As I sat watching the Hollywood blockbuster Oppenheimer all I could think of was Edward Said. In his famous essay “Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims,” Said argued that there was no way to understand the ideology of Zionism----the idea of Jewish racial supremacy---without examining the experience of those who suffered from it, namely Palestinians like himself.
The critique that there are no Japanese characters doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’m not sure how they’d fit into the narrative, and also I don’t trust an American director to really do that story justice. They could only ever write an American interpretation of the Japanese experience of the war.
If anything, we should use this opportunity to promote films by Japanese directors that do deal with these themes.
Grave of Fireflies is one of the most antiwar films I’ve ever seen.
That one really sticks with you, and it’s beautifully done.
Godzilla fans have been waiting for this moment
That’s a good point, Japanese directors ( and other artists ) have already produced masterpieces on this
We saw one on hextube a while back but I forget the name
Everyone should watch:
Barefoot Gen was the movie!!! I will have to check out those other 3!
The Black Rain documentary.
This is why Godzilla worked. The scenes after the first attack on Tokyo of hospitals filled with people with radiation burns and orphaned children are there for both the Japanese audience, but also very consciously meant to show the international audience the humanity of the Japanese people. All at a time when a Japanese film about the war and the bombs themselves would never be watched by an American audience.