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Initial Reaction

I had high hopes for Spirited Away, since a friend told me that this is one of her all-time favorite films. I must admit, I was not disappointed. There’s so much to analyze from capitalism, consumerism culture, environmental concerns, and human rights issues. One viewing for this film is not enough to uncover Miyazaki’s whole message. Although it is an anime, I feel that this is one that adults may enjoy and appreciate more than children for its social commentary. Nevertheless, it is a film that transcends age and national boundaries making it a film that anyone can relate to. Out of all the films we’ve watched this semester, this is one I plan on re-watching.

Social Commentary

The Importance of Your Name

The first scene, we, as an audience, encounter the importance a name holds is when Yubaba takes Chihiro’s name from her and renames her Sen. In the scene, we see Yubaba sucking up Chihiro’s name from the contract and leaving her with only a part of her full name. Interestingly, if you look closely enough, Chihiro misspelled part of her last name. 

Though it is highly unlikely that she knew of the importance of retaining her name  – Haku only warns her afterwards that Yubaba enslaves people by taking their name away from them – this emphasizes the idea that a name represents someone’s identity. In taking away names from her workers, Yubaba takes away people’s freedom of thought and free-will and disables them from questioning her authority much like the societal structure we live in today. This especially rings true in Japan’s society in which hierarchical structures are, in many cases, based off age. While this practice has its pros in that the population at large respect their elders, it also reaps problems in which situations that should be based on merit may be overridden solely by who in the group is the oldest. Chihiro represents the antagonist to such structures and is able to save her parents and Haku, because she stays true to herself and her values.  

Money ≠ Happiness

Miyazaki quite obviously critiques the way in which capitalist society causes people to put money on a pedestal throughout the film’s screen time. This is prominently depicted in the scene where No Face shells out gold coins and the bathhouse workers immediately pick it up in a crazed manner. The workers only curry his (?) favor because they love his money and the status it brings him – not No Face, himself. Each mistakenly seem to believe that money will solve all their problems. After all, their lifestyle stems from only being able to work in a place that offers minimum wage at best and in which the working conditions are poor. However, Yubaba demonstrates that money may buy the tools to be happy, but does not necessarily correlate to a person’s level of happiness. Since, though, she may be financially well-off, she does not have enough time to spend time with her baby Boh who is the ultimate source of her happiness. In this sense, she also falls victim to the pitfalls created by capitalist societies. 

Also, can I just say that the ending song is exquisite!? It’s been one of my favorites for a long time, even though I had never watched Spirited Away the whole way through. 

Here’s a link to a beautiful rendition by the original singer, Youmi Kimura: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdO2X0QlYYI.

Takashi Miike must have been an Eagle Scout because this movie is a masterclass in camp. Paralleled in goofiness only by Tampopo, Sukiyaki Western Django is a love letter to the Spaghetti Western highlighted by absurd action scenes and dragged down by Quentin Tarantino’s disgustingly weird accent.

Initial Reactions

My god I cannot stress how much Quentin Tarantino sucked in this film. This film started off pretty good, and Quentin Tarantino’s western accent was alright, if not funny, but when he switched into the faux-Asian accent, it displayed a clear lack of never having even studied the Japanese language because it was off in all the wrong places. Also why did he do it? It’s not like it added anything to the film other than a visceral gut reaction.

A contentious decision that could either be insanely funny or incredibly cringey was the final reveal that Heihachi becomes Django. I don’t know if Takashi Miike was serious about this, and if he was, then it might’ve taken the “Ode to Westerns” a bit too far and changed the tone of this movie into a gross origin story. HOWEVER, if this was some prank, then this would be a stroke of genius because something I get tired of seeing at the end of the movies is the “Where are they now?” sections, and seeing a dumb joke akin to the “This person grew up to be Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk” memes you see on the internet was a fun touch.

Other than that, this film was amazing, and mainly because everything was so goofy. Going back to the opening scene, the blood spattering on the backdrop and the dumb gritty dialogue made this feel like a parody of a scene building up to a shootout. Adding onto this, the gunfighting scenes are so much fun to watch, especially the scene where Yoshitsune (big bad dude in white) adjusts for the wind and proceeds to shoot Kiyomori (big bad dude in red). Yoshitsune having to point his gun like 40° to the left of Kiyomori, and then Kiyomori reacting like he was getting shot by an airsoft gun was comedic genius.

Deeper Thoughts/Analysis

The biggest thing that crossed my mind was how meta this whole movie was. One of the Heike boys compared the Gunman to a similar character in the movie Yojimbo, which reminded me that this movie is inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, which are in turn inspired by old Japanese samurai movies. This kind of reminds me of Jean Baudrillard’s idea of different stages of simulacra, where Spaghetti Westerns are an unfaithful copy (or second-order simulacra) of samurai movies, and Sukiyaki Western Django is an unfaithful copy of an unfaithful copy. I’m fairly certain this doesn’t mean it transcends to third-order simulacra, but it is interesting how removed Sukiyaki Western Django is from the original source material of Yojimbo.

Final Thoughts

Initial Thoughts

This movie was such a lovely change of pace for the horror movies of the past few weeks. I really enjoyed the calming, soft atmosphere this movie created and the emotions it evoked. The shot composition of this movie was gorgeous, highlighting the beautiful scenery of Japan. A complete contrast to the look and feel of Pulse. Having the two movies back to back, I noticed they have almost completely opposite messages. Both movies discuss how characters are lonely, but each one shows it differently which I find interesting.

My Interpretation

I thought that this movie had a really sweet message about living life despite prejudices that people may face. In this movie we see Tokue continue to enjoy her life, and the things around her despite the way she is treated by society. She if always taking in the scenery, enjoying the company of people around her, and giving advice to the younger people around her. It was nice to see a movie portray someone with a disability in such a positive light, and having the movie focus on how Tokue is mistreated for something she cannot control. People who suffer from leprosy have been outcasts in society for years even though it is not extremely contagious, and is very rarely spread to others. I was happy to see that this movie portrayed Tokue in such a positive light, and that we see the other main characters in the movie having sympathy for her.

Sentaro’s journey throughout the movie was one of the most moving parts of the whole film. We see him go from just doing his job because it’s his job, to enjoying making dorayaki as his passion. Meeting Tokue opens him up more, and she fills a role in his life that he was missing due to his mother’s passing. By hiring Tokue, she shows him just how meaningful and personal cooking food can be. Making the bean paste is more than just cooking for Tokue, and she teaches this to Sentaro. At the end, when we hear Tokue’s final message we learn that her motivation for working at the dorayaki shop was more than just because she likes dorayaki. She saw how sad Sentaro was feeling and wanted to help him get out of that sadness as she had been like him before. Her actions show just how selfless and kind of a person she really is.

I mentioned before that this movie has the opposite message from Pulse, and I think that Tokue’s final message is what solidified that feeling for me. In Pulse, people succumb to loneliness, and the movie emphasizes the lack of connections people make through the internet and daily life. However, Sweet Bean focuses on how connections to others can make such a huge difference in people’s lives. Just by getting to know Tokue, both Sentaro and Wakana’s lives are changed. Tokue helps both of them by being a positive figure in their lives. At the end we see that Sentaro is smiling and has a business of his own, and Wakana decided to go to high school even when she thought she wouldn’t. Both characters are brought out of their loneliness through their connections to people which I think rivals some of the messaging from Pulse.

As far as Japanese horror goes, this is not near the top of my list sadly. While I did appreciate some of the on-screen visuals and the atmosphere on display, the constant bouncing between two distinct plotlines and a rather muddled message that ended with a pretty jarring shift to an apocalyptic setting really bogged down any positive elements I saw here.

It seems like this movie came in around the height of the J-horror boom after Ring really caught the international attention, and this film set out to deliver further on ghost stories that avoided gore and violence over tension and atmosphere. Plenty of points were definitely unsettling, but overall, I feel like the plot fell victim to “this is only happening because every character has a lower IQ than average.” It’s an interesting enough premise, once I pieced together what it actually is, which is that the world of the dead is becoming overrun, and spirits are invading the world of the living, or so one of the characters claims. The devices that are used to help keep us connected are vulnerable to these invaders, and so the living become subject to their intense apathy and give up on life the same as these ghosts did. Rather than inflicting pain, they simply invite the living into their own isolation. “Death is unending loneliness, why should I be the only one to suffer it?” is a possible motivation here, although it is never explicitly stated beyond a confrontation with a spirit towards the films end.

My issue with all this is I’m still not sure what message this is sending out exactly, I don’t think it’s meant to be pure entertainment or just shlocky, I’m sure there’s some kind of commentary on human isolation, connections, budding technology and how this affects people socially. My best guess is that this is trying to confront the issues of “hikikomori” culture, especially as it was developing at the turn of the millennia, in that many people in Japan were beginning to live in total isolation, almost withdrawing entirely from society. "People don't really connect, you know. We're all totally separate." Many of the deaths in the movie are suicide victims who were living alone, forced into isolation by their work routines or other life circumstances. It’s a real and prevalent issue in Japan to this day, with many people passing away alone and going unnoticed for extended periods of time. Maybe this film is an attempt at painting an image of what can happen to the world should too many people give up on staying connected while living their lives in a more fulfilling manner, and instead resign themselves to being isolated and passing on alone. I still think that the ending sequences feel too obtuse compared to the way the film was set up, and that a less dramatic and more somber ending would have been more appropriate.

Initial Reaction

I was quite scared to watch this film, Ring (リング), at first as I didn’t know what to expect. Overall, it exceeded my expectations: 1.) It wasn’t that bad in terms of horror, and 2.) there was much more to analyze than I expected of (which wasn’t much) from a horror film.  

It’s always interesting to see an older film with a cast of which many are still active actors in the present-day, since they look so young. Sadly, Yūko Takeuchi who played Tomoko in this film died of suicide on September 27, 2020. There was a string of suicides in the entertainment industry at the time with the most famous incident being Haruma Miura, one of the most prominent actors of his generation, who died of suicide only a few months before Takeuchi.

Social Commentary/Cinematography

Cyclical Nature and the Patriarchy

The title, Ring, cleverly alludes to the film’s cyclical plot which we later learn that the only way to “break the curse” is to show someone else a recording of the cursed tape. Interestingly enough, Reiko, the protagonist’s name also alludes to this cyclical nature as part of her name, “Rei”, means zero (0) in Japanese. Additionally, the death sentence of someone who has watched the cursed tape is one week which can be thought of as one cycle (i.e., this Monday to next Monday).

I believe this reappearance and emphasis on a cycle represents Sadako’s sorrow and anger of her mother committing suicide at the hands of her own father, her partner, and the media – more specifically, male reporters. I would like to point out that Sadako and her mother’s unfortunate outcome of their life is primarily determined by the actions of men around them. Sadako’s mother dies of suicide due to her father’s decision to take advantage of her supernatural powers of being able to read people’s minds by selling her story to the press. As a consequence of his actions, Sadako’s mother is used as a test subject by Ikuma who holds a public press conference. Unfortunately, this results in negative press release of her being “abnormal” which ultimately pushes her over the edge. It should go without saying that the actions of the men who caused her mother to die of suicide had a direct effect on Sadako. Combined with the fact that her life is put to an end by her own father, Ikuma (which could be a play on words of “akuma” – devil), who is later revealed to have had an affair with her mother and feared his daughter’s supernatural abilities that surpassed her mother’s by being able to kill someone with a simple thought.

*It is worth noting that although Ryuji-san is loving and kind to his ex-wife Reiko - for the most part - he still embodies traditional, patriarchal values. This is demonstrated when he forces Reiko to stay at home with their son Yōichi, because she supposedly doesn’t have much time left. Keep in mind that he’s also Yōichi’s parent and only has an additional day to live than Reiko. The patriarchal values are further demonstrated when he slaps Reiko on the face when she seemingly “gives up” on trying to find Sadako’s body, which they mistakenly believe to be the key to ending the curse. Unnecessary much? Additionally, when Reiko goes down in the well to try to find Sadako, she superimposes Ryuji-san with Ikuma – one of the catalysts to Sadako’s curse. Interestingly enough, Ryuji-san is the only one that dies in this film, if we consider the starting point of Reiko’s story as being after the death of her niece, Tomoko.

I will admit, I was not at all tuned in for the first half of the film, so I was very confused why there was a lot of mindless, senseless murdering and gunning down people. However, as the film reaches its middle act with its deeper focus and insight on Nishi and his wife, I started to get the gist of things more.

Hana-bi is essentially a moving and wondrous yakuza film on a former detective who spends the rest of his time unemployed and taking care of his leukemia-ridden wife, to the extent of getting into financial troubles with the yakuza themselves. It is a film deeply rooted in its humanity, which to me is what makes it an excellent and heartbreaking film to take in. The gloomy cool skies of the film and the cold demeanor of Nishi as he relentlessly tries to escape the yakuza and spend quality time with his wife is a great mesh of the stale depressive parts of living and the one bright light of joy that one looks forward to when they wake up. I think it's this aspect that makes the viewer all the more enticed and engaged as they watch, seeing a seemingly cold and stoic man go out of his way to be vulnerable around someone they love while also standing up for themselves and who they love.

I think even without Hisaishi's score the film would have still been complete in its intentions of its message, but nonetheless, it definitely added depth to a lot of important scenes and also a lot of humanity to the murders. Furthermore, the one particular extreme close-up of Horibe's pointillist painting and the zoom-out from it was absolutely breathtaking to see. It really encapsulated his ongoing emotions as a paralyzed man whose daughter and wife has left him.

I didn’t know what to expect from Go. I knew going into it that it would be a coming-of-age story but not much else. This movie dripped with early 2000s energy. The constant references to popular culture and what was going on was very nice. It felt like a product of its time. Everyone loves a brooding young man with clear anger issues. From the beginning of the movie, Sugihara was very relatable and felt like a good protagonist. The movie did a good job painting a very clear message about Sugihara. He wasn’t a bad kid instead he was a product of the various generational traumas and racism that affected him. He wanted to fit in and tried his best at times. However, at one point he became very disillusioned with the whole idea of integration. He realized that he would never be able to find a place within society due to his heritage. This frustration led to Sugihara engaging in dangerous activities that included attacking cops and getting into many fights. The movie did a good job setting up the fact that Sugihara didn’t necessarily want to fight it’s just he felt like he needed to.

From the beginning of the movie, Sugihara states that this movie is his love story. This love story takes a while to start up. However, once it is in motion the movie does a good job building the relationship up. There was a little to be desired from the relationship. I wish there was more time dedicated to building that bond. I only have this criticism because the breakup felt bad but not like it hit hard enough. It hurt when she told Sugihara that they couldn’t be together because he was Korean. It felt like the one safe space that Sugihara had was destroyed. At no point in this movie is Sugihara in peace other than when he is with Sakurai. Seeing how he reacts when she expressed her racist sentiments was saddening. He is very quiet for most of it and then curtly answers her before leaving. You can tell that he is just disappointed and upset more than angry. We then get a scene where he chooses to knock out and then talk to a cop. This is the first time we see Sugihara feel comfortable talking about his feelings to someone. It was even more important because he was opening to a Japanese cop. This cop turned out to be more accepting than most of the people Sugihara had interacted with. It was a nice scene and did a good job showing the process that Sugihara was going through.

I think my favorite part of this movie was Sugihara’s relationship with his father. There was love there. However, there was a lot of anger and resentment. You can tell Sugihara blames his father and resents him due to the struggles he must go through. You can also tell that his father cares about him and wants to see him succeed. However, his father has no way of communicating this healthily. The relationship is so strained that when his father opens to him Sugihara’s only desire is to fight him. That is why when Sugihara states that he knows that his father only became South Korean for his future it felt gratifying. Being a child of two immigrants I understand the struggle and resentment that can be passed down due to that process. However, it is always important to remove that your parents took this dangerous step knowing the consequences. They knew that they wouldn’t be accepted and that they would face many hardships. But they also knew that this was the only way to give their child a real future. This part of the movie was conveyed beautifully and was capped off well.