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I have always loved the story of the 47 Ronin, or Chushingura.\u00a0 We were told of it somewhere in our Japanese school lives, a classic heroes tale in which a vassal of loyal warriors to one particular Lord sought to avenge his wrongful death.\u00a0 It is a story of honor triumphing over corruption, also highlighting a team spirit that is so important to Japanese culture.\u00a0 47 Ronin is a very valuable tale to the Japanese, but while its samurai setting amid stone gardens, singing cicadas and the singular meaning of a drawn sword defines a very old and beautiful culture, this sort of subtlety is just not Oriental enough for Hollywood.<\/p>\n
Of course, no one does Oriental better than Hollywood, the land of Charlie Chan,\u00a0 I.Y. Yunioshi and \u201cSullivan & Sons\u201d.\u00a0 All racial stereotypes seem to find root and flourish under set lights and inside a movie camera, but both Asians and Asian Americans will find that there is no balance when it comes to their own representation.\u00a0\u00a0 Our faces usually only appear on screen when a soap opera needs a gynecologist, or when a film or movie needs a maid, war bride or VSSP (very smart, serious person) hovering in the background.\u00a0 Had it not been for outer reaches of space or a futuristic zombie setting, we might never know that an Hikaru Sulu or Glenn from \u201cThe Walking Dead\u201d could exist to be normal, everyday people who are not pre-occupied with kung fu, participating in the Triad Olympics of firearms and immigrant exchange or dry cleaning.<\/p>\n
What is the impression that your regular movie goer might have of Japanese culture?\u00a0 I once saw a \u201c\u201dThe Godfather III\u201d\/\u201dKarate Kid III\u201d double feature at a theater in Berkeley, two films which ought to have qualified me for a lifetime prescription for medicinal marijuana.\u00a0 One film was intent upon reinforcing the idea that Sicilians loved to shoot their guns into crowds of people while the other was causing the three pro-audience participation women seated in front of me to scream \u201cHONOR! BOW!\u00a0 SHAME! YOU MUST DO IT FOR HONOR!\u201d in regular intervals.\u00a0 I have this idea that Americans believe that when Japanese men are not too busy sniffing used school girl underwear or walking through Tokyo brandishing their samurai swords, they bow incessantly in between seeking honor, drawing anime porn, tending their garden of bonsai and brushing their buckteeth.<\/p>\n
These images seem to excite Hollywood, where Japan is either part of an entire Asian continent otherwise known as China, or the mystical land of \u201c…dragons and witches…\u201d, as described in the opening scenes of Hollywood\u2019s version \u201c47 Ronin\u201d.\u00a0 I would not have paid to see this movie, but it was offered for free on my ANA flight to Japan.\u00a0 I had a choice of many other movies, and really wanted to see \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d, but something in me that needed to feel massive mental pain provoked me to choose \u201c47 Ronin\u201d.<\/p>\n
Once I got past the whole line about Japan being the land of dragons and witches, the film moved on to talk about how this country was shut off from foreigners for hundreds of years.\u00a0 Cut to a Caucasian kid running through a Japanese forest, and I could only shake my husband awake and ask, \u201cHOW DID THAT WHITE KID GET IN JAPAN IF IT WAS CUT OFF FROM FOREIGNERS??\u201d\u00a0 The film, of course, meandered on into no man\u2019s land of samurai honorville, dragon women, scaly creatures and spooky Orientalness.\u00a0\u00a0 Had I not been aware that Japan was an actual country, the \u201c47 Ronin\u201d would have made me believe that this was a country that probably bordered Middle Earth and the Klingon Homeworld.<\/p>\n
While I could and should have possibly tried to pretend that this was a film called \u201cCrouching Samurai, Hidden Dragon,\u201d there was a part of me that was thoroughly insulted that Hollywood could dip its fingers into a story as historically important as \u201c47 Ronin\u201d, and fingerpaint it to make a Hokusai print like a Thomas Kincaid painting.\u00a0 While I could even muster up some understanding the dragons and the strange presence of Lovecraft Samurai, why was it necessary to have Keanu Reeves, or any other actor conveniently Hollywood Asian when it matters, as the main character?\u00a0\u00a0 I would have let the beautiful Hiroyuki Sanada take the lead and give this film a throughly honest rendition that Americans might seriously love.\u00a0 Americans, after all, do genuinely like samurai.\u00a0 Not Tom Cruise last samurai.\u00a0 I mean, the sort of samurai that includes a group of seven men that sacrificed themselves for a whole village in exchange for a bowl of rice and a sense of justice.\u00a0 George Lucas was smart enough to recreate Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u201cHidden Fortress\u201d into \u201cStar Wars,\u201d\u00a0 injecting the original film\u2019s inherent importance of justice, honor and rejection of worldly goods to great international success.\u00a0 This, however, is not in keeping with the usual Hollywood practice of repurposing popular Japanese films (\u201cShall We Dance\u201d, \u201cSnow Dogs\u201d, \u201cHachi: A Dog\u2019s Tale\u201d) to utter Milquetoast banality.<\/p>\n
So here I was, watching a horribly feeble film while I sat in business class, wavering between continuing on with this torture or testing the lie back capabilities on this 777-200.\u00a0 It was not true lie back, as the leg portion of the seat curved downward.\u00a0 I leaned back, pushed enough buttons to make the whole thing turn into a bed and found my hips bumping uncomfortably against something.<\/p>\n
Instead, I opted to watch \u201c12 Years A Slave,\u201d and then happily spent the film\u2019s first twenty minutes marveling at the originality of the script.\u00a0 \u201c12 Years A Slave\u201d is a British film with a British actor playing the role of a slave.\u00a0 A filmgoer would not know this because there were no trams, royal family members or Union Jack waving moments to disintegrate the historical significance that is the horror of slavery.\u00a0 If you have not yet seen Steve McQueen\u2019s other works, you might be singularly impressed at how capable he is of telling a story in powerful ways that only a film can do.<\/p>\n
Are you paying attention, Hollywood?<\/p>\n
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(c) 2014 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have always loved the story of the 47 Ronin, or Chushingura.\u00a0 We were told of it somewhere in our Japanese school lives, a classic<\/p>\n