Films that depict the occupation of Japan, made afterwards

[Yuna de Lannoy]

Dear Roger
One more film by Imamura: Fukushu suru wa ware ni ari.

Best wishesYuna

> Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 12:59:30 -0500
> From: desser at illinois.edu
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Re: Films that depict the occupation of Japan, made afterwards
> 
> Gate of Flesh (1964) by Suzuki Seijun makes the Occupation central to its story and soldiers are visualized.
> 
> David Desser
> 
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 18:22:16 +0100
> >From: "Roger Macy" <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk>  
> >Subject: Films that depict the occupation of Japan, made afterwards  
> >To: "KineJapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> >
> >   Dear Kinejapaners,
> >
> >   I'm afraid I've got a new bone to pick.
> >
> >   I caught 'Stray Dog' last night at the NFT, having
> >   missed it during the recent Kurosawa
> >   retrospective.   The film was introduced by Mamoun
> >   Hassan, who made several interesting points, most of
> >   which I agree with.  He asked rhetorically if anyone
> >   had ever seen Allied soldiers in Japanese
> >   occupation-era films and, of course, no one had -
> >   fair point.  But he then went onto claim that films
> >   about the occupation were also absent from post-1952
> >   Japanese cinema since the Japanese didn't want to be
> >   reminded of this era.
> >
> >   This did surprise me as I've banging on for years on
> >   to anyone that might listen that someone should do a
> >   season of cross-national films around occupation. 
> >   No Japanese ones?  That started me on a list of
> >   films made after the occupation that depicted the
> >   era and situation..
> >
> >   Leaving aside films  mainly on re-patriation, or the
> >   hibakusha, themes to themselves; leaving aside
> >   Oshima, who rarely set a scene in the occupation
> >   period, but for whom in most of his career the
> >   American occupation had not really ended; and
> >   leaving aside films like Ozu's Early Spring, where
> >   the prior death of the child, seemingly in the
> >   occupation period, weighs so heavily; I can still
> >   think of more than enough for a Japanese share in a
> >   season (below).  And my list is culled just from
> >   those few films shown in the west.  I seem to recall
> >   mention of many more that I haven't seen, and that's
> >   where I'd appreciate some help.  I'd be surprised if
> >   directors like Imai, Kamei or Ieki didn't do
> >   retrospective films on the occupation, but they
> >   haven't been shown here.
> >
> >   Now, few of these films have companies of American,
> >   or other Allied soldiers marching past outside the
> >   window.  Actors convincing as westerners were
> >   unaffordable to Japanese studios in the 50s and 60s
> >   at least.  But films about life in an occupied
> >   country don't need sharply drawn occupiers.  And
> >   isn't this the point - almost the opposite of Mamoun
> >   Hassan's thesis - that there are films about the
> >   occupation; but that 'we' don't want to see them, or
> >   at least that they are not much shown at the BFI,
> >   because they sideline westerners as unimportant or
> >   faceless characters, and/or they are politically
> >   uncomfortable for us ?
> >
> >   Anyway, here's my initial list, if anyone could add
> >   to it, or dispute it, please :-
> >
> >   Films that depict the occupation of Japan, made
> >   afterwards.
> >
> >   +--------------------------------------------------+
> >   |Floating Clouds  |Ukigumo      |NARUSE Mikio|1955 |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Madadayo         |Madadayo     |KUROSAWA    |1993 |
> >   |                 |             |Akira       |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Many of the      |Jingi naka   |FUKASAKU    |1973-|
> >   |'Battles without |takakai etc. |Kinji       |     |
> >   |Humanity' series |             |            |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Conflagration    |Enjo         |ICHIKAWA Kon|1958 |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Pigs and         |Buta to      |IMAMURA     |1961 |
> >   |Battleships      |gunkan       |Shohei      |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |History of       |Nippon sengo |IMAMURA     |1970 |
> >   |Postwar Japan as |shi Madamu   |Shohei      |     |
> >   |Told By a Bar    |onboro no    |            |     |
> >   |Hostess          |seikatsu     |            |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Grave of the     |Hotaru no    |TAKAHATA    |1988 |
> >   |Fireflies        |haka         |Isao        |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Zero Focus       |Zero no      |NOMURA      |1961 |
> >   |                 |shoten       |Yoshitaro   |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Zero Focus       |Zero no      |INUDO Ishin |2010 |
> >   |                 |shoten       |            |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Yokohama Mary    |Yokohama Mary|NAKAMURA    |2006 |
> >   |                 |             |Takayuki    |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |Many of the      |Showa        |SAEKI       |1965-|
> >   |'Brutal Tales of |Zankyoden,   |Kiyoshi     |     |
> >   |Chivalry' series |etc.         |            |     |
> >   |-----------------+-------------+------------+-----|
> >   |A Hole of My Own |Jibun no ana |UCHIDA Tomu |1955 |
> >   |Making           |no naka de   |            |     |
> >   +--------------------------------------------------+
> >
> >    
> >
> >   Roger
 		 	   		  
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