his Indonesian charges, now turned into
guerrilla fighters. He decides to not only turn over the
weaponry to
his former students, but take up their cause. Many of his men
join
them -- with a paragon like Shimazaki as their leader, how could
they not?
Together they wage a long, desperate struggle against the
colonial
oppressor. One by one, they die in that struggle, as Shimazaki,
with
the lovely, fiercely patriotic sister (Laura Amaria) of one of
his
fallen Indonesian students by his side, sternly presses on to
victory.
Playing Shimazaki, Yamada is a war-recruiting poster brought to
life
-- all clenched jaw and burning patriotism. He comes out of the
war
with his fighting spirit soaring even higher than when he went
into
it. No Tom Hanks-like trembling hands for this sterling son of
Nippon.
Save for one token Bad Japanese Soldier, a ruffian who treats
the
local women like whores and the men like servants, Shimazaki's
comrades are similarly upright types. Meanwhile, their foes,
particularly a flagrantly homosexual Dutch interrogator who
tortures
Miyata with slithery glee, are cartoon cutouts. The performances
of
the Caucasian actors are, as might be expected, universally
atrocious; no professional with any self-respect would take part
in
this embarrassment.
And the unpleasant side of the Japanese occupation? The inhumane
treatment of Allied prisoners and the pitiless slaughter of
Chinese
residents? If you expect to see that in "Merdeka," you've come
to
the wrong movie.
The Japan Times: May 2, 2001
----- Original Message -----
From: "Aaron Gerow" <gerow at ynu.ac.jp>
To: "KineJapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: Pearl Harbour and Japanese war films
> >I was also wondering if anybody knew of Japanese film made in the last 20
> >years, apart from Oshima's "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" that dealt with
> >the war. I am assuming that it is a no go area, and that it is almost
> >impossible to deal with the subject in Japanese fictional film. (Germany
of
> >course has done much better. Das Boot, Heimat etc...)
>
> There were actually a spate of war films made in 1995, the 50th
> anniversary of the end of the war. Some have already been mentioned, but
> note also the 1995 remake of Himeyuri no to. I'm writing on Okinawa and
> Japanese film now, and should note two films: Gama: Getto no hana and
> Mabui which deal with the battle of Okinawa and its aftermath. There
> have been documentaries, usually from the left-wing perspective, on the
> war (e.g., the "Oshierarenakatta senso" series directed by Takaiwa Jin).
>
> One more recent film is Merdeka, based on the historical fact that some
> Japanese soldiers stayed behind in Indonesia after the war to help the
> independence movement. Interesting fact, but in the contemporary context
> of feel-good revisionist rightism, it just comes out stating that "We
> Japanese actually fought WWII to free Asia from Western imperialism."
> The press site for the film (in Japanese) is:
>
> http://www.toho.co.jp/movie-press/merdeka/welcome-j.html
>
> Mark Schilling wrote a nicely scathing review which he might want to
> share.
>
> 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
>
>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Aaron Gerow" <gerow at ynu.ac.jp>
To: "KineJapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: Pearl Harbour and Japanese war films
> >I was also wondering if anybody knew of Japanese film made in the last 20
> >years, apart from Oshima's "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" that dealt with
> >the war. I am assuming that it is a no go area, and that it is almost
> >impossible to deal with the subject in Japanese fictional film. (Germany
of
> >course has done much better. Das Boot, Heimat etc...)
>
> There were actually a spate of war films made in 1995, the 50th
> anniversary of the end of the war. Some have already been mentioned, but
> note also the 1995 remake of Himeyuri no to. I'm writing on Okinawa and
> Japanese film now, and should note two films: Gama: Getto no hana and
> Mabui which deal with the battle of Okinawa and its aftermath. There
> have been documentaries, usually from the left-wing perspective, on the
> war (e.g., the "Oshierarenakatta senso" series directed by Takaiwa Jin).
>
> One more recent film is Merdeka, based on the historical fact that some
> Japanese soldiers stayed behind in Indonesia after the war to help the
> independence movement. Interesting fact, but in the contemporary context
> of feel-good revisionist rightism, it just comes out stating that "We
> Japanese actually fought WWII to free Asia from Western imperialism."
> The press site for the film (in Japanese) is:
>
> http://www.toho.co.jp/movie-press/merdeka/welcome-j.html
>
> Mark Schilling wrote a nicely scathing review which he might want to
> share.
>
> 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
>
>
More information about the KineJapan
mailing list