Tuesday, 7/31, morning session - Kerim Yasar, USC

[Ann Huynh]

The role of the Benshi in Japanese silent film is very unique.  I believe that I too would go watch a film through the narration of the Benshi.  They would add more drama to a silent film.  I really like how Professor Yasar helped us think about film with a critical lens.  For someone who is not a film buff, this was very helpful.  He posed several possible questions to help the film watcher connect back to their lives and all of this was done with the film “Tokyo Story.”  This film was very interesting in not only how it was filmed, but what the director chose to include in the film was very powerful.  Time passed with the change of the seasons and the death of the matriarch in the family.  For my students, I want them to think about the symbolic images in the film and what it could possibly mean.  Does this film make them think differently about family?

[Stella Castro]

Midori, in regards to the movie “Tokyo Story” I agree with you on the fact that to leave one parents not cared for in their older years is unfathomable. The behavior of the children in this movie was just sheer disrespectful, childish, and tantrum like. But the adults in the movie didn’t see it as this. The grandmother, said, “Oh, children”, or something like that, (I really don’t recall the exact verbiage”, but meaning that children are children, and they will always be like that. The mother did tell the older child about his behavior but did not actually do anything about the behavior. But like you mentioned, not taking care of their/ the parents in their older years is not acceptable, but that fact can be transferred to all ethnicities and not just pertaining to the Asian  culture. Overall, I found this movie to be good and interesting.

[Stella Castro]

jennifer i too was shocked to see how these chidren behaved towards their parents and to the adults in general.they did not listen to them, which sometimes is typical of children. however, because of their  ethnicity, it was kind of a shock, beacause as I recall most children in Asian, families have the utmost respect for their parents, and adults. In an Asian  family the children,(usually the sons but I can be incorrect on this about the sons),  practice Filial Piety, towards  their parents, but again this is probably when the children get older. So to see the children acting this way seeemed kind of strange, especailly  when the mother did nothing about the older child being disrespectful, she only brushed it side , with a wave of her hand. I would have sent the child to his room, as a form of punishment for being disrespectful.

[Jessica Rodarte]

Crazy that both of us had the same immediate cultural reference.  I had the exact same experience when we watched the Tokyo Story clips.  I immediately thought about the Pepe el Toro films.  A long, long time ago in college I took a class on popular culture and wrote a research paper on the tropes, characters, and styles of the Mexican golden age and the Pepe el Toro films were some of the quintessential examples of the era: family dynamics, dangers of poverty, archetypal characters, melancholic music, long shots, etc.  The parallels are trippy given the distance in space and time.

[Jessica Rodarte]

Ms. Sun, 

I think students would definitely see the breakdown of family.  That said, some of them have little point of reference with their home countries, even if their parents are very traditional and they speak spanish.  This may be the case because immigration prevents travel or because it is expensive to travel home.  There might be more modern films that would represent this divide better.  One of the things I'm always shocked by is that most kids have no idea how their families got to the United States, seems like few kids ask or few parents tell those stories.  In any case, I think it would be a worthwhile experiment to try film as a point of connection.

With regards to the film angles, I don't remember if they use low shots primarily, I don't think so.  Maybe it's time for me to rewatch some of those. 🙂

[Helen Kang]

This presentation of Japanese films was a big treat for me as I have never had any information or introduction to such films before. Learning aboutn Yasujiro Ozu, one of the top 3 film producers, was very interesting. In his film, "Tokyo Story", I found his use of indoor camera placement, about 2 and 1/2 feet from the ground, and his artistic shots where one frame would hold so many details in a very organized geometric manner to tell the story of the setting, very beautiful and fascinating.  I can see that it is deservedly voted "Greatest Film of All Time" in Sight and Sound (UK) Magazine's 2012 director's poll.

[Nira Sun]

Even though Asians are famous for being respectful and filial to parents, the situation described in the movies was not uncommon in Asian countries. Chinese has a saying literally translated to "One monk will carry two buckets of water. Two monks will share the burden. But with three monks, no one will fetch the water." Parents was hoping that children will take care of them when they get old. However, what they usually got was being ignored by their children. Everyone expects others to take care of the business, so it becomes no one's business. I think the intetion of the movie was to expose such unfortunate but real situation to the society. It was made more dramatic by adding the part that the daughter-in-law was taking care of the parents even after her husband, the son of the old parents, passed away.

[Nira Sun]

Hi Ms. Rodarte,

I absolutely agree with you in terms of how disconnected our children are with the history of their families. Some students tend to take it for granted for the part that they were born and grew up in the State. When they couldn't make the reference with their home countries or family histories, they are unable to relate to the struggles that immigrants have. Hence the ignorance. I hope what we discuss or present in the classroom will help to elicit their interests in finding out the histories/stories from their parents/grandparents.

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