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Guy A. Person posted:But she is also a secondary character in a movie where there is already a Japanese protagonist and several other secondary and tertiary Japanese characters who accomplish as much or significantly more than her. The idea that she is the singular white savior in a movie full of otherized Japanese villains is laughable unless you're willfully ignoring a bunch of actual poo poo from the movie (or assuming that because you can understand what she is saying that it makes her more of a focal character I guess) Right: the argument of Icantfindaname (et al) is that they perceive the Japanese characters as subhuman. But they know they should not do this. Therefore, to reconcile their ‘wokeness’ with their racism, Wes Anderson is to blame for their racism. This is typical of how liberals appropriate the language of progressive struggle (in this case, antiracism) to decidedly opposite ends (in this case, upholding white supremacy and promoting notions of ethno-national purity). The demand for extradiegetic translation of the spoken Japanese into English is accompanied by an equally-strong demand for the elimination of any diegetic mixing of races and cultures. So the apparently mixed-race character who works as an interpreter and the inter-racial teen romance subplot are singled out as examples of the West’s corrupting influence. What this silliness ignores is that subtitles are employed throughout the film, crucially, as labels on products - everything from a box of ramen, to advanced weapons systems, to the film’s own title cards. It also ignores that the original MechaGodzilla, upon which the drones are based, is an alien invader who attacks Japan. The drones, which are also modeled after Boston Dynamics’ BigDog and InGen’s mutant dilophosaur, are then concealed inside what’s patently a Sony AIBO. In this context, the ambiguously-diegetic parenthetical translations represent the universality of capitalism - the ability of capitalism to assimilate any and all cultures. These are products for the global market. The conflict is not at all between ‘East and West’ or ‘Whites and Nonwhites’, but between the apocalyptic acceleration of the villains and the ideologically-limited child activists who ultimately - as the film cheekily points out - stand for a moderate capitalism. The satire (however gentle) is clear in how the alien drones, no longer profitable, are relegated to the scrap heap in one of the final haunting images. It’s Chappie / District 9 imagery.
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Apr 8, 2018 00:58
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:i'm really not sure why everyone's so incredibly hostile to the idea that, while this movie definitely means well, the way it treats Japanese people is kind of hosed up and dehumanizing The main issue is that you don’t understand what racism and antiracism are, and you’re consequently mixing them up with, like, ‘intolerance’ and ‘multiculturalism’ (respectively). Racism is an ideology, and pure ideology is impossible. The film obviously depicts dehumanization, because it’s about the rise of a totalitarian state - but the antiracist approach would be to explain this dehumanization in socioeconomic terms. You are not doing that. You are explaining it in racial terms: that the totalitarian government in the film is a product of Japanese racial inferiority. SuperMechagodzilla fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Apr 15, 2018 |
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Apr 15, 2018 09:05
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The issue is also this humanist ideology itself. LORD’s stance is either that the film humanize the protofascists or, worse, that you are simply not allowed to make films about Japan unless they are apolitical celebrations of the beautiful Japanese culture, ethnic dances and so-on. That, of course, is its own form of racism in the basic sense that covers up the systemic nature of racism and falsely condemns authentic progressive politics as ‘cultural imperialism’ / race mixing. And this is a film explicitly about class struggle: “It is clear that in classical Hollywood, the couple of vampires and zombies designates class struggle. Vampires are rich, they live among us. Zombies are the poor, living dead, ugly, stupid, attacking from outside. And it's the same with cats and dogs. Cats are lazy, evil, exploitative, dogs are faithful, they work hard, so if I were to be in government, I would tax having a cat, tax it really heavy.” -Zizek
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Apr 15, 2018 20:01
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"If you can ask why there aren't any Japanese dogs, consider that the film is an imagined future where things have changed, but don't even stop there." As a brief addition to this: Shibas appear multiple times in the film's various prints and paintings, that provide the backstory.
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Apr 26, 2018 22:03
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