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  • Week 1 - Rashomon

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    Rashomon and Japanese cinema examines Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon through three main summaries: 1. It analyzes the film's content and story, which tells of a murdered samurai through varying witness testimonies at a gate. 2. It discusses the film's themes of human fallibility, gender relations, and the ambiguity of truth and representation. 3. It provides context on the film's production in postwar Japan and its exhibition, which brought Japanese cinema increased global recognition though the film initially flopped domestically.

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    East Asian Cinema slides.

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    Rashomon and Japanese cinema examines Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon through three main summaries: 1. It analyzes the film's content and story, which tells of a murdered samurai through varying witness testimonies at a gate. 2. It discusses the film's themes of human fallibility, gender relations, and the ambiguity of truth and representation. 3. It provides context on the film's production in postwar Japan and its exhibition, which brought Japanese cinema increased global recognition though the film initially flopped domestically.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    31 views8 pages

    Week 1 - Rashomon

    Uploaded by

    birdy_40
    Rashomon and Japanese cinema examines Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon through three main summaries: 1. It analyzes the film's content and story, which tells of a murdered samurai through varying witness testimonies at a gate. 2. It discusses the film's themes of human fallibility, gender relations, and the ambiguity of truth and representation. 3. It provides context on the film's production in postwar Japan and its exhibition, which brought Japanese cinema increased global recognition though the film initially flopped domestically.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 8

    Week 1

    Rashomon and Japanese cinema

    Friday, July 5, 2013

    Lecture Outline

    Content/Story/Plot Thematic currents Form Production and exhibition context Exhibition and cultural context National cinema

    Friday, July 5, 2013

    Content/Story/Plot
    Story vs. Plot Story: A samurai has died, his lady and a bandit are captured; they and a woodcutter and priest are called to give testimony before a judiciary; these accounts are related in ashbacks to a commoner at a ruined gate. Plots: the framing narrative at the gate; each of the varying accounts Via Character Tajomaru Masako (Lady) Takehiro (Samurai) Woodcutter Priest Commoner

    Friday, July 5, 2013

    Thematics
    Via Setting Late Heian Japan (794-1185); ruin City vs. Country; Court vs. Forest Human fallibility, sin, corruption... and hope? Gender contest; the grounds of patriarchal power Moral ambivalence; light and dark; dappled shadow Status of truth and representation 3 media of articulation: experience, witness, paranormal Subjective vision and self-preservation Political, verbal, cognitive vs. cinematic truth

    Friday, July 5, 2013

    Form, Style, Language


    Composition; sets of 3: Spaces (Rashomon, Court, Forest Characters (Woodcutter/Priest/Commoner), (Bandit/Wife/Samurai) Geometrical design (pillars, trees, gures) Rhythm: structure, cuts, music Expressive camera postures and movements Non-verbal visual story-telling Long, kinetic tracks; short, restless shots Long still takes Experimentation and innovation Shoot the sun; mirrors; swishes, wipes, tilts
    Friday, July 5, 2013

    Production and exhibition context


    Mid-century Japan Second Sino-Japanese war; Pacic War 1945-1952 Japanese surrender; pacist constitution, US occupation; Americanization High growth age 50s-70s centralized planning; cold war bulwark; 1964 Olympics Japanese Cinema 1899 early adoption; prolic industry; silent lm 1930s-40s: Mizoguchi, Ozu, and then Kurosawa Contemporary lm, historical lm, family melodrama Wartime centralization and propaganda; US occupation cultural pacication 1950s and 60s heterogeneous forms: monsters, samurais, gangsters, weepies, animation

    Friday, July 5, 2013

    Exhibition and cultural context

    Rashomons real effect 1950 domestic op; 1951 Venice prize; 1952 Academy Award, etc. Japanese cinema on the world map Kurosawa on the Japanese map The most foreign of Japanese lmmakers Recognizable cultural icons, uncanny space Modern reection of the past The grounds of modernism: domestic vs. global High or low culture? Unidirectional global inuence Westerns; The Outrage

    Friday, July 5, 2013

    National cinema
    Dening national cinema economic textual consumption criticism Problem: coherence vs. resistance New denitions: comparative internal Cultural identity? subject matter sensibility style

    Friday, July 5, 2013

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