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    of 24
    6 In the Postuational Neighborhood bescent boys, the hypocrisy and fawning of middle-class respectability is unceremoniously displayed, Although most histories of Japanese cinema, in English and in Japanese are framed in a biological narrative striving toward some authentic national ‘cinematic identity, the evolution of Japanese film form, like that of the West, really unfolds as a process of commodification, To be accepted as a universally consumable commodity, cinema had to become respectable, and what better road to respectability than official sanction by the national? Someone had to turn cinema from a toy into a real product.” Instead of some inchoate struggle for national expression, producers and critics like the Pure Film Movement consciously articulated a vision of nationality as a selling point, at home and abroad. Not to do so fixated Japanese, and other national cinemas, at a point of arrested development tunable to compete in a rapidly developing international market increas ingly dominated by Hollywood. Yet the fixation of Japaneseness on cine matic scaffolding appears as a quixotic pursuit when an achievement of the national is at once its negation. In Japanese period films from the 1930s, the resolution ofthat picture is as sharp as it could be. | | 3 Approaching the Monumental Style People define their national identities through identification with these symbols. If this proposition is correct, a comprehensive investigation ofthe national identity cof a given nation-state should encompass not mezely the eategories by which Inhabitants differentiate themselves but the nature and meaning of the symbol sys tem with which they identity. Lowell Dittmer and Samuel §, Kim, Chee’ Qua for Natal Letty The so-called Pacific Century is already with us, despite its official coming ‘out at the tarn of the millennium. In spite of fikty years of consistent ‘methodical expansion, Japan’ steady growth is stubbornly regarded as an “economic miracle,” unless we pause to give credit to MacArthur and the ‘Marshall plan. World War Il is without question the watershed event in US-Japan relations, yet its prominence often obscures the importance of the preceding years. If we bracket for a moment the overweening status of the war and closely scrutinize the 1920s and 1930s, Japan's postwar phoenix comes to appear more like a foregone conclusion than a miracle ‘The ways in which the Japanese managed to integrate alien entities, actual and metaphorical, into their inimitable native structures is reminiscent of a vaccine, which protects the organism by introducing a dose of foreign sub: stance, IFthis i a pattern consistently manifested in both prewar and post: a Approaching the Monumental Style ‘war periods, then Japan’ "Pacific Century” encompasses the twentieth as well ‘A rigorous study of Japanese language, culture, and history is well underway in.the Linited States. In addition to examining the official Japane however, if behooves Us to explore its popula: culture Japanese popula ‘culture allows us glimpses of Japanese society from the “inside,” because it ‘often represents more directly than high culture what ordinary people con mee can also look to the popular culture of the past to help determine the route through which the Japanese negotiated contradictions of mod- cenization, industrialization, and Westernization The prewar cinema of Japan was an imporsans milestone on this route because it shows how chdlJapaiese Completely mastered a Westernitech (BGIOGYSIMBEYBIEMREE in service to a national cause undertaken ‘against that same Western adversary. In the 1930s a complex, bewildering dialectic was unfolding between East and West, tradition and modernity, artand propaganda, peace and war. ‘Asa technology capable of influencing the minds of millions, sound cin- tema was atthe cutting edge. On the one hand, the movies were a too, ike the internal combustion engine or the assembly line, that was adapted from abroad for native purposes. Initially, these purposes were not so different from those of the Westproflethrough enteraininent OF (REmadses. On the ‘other iund, when cinema was used to mobilize support for the war in China, it appealed to an indigenous Japanese spirit unsullied by Western influences and attempted to galvanize a unique national identity in service £0 8 policy of foreign military expansionism. Flere the native purposes of Japanese cinema are nat the fame as those of the West, even though the ‘West also used cinema for propaganda purposes (AjWWéstern echnolbgp was employed to disseminate images of Japaneseness that eschewed West (em technique and ideology, Homage was paid to a Western propaganda medium even while the message of that propaganda exhorted a self-reliant freedom from Western impurities My subject concerns innovations in prewar cinema that articulate a ational identigyy Av obvious place to Took for this is in propaganda, ‘whether in overt or more insinuating forms couched in entertainment. In America serious study of (foreign) national cinemas began with wartime analysis of propaganda by respected scholars like Siegftied Kracauer ("Pro- paganda and the Nazi War Film") and Ruth Benedict "Race and Cultural Relations: America’s Answer to the Myth of a Master Race (2HRCAS SHI AREAAWESooIA) ' In such work there was a pressing need to uncover the Psychology of fascism, to crack the code of ultranationalism in order to arrest a genocidal course. The unsparing racism of “Know Your Enemy,” - Approaching the Monumental Style 29 Frank Capras propaganda documentary series on the Axis adversaries, amplifies the urgency of the wartime mandate because it ruthlessly justifies its means (picturing the enemy’as subhuman) in terms of the end (obliter ation of fascism and the triumph of liberty) (13S BOBSenES WS never this inflammatory, yet it was highly effective, in part because it gen- cally avoided the fanaticism attributed to Japanese militarism by Capra and his employers and in part because it was aril, appealing, and rela- ively senstivey The ways and means of Japanese propaganda have been much discussed elsewhere? and itis instructive to remember that Capra ‘eas reportedly astounded by its sophistication, saying, ‘We cant beat this kind of thing. We ean make films lke these maybe once in a decade. Thanks to Capra and the requirements of the Office of War Information, the ‘ar’ of propaganda has yet to be untangled from its association with simplistic, means-ends indoctrination, with accompanying social science tools and historiographies. In his discussion of Aryan rites in National Socialism, George Mosse voices similar lament about the liabilities ofthe «erm fj, Mor it denotes something artificially created, attempting to capture the minds of men by means of deliberate selling techniques For thie reason Twit set propagands aside, Tr re most ConventTonal sgeneri sense, because | am concerned with a more subtle and compelling instance oF einematic Japaneseness: films that exemplify the monumental seyle ofthe late thirties and early fortes These historical period films glo- ‘ly Japanese tradition through a canonization ofthe past, a celebration of traditional aesthetics, and an exaltation of hierarchic family structures, pat ticularly the patriarchal formations of aside, the way ofthe warrior Char acteristic of the af et acres of techniques employing a fo, implacable narrative, an epic sweep in story and spectacle, and a reverential, even hier atic gravity that lends majestic connotations to its subjects and themes. ‘The monumental style is mote than a lite like Greek or Shakespearean tragedy, Italo exemplifies a peculiarly Japanese dialectic between medium and message because, although itis the most powesful and prestigious instance of Japanese naivism ever seen in the mass media, its stylistic inno vations sometimes obstruct the transmission ofits messages. Monumental style roughens the smoothie HRTGRSNEl ropa ae ‘of a more authentic presentation of Japanese aestheties on the movie screen. Ths is evidence ofa dialectical modernism, as explained below. Fistoncall, the monumental syle is sandwiched between the frantic Westernization ofthe early thirties and back-toJapan cultural policies dic tated by the miitarists in the Pacific War Stylistically, it starkly represents a collision between the attic momentum aroused by a Western technology and the traditional aesthetis incorporated into its fabrication by mitarist, «” Approaching the Monumental Style mandate, The monumental style relation to its historical context is there fore a divided one: stylistic experimentation was jockeying for prominence with the demany Japanese spirit ‘The imerwar petiod wasa time of unprecedented cultural experimentation and exuberance in che big cities. From the end of World War Ito the begin ning of the Showa era in 1926, there was an intense consciousness of ‘modernity subsequently known as “Taisho liberalism.” These were forma tive years for Japanese cinema, whereas the film industry in America was firmly established in its industrial, social, and aesthetic practices. Not sur: prisingly, Japanese studio bosses, stars, and technicians looked to Holly ‘wood in this petiod for lessons on capturing the public imagination (and is“ 75e PHANTOM HE OPERA Universal Plano of the (Opes (1925) sith Lon Chaney Pavate collection, rr | | i Approaching the Monumental Style “a pocketbook). There were many lessons learned and compromises struck with traditional theatrieal and narrative practices, and by 1920 a lively, innovative national style emerged from a Japanese-Westera filmic syn cretism (see chapter 2. But his took time. After the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Japanese film art and industry struck abalance between genres (corresponding othe bifocal production centers in Tokyo and Kyoto), technical mastery, and atistic ambitiousnes, with a satisfactory division of labor and lucrative market. By the end of the decade, however, the politcal climate had changed. The worldwide depression of 1929 hit Japan especially hard and has much to do with the authoritarian, militarist turn of the 1930s Throughout the early 1930s Japanese films continued to exhibit the ex berant, cosmopolitan escapism that had been a staple in postearthquake urban culture. But as eaction, militarism, and war loomed, changes in the film industry were inevitable. Authorities now decried the cheap sensa tional of Japanese film and called for its regulation. An elaborate (sl) censorship mechanism was instituted. The studios, eager to ensure their products distribution and artistic legitimacy, cooperated in encouraging a return to more “authentic” Japanese stories, themes, and techniques. A new crphasis asap vh GESRD r oducd n the mid-to-late 1930s, Instead of using a Tokugawa feudal backdrop for criminal intrigue and spectacular swordplay, these films emphasized the iberally accompanied by didac- me on the scene around 1938, To the education and military officials who now oversaw the film industry, the austere traditionalism of the monumental Toward a Definition It should be emphasized that s far as T Know, monumental style was not a term used in con temporary discussions of Japanese film in the 1930s, even though its tum toward the didactic, the ritual, and the sacred was duly (and tactfully) noted. Monumental style isa ’strong” style in that there are only a handful of fully monumental films (perhaps no more than a dozen before the a Approaching tho Monumental Stylo Pacific War started). Its potency comes from its stylistic rigor, its intensity, and its religious fervor, having more in common with Dreyers Day of Wrath tr Eisenstein loan the Teible than with the hooks of popular propaganda, There is litle in common between the monumental popular cinema, Japanese or otherwise, ‘A similar aesthetic canbe scen in other contemporary totalitarian scomes Gems i GfefomeeSoMeRUnion Aho cannot elaborate here, this points toward the frutfulness of the monumental con sreont Nano Se ice ose hones century Romantic wellsprings ofthe sublime to which totalizing and total itarian regimes obsessively return? 1 efficient causes of the monumental style, how: ever are the te. It is not just che polities of the monu mental style that are important, but its institutional setting, its pertinent generic, stylistic, and narrative norms, and, finally, its textual features Most important are the tensions and negotiations between these multiple determinations. A key determination in the monumental style is the generic and stylistic norms of jidai geki film traditions, Nowhere is this ‘more evident than in Mizoguchi’s Geol Chusbingara, the finest example of Appronching the Monumental Style a (GTA Other examples of che monumental style include Mizoguchi Zangiku Monogatari (Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, 1939), Kumagais Abe Ieivzaku (The Abe Clon, 1938), Kimugasa’s Kawanoksjima Keser (The Batle of Kawanakajna, 1940), and Makino’ lent to Hikezaemow (Shop leisy and His Mentor Hikozaenoe, 1940). Though classic examples ofthe monumental style in its inital phase are rare, the legacy of manumentalsm in its broad «st outlines continues to flourish in Japanese films even today. In chapter 8 J will analyze postwar and contemporary period films: Kinugasa Jigoka ‘Mon (Gate of Hall, 1953), Kurosawa’ Kagemasha (The Shadow Warr, 1980), Raw (1986), and Teshigaharas Ryu (1990) for vestigial developments of the monumental tye. The first step toward defining the monumental style i o ask, si un: fied? Films i the monumental style share a characteristic action or gesture that marks their apparent manner of creation: a gesture of appropriation.© Appropriation must have an object and a purpose, and films in the monu: mental style appropriate the pre-Meiji Japanese cultural heritage for a sacramental purpose, The sacramentalizing of the Japanese cultural her itage, further, has the goal of. com gaa ely the war effort mounted in the ate 19306! 1¢ gesture of appropriation mobilizes Japanese tradition through a ‘canonization of the past, an exaltation of native aesthetics, and a celebra- tion of feudal social structures. But nearly any jidai gekt will do this ro some ‘extent in order to provide period authenticity, a sense of atmosphere, or simply to retell traditional legends and tales. The monumental style is dis- tinguished by the dominance of the indigenous tradition. Its appropriated not for some other purpose within the film, but rather for its own sake as an intrinsically valuable heritage to be regarded with pride and even awe. “The average jidai geki employs samurai heroes and villains who converse, plot, and fight in Japanese houses and palaces and courtyards. Most will use characters who have some standing, as chapter heading or footnote, in ‘Tokugawa history. These aspects of the film are necessary vehicles for the primary purpose of putting some twist on a popular yarn or generic con: vention. They are part of the dramatic furniture, so to speak, of mounting apy 44 Approaching the Monumental Style ese period design, behavior, and ethics and renders them, as much as the characters and situations based upon them, objects of reverence and respect. This is done primarily through style, Paradoxically, the appro. priation of Japanese tradition to be celebrated "for its own sake" more readily serves extracinematic purposes (namely, nationalistic ones) than

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