Electric Pig

In an attempt to help reorganize my notes from my Trans-national Japanese Cinema class, I've decided to occasionally write something about the films we've been studying, so here's Rashômon:

In the years before World War Two, Japanese films were exported on a very limited scale, mainly to the countries of the Japanese empire, and were aimed at Japanese ex-pats, although local people also inevitably saw them, albeit to a lesser degree. They were also exported to the USA, and were mainly viewed in ethnic cinemas in Hawaii and the West Coast. Once again, this export was mainly aimed at the Japanese populations in these areas. The performances, especially in the silent era, were usually accompanied by someone filling the role of benshi/katsuben (a kind of live narrator), who was often a greater draw for the crowds than the film itself. In the US and Europe, the performances were usually targeted towards film clubs, the cultural elite and critics. The film would be taken, literally, through the countries of Europe over the course of a few months with often only one performance per film, per country. By the late 1920's, Japan's film industry was producing almost as many films as Hollywood, and avant-garde techniques from German expressionist cinema and Russian montage were spreading through the Japanese industry. Hollywood continuity style editing was also a significant influence on contemporary film-makers. The most (and indeed only), famous export of this era was Jujiro, directed by Kinugasa Teinosuke.

Back in Japan, chanbara (sword-fighting) films were among the most popular, especially among young men. Nowadays these films are included within the period film (jidai-geki) genre, although more accurately they formed a self-contained genre of their own. Cheaply and rapidly produced, they weren't generally exported to US or Europe as it was felt by the studio producers that they wouldn't be comprehensible to non-Japanese. As it turned out, jidai-geki, especially those with chanbara elements, were the most popular exports post-war. Kurosawa Akira alternated more or less between period films and modern dramas, although the modern dramas were not released in the West until the 60's and even then only with a limited release.

From 1934, export took on a different phase when the Japanese government became interested in the portrayal of Japan that films were showing to the rest of the world. Export certificates for films could be withdrawn if they overstepped the (at the time, suitably nationalistic) mark. The period was also marked by a few German/Italian/Japanese co-productions, such as the German/Japanese Atarashi Tsuchi, a fascist friendly film made by the German Arnold Franckin and (the resolutely non-fascist) Itami Mansaku; and an exchange of documentary "culture" films. So many political factors were at work in the Japanese film industry that 1937 marked the final time a film was shown at any mainstream (ie non-ethnic) cinema in US until Rashomon.

The re-emergence of Japanese cinema in the post-war years was closely related to Japan's changing position in the new cold-war world. The American occupation forces decided to try to rid Japan of many of the country's pre-war "feudalistic" values that were seen as critical in Japan's move towards war. Instead, they allowed for (and indeed pressed for) the creation of trade unions and universal suffrage for the first time. At the same time, the occupation government also censored a large portion of Japan's film industry. Amazingly, any mention of the occupation was banned from the film industry, so it's not possible to see any American troops in any contemporary films of this period, despite their huge numbers on the ground. There was a strong proscription of period films during the occupation years (and also subsequently), as it was felt that they would in some way remind the Japanese people of their pre-war values. Ironically, as the cold-war heated up, there was another change in policy, as unionism began to be frowned upon, for its "red" sympathies. When workers went on strike at the Toho studios, tanks were brought in to break the strike up. Around 30 people were excluded from the industry in anti-communist purges in subsequent years. Even after the end of the occupation, films were not exported to either China or the Soviet Union for a long time, and care was taken to ensure that the film industry's output would be acceptable to the US.

These more acceptable "modern" values can be seen in Kurosawa Akira's work. Indeed, many politically motivated directors criticized Kurosawa for this, as if he was pandering to the US. Kurosawa is known as a humanist director, and in Japanese the word "humanism" is written in katakana (the characters used for foreign words), to connote its foreign-ness. Kurosawa himself claimed never to be interested in such a dialogue. Rashômon, Kurosawa's 1950 film that explores the relativism of truth, was unusual in being one of few period films that was allowed to be produced, the American censors allowing it precisely because of its humanist values, and its contrast with the period films of the past.

In 1951, Rashômon won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival. In many ways, it was a surprising choice for the win, as the film had had a very, very limited release in Europe, and was virtually unknown at the time. In a sense, the victory was a watershed moment for post-war Japan, and was an international seal-of-approval on the "new" Japan's portrayal of itself. After the victory, producer Nagata Masaichi, took the film on a tour of South East Asian countries. It was somewhat of an about turn for Nagata as he had reportedly hated the film pre-Venice, and told Kurosawa that he hadn't a clue what it had been about.

The Western reception of the film varied from country to country. The American premier was attended not only by industry heads, but also by many US foreign policy heads. For many Americans, the film represented one of the first chances to see a representation of the country where so many Americans were still serving in the armed forces, the enemy of the Pacific war which had so recently and jarringly become an increasingly valuable ally. France, with its long history of film making and criticism, had its own aesthetic value system and Kurosawa was criticized in Cahiers du Cinema.

Overall, the positive reception for Rashômon signaled a sea-change in the way Japanese studios sought to promote their films. Toho Studios opened their own cinemas in both New York and Los Angeles, hoping for wider promotion and distribution opportunities. Both cinemas were pretty much a failure. The studios began to cherry-pick the films they sent to the big film festivals, often choosing films that were relatively unpopular in Japan. Many period films were sent to US, where the general belief was that Japanese cinema = period film. Europe was much more open to the idea of contemporary Japanese films, where the (often ridiculously small) sexual content was promoted in advertising to the exclusion of any details of plot or narrative. Then again, when you can show a half naked woman on the poster, why would anyone want to show a photo of a dying man...and perhaps this was the greatest gift Kurosawa ever gave cinema...beautiful girls, irrelevant to the plot, in bikinis, on posters.