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Coluna Claquete - March 23, 2016 - Special: Japan through the movies

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Special: Japan through the movies

A few days ago, some colleagues from SetCenas site and I kept a lively discussion about Martin Scorsese's movie "Silence", and if it would reflect the historical japanese moment on which the story is developed.Like any discussion among friends, no one was convinced at the end, and we all gained more knowledge, but I imposed myself a challenge: which movies, Japanese or not, would reflect more truly this country so exotic and so difficult to understand?

Everyone knows that Japan was the country of the samurais, and today is the epitome of technology. But, and in the meantime, what happened? What prompted that country, which was the most impenetrable in the world to become the powerhouse it is today? What represented in this context the defeat in World War II and the use of nuclear weapons for this?

One might say that to know Japan of samurai age, it is enough watch all Akira Kurosawa movies.Well, it is a fact that Kurosawa was accused by his own countrymen to be very "Americanized". Perhaps this is due to the fact that he knew that no Westerner could understand the Japanese universe without some help.

For nearly a thousand years Japan was completely closed to outside world. Its closest relations were with China, a thick-skinned Empire, which was object of lust but still very powerful to try any adventure.

Therefore, Japan has remained all this time as a highly stratified society, where the son of a fisherman would be fisherman, the farmer's one the same, and a samurai's son, of course, should be a samurai.

These men, the samurais, were the mainstay of the power of the Japanese feudal lords, the daymios, which maintained a silent war with each other to vie for supremacy in a country where there was no regular army, and the emperor, even if was considered a god, was virtually a prisoner in his palace .

The Samurai was a man with education and training, whose main values ​​were the honor and loyalty to his daymio. A samurai with no lord had only two destinations: commit ritual suicide, seppuku, or become a ronin, a man without honor.

From that Japanese age I can recommend the movies "Ran" and "Seven Samurai", from Kurosawa, "Tales of Ugetsu" from Kenji Mizoguchi, "Harakiri", from Masaki Kobayashi, "The Twilight Samurai", from Yoji Yamada, and "After the Rain", from Takashi Koizumi.

These films show the rigid relationship between social classes, the power struggle of the nobles, and the simple and restricted lives of most inhabitants of the country.

An important point in Japanese history took place around the year 1600, when missionaries and Portuguese traders were able to penetrate the rigid Japanese life. The film "Silence" takes place in that time, although the plot has focused only two priests who had been imprisoned and forced to renounce the Catholic faith. A more comprehensive view of this period is given by the book "Shogun", written by James Clavell, and then adapted for TV in a miniseries, and with a compact version for the theater.The series was directed by Jerry London, and had as main actors Richard Chamberlain and Toshirô Mifuni. The story is based on a real fact, a British pilot captured by the Japanese and who served daymio Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became ruler of the country.

Despite being fictional, "Shogun" has one of the most comprehensive views of Japanese society, seen from the perspective of a Westerner with rare impartiality.This is because of the very Clavell was a soldier in World War II and POW in a Japanese camp. Despite the difficulties suffered he fell in love with Japanese culture and produced this exceptional work.

The next turning point in Japanese history came two and a half centuries later. Japan's isolation was broken in 1853, when american Commodore Matthew Perry forced the opening of Japanese ports to foreign countries under bombing threat.

The last shogun Tokugawa resigned in 1868, ushering in the Meiji era, named after the Emperor Meiji who had assumed political power.Then began the modernization of the country with the dismantlement of the feudal and samurai system, and the transfer of the capital to Tokyo. A strong Westernization process took place, and Japan emerged into the world as the first industrialized Asian country.

The film that best presents this period is "The Last Samurai," directed by Edward Zwick and starring Tom Cruise.It was one fictional story that showed with remarkable fidelity the hard transition period of Japan from feudal to the modern, and the great impact that it caused not only in the castes culture, dominant for a thousand years, but also the beginning of the militarist and expansionist thirst that dominate the country in the early 20th century, culminating with Japan's participation in World War II.

A new turning point in Japanese history was in that conflict. Movies like "Tora, Tora, Tora!" present the beginning of Japan's participation in the war, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, while "Letters from Iwo Jima" shows the Japanese view of the conflict after Germany's defeat. The beautiful animation of Hayao Miyazaki, "The Wind Rises" shows in a playful way the Japan's preparation for the war.

A rare view of the war through the perspective of ordinary people comes with the animated film "Grave of the Fireflies". In the film, two siblings try to survive in a war over which they had no decision, and have to suffer the consequences. The animation, which has had two versions with actors, is based in the real story of Akiyuki Nosaka, told in his book "Haturo no Haka".

The conflict persisted even after 1945, when in Brazil, part of Japanese colony refused to believe in Japan's defeat, which caused extreme reactions, facts that were investigated by Fernando Morais in his book "Dirty Hearts", then transformed into film by Vicente Amorim.

From this country broken by war turn to economic and industrial power of 80, took only a few decades. Contrary to what many argue, it was not due only to the money injected by the Americans, but the very unyielding character of the Japanese people. Values such as discipline, efficiency, cleanliness and order comes from ancient times, when Japanese cities worked to perfection while European cities like London and Paris were urban chaos, with waste and garbage thrown in the streets.

This Japanese way of thinking and acting is not always understood by Westerners, and this misunderstanding also stagger the japanese.After all, the culture of a people is an indestructible patrimony, something that we are still far from assimilating.

This unique Japanese culture can be seen in many current films, but I recommend the following: "Fear and Trembling" by Alain Corneau, "Tokyo Fiancée", by Stefan Liberski, both based in the Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb books, "Journey to the Shore "by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, "Like Father, Like Son" by Hirokazu Koreeda, and the beautiful "Departures" by Yojirô Takita.

This quick dip in Japan seen by movies only shows the richness of millennial Japanese culture, and our inability to delve into a world so different from ours. Some will miss films about yakuza, Godzilla, ninjas, even iconic tales of terror as "The Ring", or the beautiful films of Studio Gihbli. The only thing we can be sure of is that this list will never cease to grow.

Coluna Claquete - February 13th, 2017 - Movie of the Week: "Tanna"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Tanna"

If anyone ever ask what for the Oscar is, we can say that, at least in the category of Best Foreign Film, it allows us to have access to productions that hardly would reach the commercial circuit. Of course, when they are not boycotted by their own governments, as was the case of our "Aquarius". But if we are not represented in the competition, worth check the others, and find some rare gems, as is the case of "Tanna", the representative of Australia and Vanuatu.

The film has little to do with Australia, where the original inhabitants were massacred or marginalized by the British colonizers. To be honest, I had to search in the internet to find out where the story happened, and I discovered that Vanuatu is a former Franco-British colony, with little time of independent existence.

The country is an archipelago in the South Pacific and Tanna is one of 83 islands that compose it.Although it is one of the most populated islands, with twenty thousand, Tanna has an area a bit bigger than the city of Quebec, with 550 km².

Although these geographical data appear to have little to do with the film, they show a place where modern civilization could not destroy the local behavior, where live people who follow their own traditions and beliefs existing since immemorial times.

It is in this unique environment that lives Wawa (Wawa Marie) a young woman who is completing the transition between adolescence and maturity, a situation which is celebrated by the whole tribe, though with the usual charges.

Wawa loves his people and his family, especially her bratty little sister Selin (Marceline Rofit) that never seems to stay quiet.But Wawa also has a special feeling for Dain (Mungau Dain), the grandson of the chief of tribe, her friend since childhood.

The Yakel, the people of Wawa, has a great veneration for Yahul, an active volcano easily accessible, which is for them the divinity that brings them wisdom. When Selin and his grandfather make a visit to the volcano, they are attacked by two Imedin warriors, one of the tribes of the island.

The aggression brings a lot of anger and desire for revenge to the Yakel, but the chief of the tribe receives a divine message through a song that says that revenge leads nowhere, except for destruction.The case is brought to the board of all tribes, and an agreement is sealed, where the young Wawa will be offered in marriage to strengthen ties with Imedin tribe.

The problem is that neither Wawa or Dain accept this fate and they decide to escape to live their love. But the world of Tanna is small, and there seems no place for innocent lovers.There seems to be no outcome except a tragedy.

One might be tempted to think of this plot as an aboriginal copy of Tristan and Isolde or Romeo and Juliet. But the fact portrayed really occurred in 1987. It sparked a change in thinking on the island's traditions, something unthinkable until then.

The film is surprising in many ways, especially in cast performance, most real islanders without any scenic knowledge, but that bring realism and charm to the scenes.

The movie's photography is fantastic, exploring in a exquisite way the beautiful and strange island landscapes, including volcano, forest, desert plains and lush coastline.

The film is spoken in Bislama, the island's dialect, which does not affect the beautiful dialogues rich of humor and teachings on the art of living together.

"Tanna" is a very interesting movie with many layers to understanding and discussion, and showing how the human condition is rich and varied, even in this strangely globalized world.

Original title: "Tanna"

Coluna Claquete - February 6, 2017 - Movie of the Week: "Hidden Figures"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Hidden Figures"

It is an unfortunate coincidence that the premiere of the film "Hidden Figures" (2016), an account of the United States races segregation time, coincides with a return of the world to a sea of ​​intolerance that seems to defy any rational explanation.

In the period following the Second World War, the world was divided between a group of countries aligned with the United States, and another led by the Soviet Union. This state of constant tension was called the Cold War, and although there were some moments of real danger, there was never a direct confrontation between the two powers.

The dispute, however, happened in several other fields, with the main purpose to win the propaganda war.One of the areas where it happened the fierce dispute was the space race. The two blocks were amassing fortunes with fledgling technologies to achieve the laurels of a feat to take the man into space.

For some time the Russians took advantage, putting into space the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, the first living being, the dog Laika, and later the first man on a suborbital flight, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

These achievements left in turmoil Americans, who ran after the injury. The United States had other problems being evident, the most serious the racial segregation.

It is really strange that the country that was called the bulwark of democracy internally maintained a policy where racism was formalized in laws prohibiting even interracial marriages. Everything was absolutely separated, libraries, bathrooms, drinking fountains, seats in buses, houses, etc ..

Segregation also happened at work. In 1961, NASA, the newly created US space agency, was a faithful portrait of the rest of the country, with distinct offices, dining areas and bathrooms for blacks and whites.

In the administrative center of NASA in Langley, among thousands of other employees, worked friends Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe).The three women were hired as computers, professionals who did the tedious calculations behind any engineering design, using only mechanical calculators and their own knowledge.

Each one stood out in an area. Katherine, who since childhood surprised teachers with the ease that dominated mathematics, was a brilliant mathematician. Dorothy ran the whole group of black computers women without being recognized his leadership work. Mary, in turn, had great facility for practical engineering issues, though she never managed to enter the university.

Katherine had the opportunity to show their talents when she was called to work for the team led by Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), which calculated the launch and re-entry trajectory of rockets, one of the delicate points of the space program, which had been the reason for many failures of experiments.

In addition to technical difficulties and lack of support from colleagues, Katherine still had to deal with the security classification that prevented her from having the basic data for the calculations. Items such as mass, speed, launch sites and rescue, all this was considered secret, and denied from his eyes.

Dorothy had its own problems, since the arrival of a brand new IBM computer threatened the jobs of computers women, as it would in seconds made calculations that they all would take days to complete. However, not even the technicians could do the machine work, and Dorothy, realizing that the future layed in that strange machine, sought to empower themselves on their own.

Mary, in turn, wanted at all costs to become an engineer at NASA. However, for this she needed to go the university, which only accepted white people. To overcome this, she had to go to court, to claim a feature considered impossible at the time.

The film shows, in a romantic way, as the effort to achieve a common goal brings people together and overcome differences. However, the recognition of these women, who had to win the double prejudice of race and gender, it would take decades to be done.

"Hidden Figures" seeks to show not only the huge effort made to bring man into space with incipient technologies and high risk for astronauts, as well as the cruel face of segregation, something regarded as perfectly normal for white people.

The film is technically very well done, with good performances, especially Taraji P. Henson, great recreation of the time, and an engaging soundtrack. Some poetic liberties happens, like the utilization of Fortran language to run the computer.In fact, the operation was done in machine language, as Fortran was a high levell user interface.The site imdb.com lists dozens of factual errors and continuity, most linked to cars, but they do not interfere with the good understanding of the story.

"Hidden Figures" is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer) and Adapted Screenplay.The film won the cast extraordinary performance award at SAG Awards, the Sindicate of Actors of Hollywood.

We hope that when seeing bad things of the past people come to their senses and realize that intolerance is the worst of ways for humanity, and that the closure of borders and building of walls will never help a man to get anywhere, either in space or good relationship with the other.

Original title: "Hidden Figures"