In what ways are the views of Japan and it’s people (presented in both Japanese and Western media) accurate and/or false representations of Japan

The media has many ways of representing different cultures and societies. This may vary because the views of directors and production teams are reflected in their media. The views of Japan and its people is one which differs through Japanese and Western media of all forms, including films, television and print.

The film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, was a written in 1950, and it received mixed responses from Japanese and Western critics. The Japanese Critics actually stated that Rashomon was too western, and it did not truly reflect the Japanese culture. This could show how some of the presentation in Rashomon, may lead us to a false conclusions about Japanese people, because it actually represents western people. For example, the ideas on gender in Rashomon suggest that women are the weaker sex, when the woman in the film is powerless without a man to protect her and very emotionally unstable. This is an idea that was around at this time in Western society, so may not reflect the true Japanese idea on gender.

In work from Studio Ghibli (anime studios in Japan) women are presented quite differently to how they are shown in Rashomon. First of all, many of the main roles in these films are taken up by the female gender, including My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s delivery service, The Cat Returns, Spirited away and many more. These characters are often strong and courageous females, for example Chihiro takes on a large responsibility over her parents in Spirited Away when she must seek help from more powerful spirits to save them from their fate. These films are spread across 1988 – 2002, which suggests the ideas of women being strong and independent, has been present for many years.

This contrasts with the ideas in Rashomon, and represents the Japanese culture as encouraging powerful, female roles. The female roles in Western animation, such as Disney’s films, are shown to be fragile and gentle creatures, which contrasts dramatically with the princess in Princess Mononoke, who is vicious and aggressive.

But this representation may not be the ideas held by the whole of Japan, it may just be the ideas of Hayao Miyazaki. He said “When a man is shooting a handgun, it's just like he is shooting because that's his job … When a girl is shooting a handgun, it's really something.” which reflects his personal belief of how women are much stronger than they may seem. And this is shown in Princess Mononoke, with the females being given the opportunity use typically male weapons by Lady Eboshi.

Miyazaki also shows his personal ideas of the traditional ways of Japan, unpolluted and natural, living in peace with the environment. In Spirited away with trash deforming the River God and Haku’s plight over the loss of his river to apartment complexes, which further indicates that the sources of pollution within the bathhouse, a place of ritual purity, comes from within the Japanese society.

Another idea that is seen in the Japanese media could represent the Japanese culture as holding strong values of close family bonds. This is seen in My Neighbour Totoro, when the family comfortably bathe together. To a western audience this could be seen as strange or odd, but it is simply part of the Japanese culture which often involves close family relationships.

Community spirit is also reflected in some Japanese media, which suggests they are a nation that prides them to have friendly neighbourhoods. In Princess Mononoke, amongst the devastation and destruction, we as an audience are introduced to the very different communities in harmony. In Irontown, Lady Eboshi is seen as a hero for helping the women in the brothels and the lepers, who everyone else turned away. She helped to create peace in the community. In amongst the many different spirits in the Forest, there is harmony with the wolf God caring for her cubs and her “daughter” (the princess).

This is also seen in another of Akira Kurosawa’s work, The Seven Samurai, as 7 swordsmen come to the aid of a village in torment from bandits. This film was later remade by John Sturges into a ‘classic western’, The Magnificent Seven, but there were some large differences in the plot which highlights the differences between Western society and Japan at this time. For example, the samurai were swordsmen, not gun fighting cowboys, so it could be said the Japanese like to be more traditional in the weapons they use, and samurai sword fighting goes back into Japanese history.

I think that television also tells us a lot about the Japanese Culture, as well as the type of people they are. The program Takeshi’s Castle is one which documents a large group of Japanese volunteers attempting to complete a near impossible obstacle course. The people are outrageously entertaining to a western audience, when they fall off things and ‘make a fool’ of themselves. But they do not take it seriously, compared to some shows we have shown in Western societies such as Total Wipeout. This portrays Japan as people who are idiosyncratic and eccentric individuals.

Their religion, Shinto, is reflected in some Japanese media. In Rashomon, the psychic tells one side of the story through a spirit and the court takes this very seriously. This belief is spirits is also in the horror, Ju-on (The Grudge), directed by Takashi Shimizu, where there are ghosts tormenting people who enter the cursed house.

The media therefore gives mixed representations of Japanese culture and it’s people, and it also depends on the audience who are viewing the media, because they will interpret it differently according to their own cultural values. So a Western audience viewing a Japanese program like Takeshi’s castle, may take it that all Japanese people are eccentric and ‘crazy’. But in Japan they may be aware that it is only a small minority of people who would go on the show. So, what does the media represent about Japan? It shows Japan to be a nation of family and community values, who are spiritual and creative. But, also people that encourage strong female leaders and independence/individuality.

Japanese Settlement in Studio Ghibli

Japan is a collection of thousands of islands, something that is featured greatly in many of the Studio Ghibli anime. For example, Laputa: Castle in the Sky was based around the fictional legend of many floating Islands in the sky, which could be a metaphor for the way in which Japan is distributed as land. My Neighbour Totoro details several important cultural references through the setting of the film.

For example, the house that the family move into is a stereotypical portrayal of a rural Japanese home. The sliding doors that they first walk through are a key feature in many houses of this type and are typically kept open during the day and closed at night. A second key feature of their home would be the way in which the foundations are constructed. They do not have cellars but instead shallow foundations, just big enough to crawl under. This is shown when Mai follows one of the smaller Totoros into the cellar. The community which Satsuki and her family have moved into is a typical agricultural town. The rice paddies are visible throughout the movie. Rice cultivation is one of the most important industries in Japan, as rice is a staple of the Japanese diet. This is also shown in Princess Mononoke, when the white wolves interrupt some workers transporting rice over the mountain.

Princess Mononoke is set in a feudal Japan, a time of upheaval of samurai and isolated villages. The ideas of settlement show clear implications that nature (the forest spirits and creatures) are fighting back against the human citizens, who are trying to exploit the natural recourses available on the rural land. Eboshi (the female leader of the settlement) has discovered a powerful secret - gunpowder. This shows how a once rural Japan has now hit a dramatic expansion, and with it's developments of new weaponry, has become more powerful than it's natural surroundings.

The landscapes in Princess Mononoke also has specific references to landscapes in Japan, such as the ancient forests of Yakushima, of Kyūshū, and the mountains of Shirakami-Sanchi in northern Honshū. Princess Mononoke could be seen as a message from Miyazaki to Japanese society. It seems he is trying to convey that wat, violence and disrespect for nature by humans, destroys the delicate relationship between humanity and nature.

Spirited Away contains critical commentary on modern Japanese society concerning generational conflicts, the struggle with dissolving traditional culture and environmental pollution. Chihiro, as a representation of young Japanese women, may be seen as a metaphor for the Japanese society which, over the last decade, seems to be increasingly in limbo, drifting uneasily away from the values and ideological framework of the immediate postwar era.

Miyazaki brought an element of 'old Japan' into this animation, as Chihiro and her parents initially travel past this old abandoned fairground, which is a symbol for Japan's broken economy. There are environmental links, just as there are in Princess Mononoke, with trash deforming the River God and Haku’s plight over the loss of his river to apartment complexes, which further indicates that the sources of pollution within the bathhouse, a place of ritual purity, comes from within the Japanese society.

This Ghibli film could be a reflection of how Japanese economy growth is causing the environment great pollution. Also shows how the environment has now become poisonous for us to live. The film shows this when Princess Nausicaa discovers the poisonous forest.

Themes Japanese culture

Gender Roles
Religion/Spiritualism
Economy
Nature and the Environment
People
War and Conflict
Settlements

Facts about Manga comic books

Japan is the world's leading country for child porn (manga art)

Comic books are more acceptable in Japan, not as much for kids anymore

in 2007 Manga turned over 3.6 billion

typically they are the average size of a yellow pages!?!

They are mainly printed in black and white because it's cheaper

Open from back

Managa literally means whimsical pictures

Explosion of creativity; OsamuTezuka

Boys and young men became majority of readers

1969, different female artists arrived, created Shouji, emotionally intense narrative

Often Shoujo, saw women working together, girl power, on a journey

Shounen for boys up to 18, gross human and horror, explicit sexuality (group sex and even rape)

Roles of girls and women in Manga, evolved over time. Often pretty, young girls (beishojo) Heavily armed female warriors (sento beishojo)

In america Manga has become very popular in America
Manga sales in the US have tripled 2000-2005

Gekiga - dark, violent and grim realities of life (stories written about people living in poverty etc.) They were dissatisfied with the manga porn

80s and 90s comics e.g. Posemon, Dragon Ball Z and Akira made their debut (verrrry successful)

In Japan the Manga fortunes are sagging for lots of reasons

• Cheaper on Internet
• Other ways to get them (download illegally)
• Fans making their own
• Anime which means you can just watch it
• They have simply become less popular
• For ethical reasons

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• My short film can be interpreted in different ways which is like some other short films. I have made it in a way that is open, so that when people view it, they may get different things from it, and it leaves it open to their imagination. This was an idea I gained from many short films I had seen that were silent like mine. For example, the short film 'The Black Hole' presented a man who became too greedy for his own good, and at the end the view can imagine what happened next.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

• Certainly feedback from my teachers was greatly appreciated and took on board what they had said. For example, one teacher had pointed out when he had watched it, the beginning seemed not too fit as the start of a short film. When he had pointed this out I realised and felt I needed to re-invent a beginning that fitted with the rest of the piece. The new beginning was much better and I am glad that the teacher brought it up because it was more helpful.

TARGET SETTING

Targets

Watch more of the Ghibli works and understand the meanings and ideas behind them

Focus on planning and finishing the magazine with a review of 'Beep'

Finish Poster for Film 'Beep'

RASHOMON (DIRECTED BY AKIRA KUROSAWA)

In all honesty, my initial reaction towards the film Rashomon was that it was poor quality, old and didn’t make any sense! Unfortunately that fate was dented the moment I knew it had been made in the 1950s. But, once I managed to see past that, I began to realise why Rashomon was so brilliant for it’s time. In fact this film was very important, because it was the first really cultural film to hit Western societies, so it was responsible for bridging the gap. When it received positive responses in the West, Japanese critics were baffled; some decided that it was only admired there because it was "exotic," others that it succeeded because it was more "Western" than most Japanese films.

The plot is about a one event, seen in many different lights by four witnesses. The stories are mutually contradictory, leaving the viewer to determine which, if any, are the truth. The story unfolds in flashback as the four characters—the bandit Tajōmaru (Toshirō Mifune), the samurai's wife (Machiko Kyō), the murdered samurai (Masayuki Mori), and the nameless woodcutter (Takashi Shimura)—recount the events of one afternoon in a grove. Perhaps, one of the most frustrating things about this film, apart from the terrible acting of Machiko Kyō is that you never know what was the real story is; and you can never know.
I like the symbolism used in the film, prominently with light. Lighting was very important to get just right, to show how the truth is sometimes trapped and unable to get through. For example, when we see many shots looking up to the tree where the sun cannot quite escape through the leaves. Tadao Sato suggests that the film (unusually) uses sunlight to symbolize evil and sin in the film, arguing that the wife gives in to the bandit's desires when she sees the sun. But I think the light mainly represents truth and good. I think that the light finds her face when she realizes the truth of her seduction by the Tajōmaru.

Women are definitely shown as weak and emotional in Rashomon. Certainly the actress portrays the female character as uncharacteristically vulnerable and powerless towards men. She is easily seduced by the Bandit in the first story, then in her own story she said that she attempted to kill herself because of her feelings of guilt (but unfortunately she did not succeed in that). Then in the dead Samurai’s story, she fled from the scene in an emotional wreck (as always). And in the woodcutter’s story, she also fled. So overall she presents the defenseless image of a woman who cannot survive without a man. It is almost like a modern Western woman of the 1950’s, and seeming as though this image fitted with the ideas of Western societies at this time, you can see why it was so well received.
The men in the story are presented as much more powerful, with ownership over women. They always end up engaging in a great battle with one another, which is always over the woman.

In all I think, good film of it’s time… Although frustrating in parts.

SOME FACTS ABOUT JAPAN

• Japan written in Japanese means Sun Origin
  
• It is the 60th largest land mass
  
• 10th largest population
  
• 6,852 Islands make up Japan
  
• 4 main Islands make up 97% of Japan
  
• The Islands are mostly mountainous and often Volcanic
  
• The capital of Japan is Tokyo
  
• A population of 128 million
  
• Only 2% of the population is not Japanese
  
• Speak Japanese - but English is compulsory in Education
  
• It has the highest life expectancy