Social, Economic And Political Doldrums

In her novel, When the Emperor was Divine, Julie Otsuka develops the concepts of memory and identity as they applied to Japanese Americans 70 years ago. Before WWII, the featured family saw themselves as American rather than Japanese. Three years of internment later, they are not so sure. Their heritage, an aspect of their identity once only present in their heirlooms and the food they ate, had been perverted by society into a monstrosity malicious enough to justify their mass incarceration. The disparity between the life they once lived and the life the life they lived in the camps leaves them hollow, shells of their former selves, even when they finally return home. Thus, with her skillful incorporation of motifs of darkness and

characters are in many ways divergent, and it is in fact these traits that reveal the most about

a film. It is what the viewers sees, hears and experiences while watching a film. A film’s Mise en Scene subtly influences viewer’s mood as they watch a film, much like decor, lighting, smells and sounds can influence our emotional response to an actual place. In Film Art: An Introduction, Bordwell (2001), explained that in Mise en Scene, realism can be achieved by giving the settings an accurate and convincing look or letting actors express their emotions through performance as naturally as possible. This paper will discuss and analyse the significance of Mise en Scene in Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love

In the movie “looking for alibrandi the director presents the viewer with the idea that people can attain an enduring sense of both identity and belonging. The director believes that many life experiences compel us to alter our sense of self. Both text, movie and the story of my friend suggest that our identity changes depending on

After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the Han dynasty drew from the teachings of Confucius to create the Han Synthesis. This formed the traditional belief in China that history repeats itself and directly contributed to the Dynastic Cycle. This is demonstrated by the use of Confucius teachings, the Dynastic Cycle and the Han Synthesis when addressing the Good Life, Good Society and Good State respectively. Each of these philosophies highlight that Chinese history repeats itself by casting light on this theme of repetition through the three different areas. This makes the state accountable for its actions to its people. Confucius was a Chinese philosopher whose ideas greatly affect China in every aspect of its culture. In The Analects, he

Throughout history artists have used art as a means to reflect the on goings of the society surrounding them. Many times, novels serve as primary sources in the future for students to reflect on past history. Students can successfully use novels as a source of understanding past events. Different sentiments and points of views within novels serve as the information one may use to reflect on these events. Natsume Soseki’s novel Kokoro successfully encapsulates much of what has been discussed in class, parallels with the events in Japan at the time the novel takes place, and serves as a social commentary to describe these events in Japan at the time of the Mejeii Restoration and beyond. Therefore, Kokoro successfully serves as a primary

1. The chapter I am reviewing is chapter 2, “Weathering the Postwar Years.” This chapter is about how the Signal Corps regained their place after the Civil War by establishing their mission as the weather service provider. General Myer was the main effort to revive the Signal Corps back to life. The need for reporting the weather paved the road for the Signal Corps to build the telegraph network lines throughout the country. This network enabled the Signal Corps to communicate and share data instantly. Though the Signal Corps was successful when it started, it had trials and tribulations of its own that it had to endure.

The film also provides a meaningful glimpse at how the Japanese viewed the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity sphere. The native islanders are depicted as being genial but simple peoples. Prescribing perfectly to the idea of proper place they are shown as more than willing to be the beasts of burden for the superior Japanese.

In this modern era the gulf between modernized nations and nations who are not grows constantly, and if a country hopes to bridge the growing gap they must advance quickly. As with any other growth, growing pains are routine. Among others is the pain of the existence of generations whose world is changed completely over the course of a lifetime. In few places is this effect starker than in Japan’s modern history, a country whose traditional ideals had to find a way to adapt modern westernized ideals to a historically traditional nation in a small amount of time. This era, the Meiji Restoration, put Japan through their growing pains and pushed the country to compete on the global level. Natsume Soseki offers a character whose relationships in the novel “Kokoro” are analogous to the progression and end of this Meiji era and how it effected the individual and their perceptions of change.

In the essentially dual religious system in Japan, ideologies and traditions play a heavy role in the everyday life of the Japanese people. Shintoism and Buddhism intertwine and complement themselves in Japanese culture, despite Buddhism coming in from mainland Asia. A particularly powerful idea from Buddhism is mono no aware, the realization and acknowledgment of the impermanence and its place in the world. This idea that nothing stays the same forever manifests itself heavily in Japanese literature, whether in personal writings or fictional works. Despite spanning hundreds of years, each work was shaped by and include manifestations of mono no aware. I intend to underline and pinpoint instances that mono no aware is influencing these works, and discuss similarities and differences between them. In this paper, I have three works that I will explore, each one corresponding to a different time period before the pre-industrial revolution; The Diary of Lady Murasaki comes from the classical period, Essays in Idleness from the medieval, and the immensely popular play Chushingura from the pre-modern era.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2008 motion picture Tokyo Sonata puts across an account involving a Japanese family as it needs to go through a series of problems that put their determination to test. Each of the four characters in the Sasaki family has trouble understanding what he or she wants from life and as he or she comes to learn and accept what his or her family has to say about his or her personality. Kurosawa most probably wanted to provide viewers with a rather common story occurring in an environment dominated by globalization a place where values change at a rapid pace and where people can or cannot find their personal identity.

Ideology is attitudes, beliefs, perceptions that commonly shared by the people in society. It is mostly unconscious and it appears in everyday human’s daily lives. Cinema is one of the medium that people can be exposed. Therefore the ideology in film takes a powerful role that shapes aspects of people’s beliefs. When it comes to a film, people who watch the film receive a message from it whether that message is explicit or not. Ideology can be most receptive and powerful when it is exposed to the audience when they are enjoying the film and are unaware of it (Edgar-Hunt, Marland and Rawle 96). In Spirited Away, the movie sends out many aspects of ideology in Japanese society. This essay is going to be focusing on two particular aspects which are Shinto beliefs and human versus nature.

Identity is what evolves us, it is what makes us think the way we do, and act the way we act, in essence, a person’s identity is their everything. Identity separates us from everyone else, and while one may be very similar to another, there is no one who is exactly like you; someone who has experienced exactly what you have, feels the way you do about subjects, and reacts the same to the events and experiences you have had. This became prevalent to me as I read through many books, that everyone goes through the process of finding who they are. A prevalent theme throughout literature is the idea that over time one develops their identity through life over time, in contrast to being born with one identity and having the same

Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro illustrates the struggles of a young man (the narrator) who was alienated from his family and his loneliness as he pursues acceptance and love by building a friendship with an elder.  As a parallel to this, the elder (Sensei), sought an end to his social isolation through his love to a woman whose qualities were not tainted by modernity. K, Sensei’s childhood friend, had also hinted his struggles in isolation as he tried to keep to his idealistic principles. This paper will analyze the isolation and loneliness that was faced by the Japanese people during a period of significant modernization and how they approached it and attempted to solve the conflict between tradition and modernity.

Many directors use their films as a means of glorifying, criticizing, or simply depicting, a particular ideological system. These ideologies are especially visible in foreign films, as the viewer is forced to assess the film from outside his or her culture and ideology, and consider the film in its proper context. Director Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese film Seven Samurai allows the viewer to understand several important aspects of Japanese culture and ideology. First, the film depicts the Japanese social class structure and its acceptance by the masses. Seven Samurai also reveals the pride of the Japanese, as well as the utilitarian, collectivist nature of their society.