Remaking Kurosawa: Translations and Permutations in Global Cinema

Remaking Kurosawa: Translations and Permutations in Global Cinema

Language: English

Pages: 225

ISBN: 0312293585

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Through the lens of Akira Kurosawa's films, Martinez dissects the human tendency to make connections in a pioneering attempt to build a bridge out of diverse materials: the anthropology of Japan, film studies, and postmodern theory.

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It is precisely because other voices continue to exist that ideology has to be reiterated in an attempt to maintain its hegemony. We might also argue that by attempting to drown out these other voices, the dominant ideology can make the opposition somehow attractive and interestingly seductive. The other realms, other views, become both demonized and romanticized as Others always seem to be. In Freudian terms, we might say that they become fetishized: think of the Soviet underground value placed

different groups, but involve their viewers in conversations about the story. These conversations, to repeat, are precisely the source of the impulse to remake, an attempt for the new author or director to create their vision or version of the story. It is not just that new times require new versions—an important point about historical and cultural context—but that the conversation a film director, for example, has with the story requires the remake. To make the point clear, let us consider a

Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–0–312–29358–1 ISBN-10: 0–312–29358–5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

novel, news item, or magazine article of your choice. We also learn to make sense of things in terms of what they are not like—narratives, while relying on the familiar, simultaneously inscribe difference as Wills (1998) so vehemently argues for foreign film remakes. I would push his argument further—in a parallel to the process of national identity construction—we all need a story to tell, but to avoid being just like the person or nation next door, there has to be difference as well. It is easy

sixteen, a spoiled young princess, whose doting father raised her as a boy, letting her run wild. When news comes that one of her body doubles,1 Rokurota’s sixteen-yearold sister, has been killed by the Akizuki clan, she berates him for not expressing any emotion.2 Her old lady-in-waiting apologizes for the Princess’s tirade—she recognizes Rokurota’s suppressed grief. Princess Yuki, however, not only does not see this, but does not care that her words might cause her general any further hurt.

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