Menu
close
Home › Forums › Summer Institutes › Exploring East Asian Visual Culture, Summer 2018 › Tuesday, 7/31, morning session - Kerim Yasar, USC
Nira Sun.
cgaoProfessor Yasar's lecture is titled Japanese Film and Families Through the Lens of Yasujiro Ozu.
Please download and read "Ozuesque as a Sensibility" by Jinhee Choi (PDF below).
If possible, please watch Ozu’s film Tokyo Story. Stream it here on YouTube.
Midori SanchezThank you to Dr. Yasar on your presentation on Japanese film.
While watching the film, I noticed an opportunity to pick up on the characterization of the characters, foreshadowing, and the universality of family dynamics worldwide. Those quick glances, the generational gaps, use of music etc. all build the picture of what the family is like and what Japan was like during the 1950s even through the use of short clips.
Tokyo Story was definitely interesting take on what I knew/know about Japanese/Japanese American home life. It was shocking to see the treatment of the children of the parents in the movie. The reason this stood out to me is because I am a quarter Japanese American and the idea of leaving your parents not looked after in their older years especially is looked down upon based on how I was raised within my family.
Donna JamshidnejadI appreciate Professor Yasar discussion of the American occupation of Japan and censorship of media. While it is difficult to include every aspect of World History in my classroom, I think that I should work this information into the classroom somehow. Visuals could portray this censorship through images, newspaper articles, or film clips during the occupation, and after the occupation. A Google search on US occupation and censorship in Japan quickly reveals some articles. Through more research I think I can dig up primary and secondary sources that students can use in the classroom. We can compare US censorship to other censorship at the time (for example, communist countries).
Review: Censorship of Japanese Films During the U.S. Occupation of Japan
Akunna UkaI found the explanation of the Benshi interesting, and I think my students would be interested in learning more about the role and power of Benshi. Those who teach the Luddites may draw a connection and consider how people respond to changes in technology cross culturally and during different time periods. Students may be challenged to think about who the "Benshi" are in their everyday society i.e. cashiers being replaced by machines, etc.
http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/a_brief_history_of_benshi
Akunna UkaDonna, what class(es) do you teach? A student of mine did a project on the American influence in Japan so I was very lucky that he brought it to the students' attention.
Jessica RodarteIn this morning's session with Professor Yassar, I was immediately struck by the parallels between Japanese Golden Age films by Ozu and films from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Both happened after war; Japanese after WWII and Mexican after the Mexican Revolution. The Japanese lasting from the late 40's to the 60's and the Mexican lasting from the 30's to late 60's. They used similar aesthetics and forms: long shots, melancholic music, city sounds to drive themes, "pillow" shots, use of everyday life, use of cultural conventions to convey tensions and moods. They also have similar themes and tropes: machinery as emblematice of modernization, modernization leading the breakdown of family life through the displacement into the cities, the "evils" of the city, the "idyllic" nature of the country side, and the generational break created by modernization and westernization of life.
I'm not quite sure how I would use this in the classroom yet, but I am really interested in finding out if comparative studies have been done between the two Golden Ages of Cinema and whether or not there have been studies of the period at large to find out if these tropes and forms are in fact standard for the period throughout the cinematic world. There's a lot to think about.
Donna JamshidnejadAkunna, I teach AP World History.
Donna JamshidnejadWhile listening to Professor Yasar discuss family dramas in cinema, I was struck by the difference between American portrayal of "drama" versus the film clips we watched from Japanese film makers. The clips we watched seemed to echo the realities of relationships within families. The scenes of household chores, the discussions between family members, even the jokes about death all seemed real to me when comparing the film clips to my experiences. In contrast, our family dramas are unrealistic. Even our reality shows are outrageous. Dramas in American cinema typically involve backstabbing, scandals, obsessions, and even murder. While I don’t have much interest in watching American dramas, the Japanese films drew my attention.
Carissa SadlierI really appreciated what Professor Yazar had to say about most contemporary cinema. Watching the clips of Japanese cinema I felt my body and mind in a more relaxed state. I was able to take time to look at each frame, take in the beauty and think about the director’s visual voice. In modern cinema everything is so rapid. My connection to the characters is shallow and though it is thrilling I also feel chaotic and sporadic but even more, I realize what it must be like to have ADHD as I come out feeling like I have a jumping monkey in my body. In modern American cinema there isn’t the time for a breath or for close viewing to see something the director might want to highlight. I love the metaphor of Japanese cinema being like tofu, there is the frame and then the chef or director creates the dish or scene by layering the sauce/background/actors on top.
Carissa SadlierHow fun are the Benshis!! Perhaps they are the precursor to the first performance artists. How easy it would be for them to influence people. I love the idea of thinking about the Benshi in everyday society - I would venture to say that we as teachers are also modern-day Benshi's.
A fun assignment for film students could be, after analyzing a clip of a Japanese film, having them narrate it to the class.
Juan Liebana-MenaProfessor Yasar’s lecture was very interesting. It was great learning about Japanese film through the work of Yasujiro Ozu, a not very well-known filmmaker in the United States, but still one of the top three post-war filmmakers in Japan along with Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi.
The first clips we watched depicted quite stationary movements and the height cameras were used in the Japanese house. That two and a half feed off the ground height of the camera makes total sense for the shots of a traditional Japanese family that seats on the floor. Also, the interesting thing about Ozu is that he doesn’t cut out the everyday habits of an average Japanese family.
What I appreciated most about Dr. Yasar’s approach were the questions for students he provided us with. This sort of discussion with the students makes for great analysis and curiosity. He covered topics and questions ranging from the historical background and what this reveals, depiction of the family and the family values, or technical questions about the positioning of the cameras and motion.
The final discussion about Rey Chow’s sentimental situations about Chinese cinema was quite revealing. I found many of these key themes as recurrent with American cinema or western cinema. Recurrent themes such as poverty, childhood and old age, togetherness and separation, the passing of time, or manifestations of nature are also present in Ozu. These recurrent themes give us an idea of how to understand Japanese cinema. Both Chinese and Japanese share common elements such as Confucianism. In addition, I learned about the very common Japanese themes such as the four seasons, tension between duty/obligation (giri) and human emotion (ninjo), loneliness, and impermanence and decay.
Ruth HickmanWhat I took away from Professor Yasar's lecture today was Ozu's, signature camera position, 2 1/2 feet above the ground and how it serves a lot of purposes within Japanese culture. I can teach the importance of camera placement in film. Moreover, modern life and movement from one place to another and the break down of the family in his filmmaking as well as the "Pillow shot", which evokes a certain place.
I want to also incorporate the Common Japanese Themes in class discussions:
The Four Seasons
The tensions between duty/obligation (giro) and human emotion (ninjo)
Impermanence and decay
Loneliness
The dialectic of stillness and sudden violence
Ero-guro-nonsense
Ruth HickmanI agree with you that our family dramas are unrealistic. Moreover, my television production background has exposed me to the truth about our reality shows which are outrageous and scripted. "Dramas in American cinema typically involve backstabbing, scandals, obsessions, and even murder." Right on Donna, by the way did you know that Ryan Seacrest is an Executive Producer of "Keeping Up With The Kardashian's"?!
Jane ShenIn this morning's lecture ,Professor Yasar's explained the Japanese film and families through the lense of the movie " Tokyo Story" made by Yasujiro Ozu in 1953.
Through the lense of this movie. beside the directors filming skills and trade marked camera positions, what grabbed my interest is the in-law family relationship which is sensitive in almost every culture even though it could be more tense in Asian culture.
A widowed dauter-in-law Noriko ,whose husband was killed 8 years earlier in the war welcomed the visit of her parents-in-law. As some of us while watching the movie were curious about her crippy fake smile while talking with her in laws, just like a mask she wears the un-narual yet polite smile on all the time, her emotion or real thought were covered under her mask. Toward to the end of the movie, she was released by her father-in-law to start a new life ( hint new marrigae), the movie ended up with two lonely single person: Noriko and her father in law.
Compare with the Chinese and Korean in-law culture, Chinese saying that " 嫁出去的姑娘， 泼出去的水“ （ married daugter is like the waterd poured out", in Korean, " 죽어도 시댁에 귀신되라" ( married daughter need to died as the in law's ghost). In both Chinese and Korean traditional culture, once a daughter is married, she is no longer belongs to her original family, she has to be the member of her in-law. Even though widowed, she is not welcomed by his own family since she has the resposibilities to serve her parents-in-laws unless they released her.
Curious about the cultural similarities between Chinese, Korean and Japanese, I has a short conersation with Professor Yasar to confirm and clarify the Japanese in-law culture, professor explained that in Japanese culture, there are no obligation or responsibilies for a married women toward their parents-in-law as Chinese and Korean. However in the movie " Tokyo Story", it was Noriko's own choice to treat her in-laws .
Boyan ZhangProf. Yasar mentioned several very useful strategies and techniques to keep students engaged while teachers show movie clips in class. I will use the techniques in my classrooms when I incorporate movie clips in my lesson plans. For instance, I will ask students questions before the movie and let them keep the questions in mind while watching the movie, and they also need to answer other questions after they watch the movie and write short passages to reflect on the movies. There is also another strategy Prof. Yasar mentioned that I will use in my class: I will ask students to pay attention to certain specific details in the movies and take notes, and share the details at the end of the movies. There are also some common cultural elements in Chinese movies and Japanese movies that I can talk about while watching east Asian movies, such as Buddhism and Confucianism.