Japanese Religion in Film

[Mark Mays]

I asked him a more specific question about the figures on display during the
parade sequence, if they had any meaning or symbolism in regards to shinto,
to which he replied no. What I was trying to get to was whether there had
been some kind of epiphany within him in regards to religion and technology,
since he'd studied religion in college, and whether those figures in the
parade evinced some abandoning of western religion and philosphy. I asked
him about his study of Christianity in college.

Now considered one of the most original and influential artists working in
Japanese animation, Oshii attended Tokyo Liberal Arts University, where he
studied many forms of philosophy and religion as well as film.
"When I was in college, I was always interested in Christianity and
religion," Oshii recently said by phone from California, during a rare U.S.
publicity tour to promote Innocence. "I even thought of transferring to a
Christian seminary"-a desire borne less of piety than of his endless
curiosity about the hearts and minds of man. "It's really the phenomena
created by religion that I'm most interested in, rather than religion
itself."

I went on to ask about if there was any influence on his work, and he
emphasized philosophy rather than religion. He told me as he told you he
wasn't really devout about a specific religion.

Before I spoke to him, I didn't make much of the stuff about "soul" and
"spirit." There's not a lot of evidence he's talking about a soul in a
religious way. The word has become very secular of late, you know, that
intangible that seperates man from machine in all our speculative fiction.

I dunno . . . my wife brings up animism when I'm talking Miyazaki, and if
you'd tell Oshii he and Miyazaki are on something similar he might get a bit
hot . . . heh
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "mark schilling" <schill at gol.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 11:35 PM
Subject: Re: Japanese Religion in Film


> I don't know how you phrased your question, but Oshii gave me quite a
> different response in the following interview for "The Japan Times":
>
> http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ff20040317a2.htm
>
> The theme of "soul" or "spirit" is central to "Innocence," is it not? What
> happens, Oshii asks, when the border between  human and machine blurs? Do
> our human-like creations thereby acquire a human-like soul? His take on
> these and related questions has a basis, I would say, in Japanese
animism -- 
> the sense, for example, that dolls have a spirit we abuse at our peril.
>
> Mark Schilling
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mark Mays" <tetsuwan at comcast.net>
> To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 2:15 PM
> Subject: Re: Japanese Religion in Film
>
>
> > Oshii keeps coming up. When I asked him about this topic he said it's
only
> > imagery basically, just for show.
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "mark schilling" <schill at gol.com>
> > To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 10:45 PM
> > Subject: Re: Japanese Religion in Film
> >
> >
> > > For comic takes on religion, try "Fancy Dance" (Suo Masayuki, 1989) or
> > > "Kyoso no Tanjo" (Temma Toshihiro, 1993). The later film, whose
English
> > > title is "Many Happy Returns," stars Beat Takeshi as the chief
enforcer
> > for
> > > a phony cult.
> > >
> > > As for animation, both Anno Hideaki's "Evangelion" TV series and films
> and
> > > Oshii Mamoru's "Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence" delve into religion
and
> > > philosophy, in highly individual, borderless ways.
> > >
> > > And remember, there's a "God" in "Godzilla."
> > >
> > > Mark Schilling
> > >
> > > E-mail: schill at gol.com
> > > Web site: http://japanesemovies.homestead.com/index.html
> > >
> >
>