T.O.Samurai.... thanks!

[janine.hansen@gmx.de]

David,
?
> My guess is that the cutter you mention is in fact Makino's famous friend.

Yes, I think it's the same person, Kishi-san.
?
> Can I ask... is Ruth Eweler's character some sort of
> fiction-is-stranger-than-truth version of Lene Reifenstahl?

Well, I guess in a way...

Her character Gerda is supposed to be a model Nazi woman. So she's blonde
and blue-eyed, the Aryan type, and very keen to learn everything in Japan
that could be of interest to the Nazis. On the other hand, she's presented
as a journalist (but women in Nazi Germany were supposed to be mainly
mothers not actresses, journalists, or film-makers like Riefenstahl) and
there is also something ambiguous about Gerda's relationship to the Japanese
lead Kosugi Isamu. Were they lovers or not? If it weren't for this ambiguity
the plot wouldn't make sense. But a love affair between a German woman and a
Japanese man was of course not considered desirable at all in the Nazi
racial ideology.

That's what made working on this film so very interesting to me: You can
take each and every aspect, character, plot line, whatever, and find a whole
range of contradictions that expose the underlying propaganda and ideology
as the farce they really are.

Best,
Janine







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