Films that depict the occupation of Japan, made afterwards

[Patrick Noonan]

Taniguchi Senkichi's, "Akasenkichi" (1953), starring Mikuni Rentaro,  
is specifically about the occupation.  It is set in a base-town  
(unidentified in the film, I think) near Fuji-san;  features "panpan,"  
American soldiers, and drug-peddling yakuza as characters; and has  
scenes, like children playing in a school yard to the sound of bombs  
exploding, that one might read as critical of the occupation. It  
caused quite a scandal at the time in both the Japanese and English  
language media for being anti-American.   Rumor had it that Yoshida  
Shigeru even contacted Taniguchi and Toho about the scandal  
surrounding the film.
     　　　　
It's not an easy film to see (the NFC has it), but Nakamura Hideyuki  
has written a piece about it: "Fujisan to rēninbō:  eiga  
'Akasenkichi' to 'hanbei'" which is in "Imēji toshite no sengo,"  
Sekiyusha, 2010.  The Lenin hat in the title refers to the hat that  
Mikuni wears in the film, which is never explicitly referred to in the  
film...

Pat


On Sep 8, 2010, at 8:40 AM, <dburall1 at rochester.rr.com> <dburall1 at rochester.rr.com 
 > wrote:

> I'm not sure this counts because--given the age of the protagonists-- 
> I think the setting is actually post-occupation, but Imai Tadashi's  
> KIKU TO ISAMU, is about the occupation, if a bit indirectly (their  
> mother was Japanese, their father an African-American GI).
>
> Joanne
>