Oh, The Movies I've Seen

So, just to quickly recap where I find myself this summer: I’ve been given a 5 weeklong summer vacation, which is very generous. And I’ve chosen to use those 5 weeks to go down and visit Oita, which is probably a very unadventurous and boring way to spend those 5 weeks, especially considering all the other things in the world I could be doing.

But, whatever, I had my reasons. Chief reason was to spend time with the girl, and there were some other things I went into in a previous post. Besides, adventurous vacations have never really been my thing anyway.

But I’m trying to avoid wasting the time completely by making an effort to get off my ass and not watch so much TV. During the previous Summer and Spring break holiday one of the things I feel a bit bad about is wasting so much time vegging out in front of Shoko’s TV.

That being said, so far I’m not off to a great start. The problem with returning to an area you’ve already lived in is that there is not so much of an urge to go and explore. Besides I’m not much for going out by myself, and many of my friends are busy with work or other things during the summer. And the summer heat is doing its fair share to keep me inside. If the weather was slightly cooler I’d be hiking more, but I don’t know who would be out in this heat if they didn’t have to be.

So, gear up the VCR. Pathetic I know. I do have my excuses. I don’t have a TV in my apartment in Gifu, so I figure the rest of the year makes up for this. Also I’ve been in Japan for 4 years now, so sometimes I do feel out of touch with the media back home, and it is nice just to run through the video store and catch up on everything I’ve been missing out on. For instance I understand that a new show called “24” has been popular in the US. I’ve never had an opportunity to see it because I’ve been in Japan this whole time. So I rented the whole first season and watched it at Shoko’s place.

I was a little disappointed, but to be fair I suppose the whole season was not meant to be watched in a couple sittings. I was like, “Oh no, the wife and daughter are being kidnapped, again. Weren’t they just kidnapped a couple hours ago?”

I’ve also been trying to make some inroads into Japanese cinema by renting some Japanese flicks. The most interesting one I’ve seen so far was called “Spy Sorge”.

Richard Sorge was a communist spy who worked at the German embassy in Japan during World War II. Although Stalin ultimately ignored his warnings, he was able to predict the Nazi blitzkrieg and tried to warn the USSR accordingly. He also was responsible for discovering that Japan wouldn’t invade Siberia, and this information allowed Stalin to transfer all his troops to the Western front. Sorge was eventually caught by the Japanese and hanged.

Despite the fact that Sorge was a spy against the Japanese, his story has been mythologized to a certain extent in modern Japan. I first heard of Sorge while reading Tezuka Osamu’s famous comic series, “Adolf”. (Well, it’s famous in Japan.)
Also, for a country that has a problem facing up to its war history, a sympathetic portrait of a spy against Japan seems like an odd choice for a motion picture. There were a couple moments that marked this as a Japanese movie. For instance the insistence that British and American imperialism in Shanghai was just as bad as the Japanese. And there was a news footage collage on the fall of communism tacked on at the end to drive home the point that Sorge dedicated himself to a doomed ideal (in contrast, I suppose, to Nazism or emperor worship). And yet on the whole it was a sympathetic portrait of Sorge and the Japanese people who gave him the information.

The Japanese movie about him was fascinating as well, for a number of different reasons. Despite being a Japanese movie, it is mostly in English with Japanese sub-tittles. All the foreigners, the Germans, the Russians, the Czechs, all speak English. Even for the scenes that take place back in their home countries.

If this were an American movie, I suppose that wouldn’t be surprising. We Americans can’t stand reading sub-tittles. Oscar Schlindler and Joan of Arc all speak fluent English when in American movies. But then we regard English as the universal language. I suppose the Japanese think it is a little funny to have Stalin speak Japanese during the Moscow scenes.

But why have him speak English instead of his native Russian? The Japanese seem to believe that there is only one foreign language in the world: English. This is a result of an educational system that only pushes English, and perhaps an insular world view that has an us-them mentality. (There is the Japanese culture, and then every other foreign culture is more or less the same).

But the dialogue and acting are absolutely horrible. I’m fairly sure the script wasn’t written by a native English speaker. The cheesy lines could easily be a parody of themselves. The director apparently didn’t know how to direct foreign actors either. I can only imagine the direction: "Remember, the Japanese audience doesn't understand the words coming out of your mouth, so make sure to overact as much as possible to get the point across."

I’m reminded of another Japanese movie involving American actors, which went much the same way. “Brother” a Beat Takeshi film co-starring Omar Epps, about a Japanese gang war that spills into LA, also had incredibly cheesy dialogue and bad acting.

Of course we Americans can be just as bad. A friend once said to me, “If you want to see a comedy, and I mean a comedy comedy, rent “Rising Sun” with Sean Connery. You’ll laugh your ass off.” Although “Rising Sun” was meant as a serious movie, it will appear hilarious to anyone who actually spent any time in Japan.

But if we Americans do such a laughable job at capturing Japanese culture, their every bit as bad on the reverse.

All that being said, if you’re a history nerd like I am, and you can find a copy, I’d recommend “Spy Sorge” just for the story. From what I can tell on the internet, the historical accuracy of the movie checks out pretty well.

Video Version