This week: we take a look at postwar samurai film/jidaigeki in order to understand better the trajectory of the most influential genre in the history of Japanese film. Why did jidaigeki, a staple of pre-1945 film, storm back with a vengeance to the big screen after the end of World War II? What makes post-1945 samurai films distinctive or unique? And what about their relationship to another archetype of international film: the American Western?
Sources
Desser, David. “Toward a Structural Analysis of the Postwar Samurai Film” in Reframing Japanese Cinema: Authorship, Genre, History. Eds. Arthur Noletti, Jr. and David Desser
Anderson, Joseph and Donald Ritchie. The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, Expanded Edition.
Galbraith, Stuart. The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune.
Images
One of my favorite shots from The Seven Samurai. The noble heroes go into battle even as the rain draws attention to the doomed and tragic nature of their fight.The poster for Inagaki’s 1962 Bandits on the Wind, another classic of nostalgic samurai drama.This still is from Seppuku/Hara-kiri, a classic anti-feudal jidaigeki. You can really see how the way it’s shot serves to change the relationship between the main character and the wider scene.A still from Joiuchi/Samurai Rebellion. You can really see the depth of field stuff at play here.Pictured: Mifune as Musashi in Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy, too focused on mastering his swordsmanship for petty concerns like women hitting on him.The climactic battle for one of the three Samurai films–Musashi’s famous duel at Ganryujima.Yojimbo embodies chanbara as a genre in many ways–most notably in the relationship between the antagonist (Tetsuya Nakadai, left) and protagonist (Mifune Toshiro, right).Lone Wolf and Cub would have some points to make about feudalism, but THERE’S NO TIME THOSE NINJA LADIES ARE ATTACKING THAT BABY CART And people say these movies aren’t art
