Title of Poster / Presentation
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
5-4-2022 1:30 PM
End Date
5-4-2022 3:00 PM
Subjects
Japan, Film, Family, Ozu, Kurosawa
Advisor
Lynell Spencer
Student Level
Undergraduate
Abstract
The Post World War II films of Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) and Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) share a traditional trope of what is constituted as family in United States Occupied Japan (1945-1952), and their films transcend their production year to still illustrate a Japan of the 21st century. By studying what is “family” in Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Late Spring, and Tokyo Story, we see family is defined not only in a traditional Japanese sense, but also the the audience, film student, and critic can see how Kurosawa and Ozu extended the idea of family into community, politics, military, and economics as a metaphor to the defeated Japan in which they were living. In the films from Kurosawa and Ozu during the US Occupation of Japan, family in many contexts becomes a major theme as Japan tries to bring back Japanese tradition under the thumb of the only foreign country ever to control them.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/37467
Family on Film Post-World War II Japan: Kurosawa and Ozu
The Post World War II films of Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) and Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) share a traditional trope of what is constituted as family in United States Occupied Japan (1945-1952), and their films transcend their production year to still illustrate a Japan of the 21st century. By studying what is “family” in Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Late Spring, and Tokyo Story, we see family is defined not only in a traditional Japanese sense, but also the the audience, film student, and critic can see how Kurosawa and Ozu extended the idea of family into community, politics, military, and economics as a metaphor to the defeated Japan in which they were living. In the films from Kurosawa and Ozu during the US Occupation of Japan, family in many contexts becomes a major theme as Japan tries to bring back Japanese tradition under the thumb of the only foreign country ever to control them.