Space in contemporary japanese films

[Robert Geib]

Hello,

 

I'm just sharing my thoughts and questions with you, the experts:

 

Is there a preoccupation in a certain branch of contemporary japanese (fiction*) films (from the mid-90s on) with memory and the body through the articulation of filmic space? 

 

I'm thinking of the dilapidated dystopias and the isolated individuals in enclosed spaces in the films of Kurosawa Kiyoshi; the merging of machine and flesh in the urban nightmares of Tsukamoto Shinya; the prosthetic memories and bodies in the simulated places of Oshii Mamoru and the location and dislocation of (traumatic) memory in the films of Aoyama Shinji and Koreeda Hirokazu. 

 

If there are these shared themes and styles, what do they relate to? Is it a question of genre? Is it relevant that some of these films are economically aimed for foreign festivals? Or could you perceive these features as an effect of a "spatial" challenge of identity (i.e. cultural globalization and mediatization), something the japanese have encountered numerous times in their history?

 

And last but not least: Is it advisible or even possible to view these films under such a meta-perspective?

 

*Of course you could also make a point in including Ying Li's Yasukuni.

 

Robert Geib

Department of media studies

Jena, Germany
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