A consideration of sampling of English-language films which address Japanese historical moments or processes. Ranging from John Wayne's "The Barbarian and the Geisha" to Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai", the way in which Japanese history is d

1. Japanese Historical Process
in Anglophone Cinema
by Jonathan Dresner
ASPAC 2014
Bellingham, WA

2. "...the visual seductions of film can have a reductive
effect, and perhaps especially in historical films. The
brevity of a film necessarily compresses, forcing the
viewer to grasp and grab everything on offer with
little time for reflection, caution, or skepticism. The
vividness of a gripping film comes too often with a
concomitant loss of subtlety, the price we pay for the
driving narrative and grand intensity that are so often
the delight of a movie. Film, I would argue, tends to
rely on the visceral. ...The heroic or villainous figure
is an easier fit in a 90-minute production than a
complex examination of systems and structures and
that, for me, is the trouble with film." --
Philippa Levine

3. • "Perhaps it's too much to expect that our
entertainments have a factual basis. But
now I have to deal with the aftermath...
and I have to hope that my careful
deconstruction can make some dent in the
technicolor, surround-sound, adrenaline-
enhanced images in their minds."
- Jonathan Dresner, "How True to History is
Tom Cruise's 'The Last Samurai'?"

4. Sources
Historical Chronology
• early 1600s: Shogun
• 1603: Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles III
• 1703: 47 Ronin
• 1858: The Barbarian and
the Geisha
• 1870s: The Last Samurai
• 1930s-1940s: Memoirs of
a Geisha
• 1945: Letters from Iwo
Jima
• 1980s: Karate Kid 2
Production Chronology
• 1958: The Barbarian and
the Geisha
• 1980: Shogun
• 1986: Karate Kid 2
• 1993: Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles III
• 2005: Memoirs of a
Geisha
• 2005: The Last Samurai
• 2006: Letters from Iwo
Jima
• 2013: 47 Ronin

5. Cinematic Narcissism
• "I've said it many times before, and I'll say
it again, Hollywood can make a movie set
anywhere in the world, in any era of
history... and still somehow find a way for
the movie to star a white guy. Even a
movie about Bruce Lee."
- Angry Asian Man (blog) (2 June 2014)
[ellipsis in original].

6. Other Issues
• "Destiny: what a drag!" tragic traditionalists.
• ahistorical essentialism
• tradition as isolating, drag on development
• superstition against heroic/effective science;
foreigner as "voice of reason"
• decontextualized atypical figures
• impact-response theory?
• "Great Man" history, history as biography.
• economic and political change as backdrop
• Unnecessary claims to accuracy

7. Selected Sources
• Background Image: Kano Chikayasu, Scenes
From The Tale Of Genji, c. 1850, Saint Louis Art
Museum. Picture by Jonathan Dresner
• Philippa Levine, "The Trouble With Film"
Perspectives on History, Masters At The Movies
series, 2010 March.
• Angry Asian Man (pseud.), "Director Signs On
For Bruce Lee Biopic 'Birth Of The Dragon'"
Angry Asian Man (blog) 6.02.2014
• Jonathan Dresner, "How True to History is Tom
Cruise's 'The Last Samurai'?" History News
Network, 8-8-05 http://hnn.us/article/2746