An introduction to 20th century Hollywood films with a Japan theme. With weblink.

2. Introduction
By Eric Johnston
apan, Oscar Wilde once declared, is pure invention. There was no such country,
he insisted. Though Wilde blamed the proliferation and popularity of woodblock
prints rather than literary descriptions for the exotic images of the country found
in the drawing rooms of late Victorian England and Gilded Age America, his tongue-in-
cheek assertion was also applicable to the scribblings of contemporary foreign writers
who offered readers in the West a portrait of Japan that was delightful but distorted,
entertaining but exaggerated. Often highly exaggerated.
Wilde never lived to see the rise of popular cinema. Yet the Japan-based themes explored
by 19th century Western writers, and the resulting mental images they conjured up,
would be utilized to great effect by 20th century Western filmmakers. Especially in
Hollywood and especially after the Second World War ended in 1945. On the silver screen,
Japan was no longer a distant urban landscape viewed from the bomb bay door camera
of a high-altitude B-29. It was now a down-to-earth country with real people, represented
in vivid scenes of black and white, and later color, celluloid. A former enemy portrayed
immediately after Pearl Harbor by Hollywood as fanatical, brutal, and suicidal was, in
the postwar period, presented as peaceful, exotic, friendly, full of quaint but strange
customs, and colorful temples and shrines. The Japanese themselves were no longer
brainwashed maniacs following the Emperor in wartime propaganda like Frank Capra’s
Why We Fight but a diverse nation of smiling farmers and shopkeepers, or tough
gangsters with their own code of honor, and delicate, shy women who, as Betty Grable
sang in Call Me Mister, loved American GIs.
“Gangsters and geishas” were two popular stereotypes of Japanese men and women that
formed the basis of countless immediate postwar productions. Films made during the
American-led Occupation (1945-1952) and then during the 1950s and 1960s that utilized
these themes were not as blatantly racist as the wartime propaganda. But the tropes
they borrowed from the 19th century would have been familiar to Wilde: kimono-clad
women, wily men, and everyone polite, yet at the same time, different. Sometimes
unintentionally funny and, in the end, inscrutable. Or at least puzzling.
J

3. y the early 1950s, it was fine to laugh at, or at least be puzzled by, Japan if you
were an American theatre-goer. Japan was now America’s ally against
Communism, albeit a subordinate one. It was an earnest nephew, anxious to
learn about democracy at the feet of Uncle Sam even as it, sometimes very reluctantly,
hosted American military bases that played a major role during the Korean War and, to
a lesser degree, during America’s war against Vietnam.
Only a few films in the immediate postwar years like Japanese War Bride moved beyond
paternalistic attitudes and corny jokes by American leads and cardboard stereotypes of
the Japanese with thoughtful scripts and serious acting. More often, what audiences saw
were simplistic American views of Japan in films like Back at the Front, Tokyo File 212,
Oriental Evil, Geisha Girl, Joe Butterfly, House of Bamboo, and, of course, The Teahouse
of the August Moon.
From the immediate postwar “gangsters and geisha” themes would gradually emerge
more diverse storylines—Japanese monsters, robots, and karate were themes that
Hollywood embraced from the 1960s onwards. And, of course, films with a samurai
theme, including The Last Samurai and the Lost Samurai series and, much later still, a
variety of releases with the word “Ninja” in the title all drew audiences. Yet the evolution
did not lead to the extinction of the “gangsters and geisha”-genres. Quite the opposite.
The Yakuza in the 1970s was well-received in the U.S., and was followed in the 1980s
and 1990s by yakuza-themed films like Death Train To Osaka, Rising Sun and Black
Rain.
By the dawn of the 21th century, history showed that a half century of Hollywood`s Japan-
themed films had, and were still, inspiring generations of Westerners to visit, work, and
study in Japan. Many films were now available on video tape or DVD or shown on late
night television, reaching a younger generation not yet been born when the work first
appeared in local theaters. But there were so many titles to choose from and no
guidebooks. Wouldn’t it be great if somebody, somewhere, could introduce, or re-
introduce, at least some of them to modern audiences?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
B

4. n early 2002, Kansai Time Out magazine readers spotted a new column. KTO was
the Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Nara region’s leading source of English language
information for resident foreigners. It was a small, independent, family-owned outfit
where readers, not advertisers, came first. It eschewed the type of corporate gloss and
dross found in Tokyo’s English magazines in favor of low-key advertising and an eclectic
editorial approach. KTO was not hostile, as are so many Japan-based English-language
magazines today, toward the intelligently offbeat—as long the offbeat was judged by the
editors to be of interest to its historically-minded readership. The magazine welcomed
ideas that most other editors dealing with Japan would spike.
One proposal that got the green light came from an American resident named Matt
Kaufman. An avid film collector, he offered to pen articles on old, and recent, films about
Japan. The result was Hollywood Japan File, a series of informed, witty and highly
opinionated columns. Many of the films Kaufman wrote about had been box office hits
and won major awards. Others were obscure flops seen only in arthouse theaters. Some
featured lavish productions with big budgets and internationally recognized stars.
Others were churned out for pocket change, with Ed Wood-level production values and
laughably bad performances from third-rate actors who disappeared into obscurity. Some
films were unusually thoughtful, intelligent or racially sensitive by the standards of the
time. Others were incredibly infantile, stupid, or racist. By the standards of any time.
It quickly became clear that what readers were actually getting was a series of
subversive, but poignant, insights as to how the Western world viewed Japanese society
and culture. Especially in the latter half of the 20th century. But Kaufman’s genius was
that he also forced those of us who lived here to look in the mirror. Watching the films
he wrote about in the privacy of our homes or at the occasional screenings KTO sponsored
at an Osaka bar, we Japan-based foreigners who thought ourselves enlightened could
snicker at how ridiculous the country and its people were once portrayed. We could snort
in disgust when –as Kaufman reminds us—Japanese parts in many films were played
by Caucasians made up to look “Asian”. But we also cringed in embarrassment when we
realized some of those long-ago crude stereotypes and sentiments about Japan flickering
across the screen remained fixed in the minds of our friends and relatives. Or, if we were
honest, sometimes remained fixed in our own minds.
I

5. aufman’s column included independent works as well as Japan-themed films
from countries as diverse as Australia and Iran. In addition, a good number of
later titles in the Hollywood Japan File collection were shot within Japan by
locally-based foreign directors. Most are small budget efforts dating from the 1980s
through the early 2000s. In a nod to KTO readers, a few of those profiled were filmed in
Kansai by neophyte directors who simply wanted to have a bit of fun. They have a
distinct film school feel only the most hard-core cinema buffs, Japanophiles, or friends
and families of the directors and actors who appeared in them will love.
These amateur efforts run the gamut from ghost stories to a mockumentary on Japan’s
English-language conversation schools. But Kaufman makes them all sound interesting,
appealing, and worthy of viewing because he is an encyclopedia of trivia who clearly loves
his subject. Readers of his column never had to worry about running short of
conversation topics in their local pub or at a cocktail party. Want to know which film,
partially shot in Kyoto and Nara, a young, uncredited Clint Eastwood appeared in? How
about the name of Yoko Ono’s first film? Which movie, set in Tokyo during the 1964
Olympics, was Cary Grant’s last? What was the name of the famous Japanese actress,
and later national politician, who starred in a few postwar films? Which film, shot in
Kyoto, was a then unknown Hollywood wannabe aikido practitioner named “Steve
Seagal” involved with? If you had read Kaufman’s columns, you knew the answers to all
of the above.
Today, you can’t swing an iPhone in Japan without hitting an `I’m a filmmaker, darling”-
foreigner shooting video of the streets of Tokyo, Kyoto, or wandering the most remote
parts of the country in search of a “unique” Japan story. As of this writing, the tourist
boom of the past few years has yet to produce a mainstream Japan-themed Hollywood
“hit” on the level of, say, Lost in Translation (2003), Sayuri (2005) or Clint Eastwood’s
Letters From Iwo Jima (2006). More recent films like Emperor (2012) and Silence (2016)
have gotten mixed or bad reviews. Perhaps the last Japan-based film to cause an
international stir was the Oscar winning documentary The Cove (2009). But given the
ease of video production, it’s only a matter of time before somebody, somewhere gains
some degree of fame for a film about, or set in, Japan. Regardless of genre and the
medium through which such recognition is gained.
The communications revolution of the last quarter century means we have more images,
celluloid and digital, of Japan and of Japanese people than ever before. It is no longer
K

6. necessary to sit in a darkened theatre with total strangers to get --apologies to Lafcadio
Hearn--glimpses of an unfamiliar Japan. Yet these images and stories on film were once
seen and heard by millions. They continue to influence, often subconsciously, the way the
Western world in particular sees and deals with Japan. Knowing how Hollywood once
portrayed Japan is a form of cultural literacy.
And this is what makes Hollywood Japan File worthwhile as an educational as well as
an entertainment endeavor. Kaufman`s writing naturally appeals to those with wide
personal, professional and/or intellectual interests in Japan, but who are often isolated
in their own specialist communities. Yet even those who know little about Japan will
learn much about a country they have never visited, and perhaps never will.
Nor is it necessary the films under review be relevant or “correct” by today’s standards—
academic, political or otherwise. They must be seen in the context of the time and the
world in which they were created. They are an important window into how millions of
people around the world once saw Japan and how many still do. Furthermore, they also
show how many older Japanese once, and still, see themselves, or wish to be seen, by the
outside world. Any of the titles listed here is sure to start an argument or prompt a
discussion with friends and total strangers, and force everyone to consider or reconsider
their “modern” views on Japan more carefully. That is their true merit.
Of course, this is nothing close to a complete collection of Japan-themed films, though
it’s a very thorough introduction. In addition, while some of the works profiled are easily
available today from major retailers, others are quite rare and can only be found through
specialty outlets. Several can be viewed for free on the internet. A couple are out of print
or virtually impossible to find unless, like Kaufman, one has the right connections.
All, however, sprung from the imaginations of different people in different eras who took
their mental images and perceptions of Japan and froze them on celluloid. On one level,
they are merely the pure invention of their creators. On another, these films reveal,
sometimes inadvertently, truths about Japanese society and our own views of it that can
be found in no other medium. Oscar Wilde would have understood, and approved.
https://hollywoodjapanfile.blogspot.com/?view=flipcard&fbclid=IwAR3PBH
mhKMnS8NjsG6kdmZXORAv1yR_WT39wbYdJSo6Jl8ixRGhC49dFsmo