Our team feels that the film, 47 ronin (2013), generally supports orientalist structures due to its misrepresentation of Japan and Samurai through its character portrayal and historical inaccuracies. This film has several inconsistencies with the actual history as it over glorifies the tale of forty-seven ronin and display certain orientalist stereotypes throughout the movie.
This film over glorifies bushido which leads to the misconception that bushido was the representation for all of Japan. At the start of the film, the narrator said, “and yet to know the story of 47 ronin is to know the story of all Japan.” (47 Ronin) Although the legend of forty-seven ronin was often used as an example to illustrate the samurai’s ethics and code of conduct,
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The book was taken as the truth and accurate portrayal of the samurai in the past. This misleads foreigners into thinking that bushido can explain all of Japan, portraying Japanese as self-sacrificial, courageous and honourable. In fact, the concept of bushido was “an idealized version” (Benesch 2) that was “formulated and popularized” (Benesch 2) by Inazo Nitobe. Since bushido is just an ideology, it cannot possibly be used to describe all Japanese. The film also emphasises the idea of bushido by showing the ronin’s blind loyalty towards their lord. Loyalty was definitely a factor that propelled them to avenge their lord but the film seems to ignore other possible factors and exaggerates their loyalty. In reality, the ronin were unwilling to die a “futile death” without achieving something (The Ako Incident: 1701-1703), which was what propelled them to take revenge rather than committing junshi. Hence, their motive was not purely to avenge their master but to achieve something in the last moments of their lives. In our opinion, there were also other factors that pressurized them to avenge Lord Asano like, their dependence on him. During the peaceful times in the Edo period …show more content…
Thus, it prejudicially portrayed the West to be more superior over the East in terms of intelligence and this misrepresentation of their intelligence supports orientalism. Firstly, Kai was the only one able to see through the witch’s disguise when they all first met her. As shown at the start of the film, the samurai was often seen relying on Kai to find traces of demons. This shows that Kai is more observant than the samurai. Secondly, Oishii used a wrong tactic when they were on the mission to get more swords to avenge their Lord, and it was only Kai who found fault in the plan and even helped the Samurai thought of a better solution to get more swords. It was again unsound to show that the Samurai, who have learnt war tactics for most of their lives, were worse at plotting a scheme than an outcast, who never had a proper education. The Eastern characters were wrongly portrayed as less intelligent so as to push Kai as the hero of the story. The director first emphasises that Kai is a half-breed and then depict him as the smarter one. Thus, we can infer that the director clearly wants to show that the West is more intelligent as compared to the East. Hence, this misrepresentation supports
In the ancient Japanese culture, one great aspect was on how they emphasized on the intrinsic themes of loyalty and honor. They had fierce warriors known as samurai’s. A samurai was a traditional warrior who would protect and be loyal to their masters no matter what. They were known to be skilled soldiers, benevolent men, self-sacrifice, sense of shame, along with other major characteristics that embodied them as a samurai. While this class of warrior no longer exist today, the remembrance of a samurai is present in the minds of the characters in the novel, The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. Tsukiyama does a fascinating piece of work by really elaborating and describing the great attributes that Matsu possess of a true samurai. In the
Joseph Conlans “State of War; The Violent Order of Fourteenth Century Japan” is an depth look at Japans emerging warrior class during a time period of constant warfare in Medieval Japan. His work however doesn’t revolve around the re-fabrication and in-depth analysis of battles sieged like many contemporary examinations of wars and battles won and lost. Instead the author vies to navigate the reader on journey into the warrior class’s lives and how they evolved through a statistical analysis of records. This illustrates how warfare changed and transformed with the constant evolving of the Samurai, but it also includes how their actions affected their Political environment as well as the society in which they dwelled from the bottom up. Through his survey of records and documents, Conlan is able to give readers a compelling look into the Warrior class and at times shatters in the process many of the pre-conceived general notions that one may hold about this ancient class of professional warriors. Many of the notions & common misconceptions debunked in this scholarly piece include the idea that the Samurai was a male only fraternity, reserved for those of impeccable candor and loyalty. When truth be known, woman and young men (boys) were also trained in the art of war and thus were as likely to be found on the battle fields as men when times were tough and solider numbers were depleted. Further, another misconception (Generally thought to be caused by the popular and well known; “The Bushido Code: The Eight Virtues of the Samurai”) of the warrior class is that all of these men were truly Samurai which translated to “one who serves” when really, loyalty for the warrior class as Conlan points out only went as far as ones right to ...
Akira Kurosaw’s Seven Samurai is a film that encompasses various ideologies in order to allow the audience to understand the lives of Japanese people during the 1600’s. The film delves deep in social issues of the roles of the people within the society, the expectations as well as the obligations within the respected castes and elements within groups of ; suffering, working together, protecting family and working for the better good of the community.
Musui’s Story is the exciting tale of a low class samurai’s life towards the end of the Tokugawa era. Although one would normally imagine a samurai to be a noble illustrious figure, Musui’s Story portrays the rather ignominious life of an unemployed samurai. Nonetheless, this primary account demonstrates the tenacity of samurai values and privileges present at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. The social status of samurai had been elevated to such a state that even someone like Musui was easily able to gain influence in everyday affairs with his privileges. Not only that, but he had retained his values as a warrior and still kept great pride for his arts in weaponry.
It would be near insanity to say Letters from Iwo Jima constitutes an everyday war movie. Clint Eastwood not only created a film that sympathizes with the Japanese, but also acknowledges the fact that both the Japanese and Americans were wrong. The Japanese assumed Americans were cowardly fools and the Americans had been taught the Japanese were mindless imperial machines. These stereotypes are quickly cast aside as viewers of this movie acquaint themselves with Saigo and his friends. However, although this movie effectively accomplishes its goals, it still contains many inaccuracies. These errors eventually culminate to the point that the movie may seem sensationalized or even overly dramatized at points. More importantly, the cultural, geographical, and propagandized inaccuracies make it difficult to believe what Letters from Iwo Jima is trying to say; the Japanese fought even more bravely than the Americans despite what public opinion was.
Kokoro opens with the depiction of a White man by the narrator. The narrator discusses the Westerner as a non-threatening individual who was swimming with his Sensei. He described the Westerner as wearing Japanese clothing, acting in taking cues and acting as Sensei does, swimming among other Japanese people. The narrator does not describe himself as being frightened or threatened, yet he feels overcome with a feeling of thinking this particular Westerner was “quite extraordinary.” (Soseki 1957, p. 4). This is in stark contrast of many of the early depictions of Westerners. For example as Duus describes Japanese individuals as referring to Westerners as “red-haired barbarians.” This also was described in class discussions as we viewed paintings by Japanese individuals who demonized Westerners and made them lo...
...the Japanese military in World War II and the spontaneous atrocities that occur in most other. There is much of the blame on the Japanese society and its interpretation of bushido that had virtually no concept of individual human rights, which found its epitome in the Japanese military, to whom the concept had no semantic value whatsoever.
This demonstrates to us that no matter how much your legal or moral laws are violated, what matters is how you as an individual react to the situation, justly or unjustly. This movie is centered around the notion that if you are a person of ethnic background, that alone is reason for others to forsake your rights, although in the long run justice will prevail
Asian Americans only make up a small percent of the American population. Even more significant is that this percentage live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii; leaving the rest of the American population to most likely get their exposures to Asians through television and movies. However the exposure they have receive throughout the history of cinematography has been hardly flattering. Throughout the course of history Asians in film have been portrayed as evil or the "yellow peril" as described by others. If Asians are not being classified as evil in this picture then they are most likely the comic relief, with their lack of coordination or grasp of the English language. With these common stereotypes in place, it gives a white American viewer a sense or need to destroy this Asian villain or superiority over the comedic character portrayed in the film.
Bushido was one of their beliefs and it was the conduct of the Samurai. Their main saying was "freedom from fear." A Samurai was expected to overcome his fear of death. This gave him the peace and power to serve his master faithfully and loyally and to die if necessary. Duty was his primary obligation. Samurais are to lead their lives and follow the bushido religion. Bushido stressed loyalty to one's master, self-discipline and respect, and also ethical behavior. After a defeat, some Samurai chose to commit a ritual suicide called Seppuku rather than be captured or die a dishonorable death.
The main elements of the Japanese bushido is that a samurai should be courageous in battle, loyal to his shogun or daimyo, kind, and merciful. The bushido stressed that a samurai should be education and support the arts. The bushido also explained an act of suicide through a ritual called the hira-kira. In this ritual, if a samurai fails to complete his duty, he was expected to use a knife to cut his abdomen, after which an assistant would cut off the warrior’s head.
In “47 Ronin,” even though Bushido wasn’t stated literally it was shown through specific actions such as when the Ronins and Lord Asano died when performing the sacrificial ritual since they weren’t able to die honorably through battle. All in all, sacrifice that is offered through death affects everyone and examples of this was Oishi’s wife’s love, the destruction in the first ambush, and Lord Asano’s and the 47 Ronins’ death through
In 2006, a film directed by Clint Eastwood was released in theatres around the world titled Letters from Iwo Jima. Unlike most war movies that are produced for the American public, this film entirely captures the World War II battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the enemy. For a rare change, Letters from Iwo Jima shows the cultural aspect and daily life the Japanese soldiers experienced during the war. Although the film was given many positive reviews and was noted as one of the best films of 2006, it still received mixed emotions from both the Japanese and American public. One of the main ideas of the film focuses on the idea that good and evil exist on both sides, and that although we share different ideas, thoughts, traditions, and customs, we are all human and share more in common than we think.
American History X is considered to be a dark film which shows how stereotypes, prejudice and racism still coexist and how the “American
There are many historical aspects of the Japanese, but the most interesting is the history of the Samurai. In Japans history war played a large role in the country. Controlling clans fought for parts of the land and overall control of the country. These clans were powerful families that resided in the country and who all wanted power and control of Japan for themselves. The families that would be in control were known as Shoguns. These shoguns would have warriors that fought for them if any of the other clan families would try to attack him in order to overthrow him and take his power from him. The Samurai followed a code that developed from Chinese beliefs when in battle. The Samurais code was known as the Bushido. This code was also known as “The Way of The Warrior” which was the main belief s...