ANIME CINEMA & GANGSTER GENRE
If you are familiar with Japanese popular culture, you will have some understand about anime. The first part of this blog will be about anime in general and discuss the movie ‘Spirited away’, directed by Hayao Miyazaki which released in 2001.
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The movie which provides a dreamlike fantasy has been well-received within the Japan and abroad. The popularity of ‘Spirited away in no doubt, it was the highest-grossing film that has been released by Japan (Osmond 2008). Not only gain success in Japan, the film has also been praised by other Western countries including Britain (Osmond 2008).
SPIRITED AWAY (2001)
In Japan, anime is all the animation despite their nation and origins (Macwilliams 2008). However, there is another meaning to this. Anime commonly refer to Japanese animation only which different to Western cartoons (Macwilliams 2008).
Back to ‘spirited away’, I will now focus on the one scene that shows the nostalgic aspect that worth noticing. This scene is nearly at the end of the movie which shows Chihiro boards the train with her three other companions and head to Swamp Bottom.
First, when they board the train the conductor shows up with his white gloves and also the train with its early design.
These signs clearly were accustomed for the Japanese audience (Swale 2015). Since white working gloves strongly associated with people who drive for a living or work in railway (Gordenker 2013).
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Despite 3D techniques could bring more realistic feel, the scene applies 2D techniques. It engages the nostalgic content which to end the magic feelings throughout the film (Gordenker 2013). Follow by the sun-drenched countryside platforms that can be associated easily by anyone who had traveled through the countryside in the summer.
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Not only in this scene, a nostalgic reminder also occur in the film set of ‘Spirited Away’ which reflects a lot of Japanese features. For example, the Japanese bathhouse was very important in community centers (Osmond 2008). ‘Spirited Away’ has successfully perceived Japanese, therefore expose this film to the different type of audience with unique response (Osmond 2008).
Reproduced from: Spirited Away 2001
HANA-BI (1997)
Released in 1997, ‘Hana-Bi’ was directed by Takeshi Kitano. With ‘Hana’ is a flower - the representation of life and ‘Bi’ means ‘fire’ which similar to death. The title of the movie brings the two parts of dichotomy that become the main themes of ‘Hana-Bi’ (Taylor-Jones 2013).
With the use of contextual elements to stimulates exceptional aesthetic effects (Phillips, Alastair & Stringer, Julian 2007). For example, some casual situations that are placed within sequence such as playing catch, family snapshots, etc. The director insists in invoking Japan traditional cinema despite not suit the taste of international market (Phillips, Alastair & Stringer, Julian 2007)
Reproduced from: Hana-Bi 1997
After watching the movie, it makes me realize that the whole movie has this narrative of death and suicide. In the beginning of the movie, one police have been murdered and the other one has been crippled. Then, leukemia caused the death of Nishi’s wife. Toward the end of the movie, it shows that Nishi never intends to live without his wife which somehow reference to death.
As I mentioned earlier, the movie has mentioned some Japan images like Mount Fuji or cherry blossoms and temples. This somehow creates the connection between suicide and Japanese. This linkage was about the willingness to sacrifice for their country back in World War II (Taylor-Jones 2013). Not only selling that story, Kitano also sells Japanese film (Davis 2001). This shows clearly in the scene when Mt. Fuji was used as a background of a tragic couple.