Japanese Religion in Film

[Aaron Gerow]

A subscriber had problems getting this sent to the list, so I'm 
forwarding this on:



Sansho Dayu (Mizoguchi, 1954) is a beautiful portrayal of Jodo Buddhist
belief. Two films by Ichikawa Kon come to mind: The Temple of the Golden
Pavilion (Enjo, 1958) and The Burmese Harp (Biruma no tategoto, 1956).
Imamura's Vengeance is Mine (Fukushu suruwa ware ni ari, 1979) has a
textured take on the legacy of the hidden christians. Shinoda did an
adaptation of Endo Shusaku's novel on 16th century christians, Chinmoku
(Silence, 1971). Miyazaki's films Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro,
1988), Mononokehime (Princess Mononoke, 1997), and Sen to Chihiro no
kamikakushi (Spirited Away, 2001) are all about Shinto belief. Imamura's
Black Rain (Kuroi Ame, 1988) has contrasts between Buddhist rites for 
the
dead and Shinto-inspired spiritualism. Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) has a
shameness speak for the dead man.

Some original episodes of the animated TV series Astroboy (Tezuka Osamu)
were not shown in the US when it was imported here in 1963 because they
contained Christian representations  considered irreverent.

Carole Cavanaugh