Essay - Seminar of Yellow Perils

Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg IKO MA Student: Yung Hing Wang
Zentrum Ostasienwissenschaften (Japanologie) Matrikelnummer: 3347215

OS Modern Japonism and the Yellow Peril Datum: 04.08.2017
Sommer 2017
Prof. Hashimoto Yorimitsu
Introduction
A typical adventure film produced in the West would feature a protagonist — usually
a white male — who is confronted with things and people that are beyond his own
cultural sphere. Japan, with its sensational icons such as geisha and samurai, is for
Western film producers undoubtedly one of the most desirable culturally Others. This
essay aims to show how the interaction between the white protagonist and Japan has
changed over the years. I suggest that films produced during the peak of the Cold War,
i.e. between 1960s and 1970s, often fall under the category of what I call “bodily
encounter”, whereas its opposite, namely “spiritual encounter”, can be recognized
mostly in films dated after 9/11. These later productions are not only technically
much more advanced but are also more eager to show tribute being duly paid to
Japanese “traditions”. 1 I argue, however, that this kind of new sensitivity to the
culturally Other can be read simultaneously as a disguised, even more ambitious form
of cultural appropriation. For the sake of generalization, I will focus on a number of
mainstream movies only, dividing them into three prototypes. I have selected You
Only Live Twice (1967) and two other James Bond movies of the 1970s as my first
case study. Then, because of the immense fascination with samurai and ninja in the
West, The Last Samurai (2003) and Ninja (2009) are chosen as my second and third
case studies.
James Bond — The Egoistic Outsider
James Bond is a fictional character created by novelist Ivan Fleming (1908-1964) in

1953. Although productions of Bond movies continue until today, the character
himself was very much a product of the Cold War. Indeed, he was most active (at
least on screen) during the 1960s; it was the period in which the first six Bond movies,
out of a total of 26 in 54 years so far, were released. Whether people loved him or
hated him, why was Bond then so popular? One of the reasons might lie in his very
nature, which was arguably the exemplar of the Western man’s ego. One the one hand,
1
Many are in fact “invented traditions”. See for example Oleg Benesch, “Bushido as an Invented
Tradition: A Uniquely Japanese Ideology,” Reitaku Daigaku Daigakuin Gengo Kyouiku Kenkyuuka:
Language & Civilization 2, no. 3 (2004): 91–107.
Sommer 2017
he embodies the ideals of courtesy and virility; on the other hand, he is notorious for
his Eurocentrism and sexism.2 Hence, the interaction between Bond and the culturally
Other in the 1960s and 1970s can be seen as a classical encounter between East and
West.
Bond of the 1960s was above all a tourist (fig. 1), travelling around the globe in the
course of the postwar economic boom, which saw the rise of mass tourism. In You
Only Live Twice, he goes to Japan, his first East Asian country.3 Apparently, being
commissioned to investigate a spacecraft said to be lost in the Sea of Japan, he does
not go there as a tourist. But taken that he behaves exactly like one — sightseeing (e.g.
the Himeji castle and Kokugika, fig. 2), trying out all sorts of new things (e.g.
Japanese bath, food, clothes, and even Japanese women) —, it is hard not to see him
as a leisure seeker par excellence in a foreign country, thus a tourist. The only thing
that distinguishes Bond from his fellow travelers is his recklessness, or as David
Lancaster puts it, he is “a super-consumer of other cultures, who gives the banality of
modern travel an added excitement.”4
Tourists are essentially customers. And under the motto — “customer is king” — in a
capitalist society, the host is required to keep the customer pleased and happy. So,
from the very beginning, the nature of Bond’s encounter with Japan is determined to
be superficial, limited to the narrow, business-like relation between sellers and buyers
full of ingratiation. Take an example. In the (in)famous Japanese bathing scene (fig.
3), Tiger Tanaka, Head of the Japanese Secret Service, lowers himself to make a
flattering remark on Bond’s body hair:
Tanaka: You know what it is about you that fascinates them [the bath girls], don't you?
It's the hair on your chest. Japanese men all have beautiful bare skin.
Bond: Japanese proverb say, ‘Bird never make nest in bare tree.’
2
For a detailed analysis of Bond’s character, see Tim Hoxha, “The Masculinity of James Bond: Sexism,
Misogyny, Racism, and the Female Character,” in James Bond in World and Popular Culture: The
Films Are Not Enough, ed. Robert G. Weiner, B. Lynn Whitfield, and Jack Becker (Newcastle:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012), 193–207.
3
In the film, he first appears in Hong Kong, which was then a British colony.
4
David Lancaster, “Review: The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader,” Film & History: An
Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 34, no. 1 (2004): 82.
Sommer 2017
Having heard this dialogue, one can’t help but think of the “pan-pan girls” in postwar
Japan who, in order to make a living, had no choice but expressed admiration for the
masculinity of their white customers.5 Bond, unsurprisingly, accepts the praise as a
matter of fact, for it lies within his expectation as a customer. In fact, as a super-
consumer of other cultures, he even shamelessly appropriates a (pseudo) Japanese
proverb to confirm his superiority as a white male.
Everything is attuned to the consumer’s preference, including language. 6 As Bond

speaks English, so must the other characters in the film. Although it is throughout a
norm in Western cinema to compel non-Western actors to speak English, thus
upholding the linguistic dominance, what makes the case here particularly interesting
is Bond’s testimony: he is supposed to be fluent in Japanese. He shows off his
language skills to Miss Moneypenny, secretary of his supervisor M, when he is about
to leave office for Japan:
Bond: Sayōnara
Miss Moneypenny: James, good luck. Ahh, [throwing a book to him] Instant Japanese,
you may need it.
Bond: You forget, I took a first in oriental languages at Cambridge. [throwing the book
back to her]
However, we hear Bond speak Japanese only two more times in the film. He thanks a
man for bringing him to meet his informant, a sumo wrestler, with “dōmo arigatō”.
Later, to woo Aki, one of the Japanese Bond girls, he greets her with “gonbanwa”
before sleeping with her. The daily phrases are in these contexts not different from
tourist phrases, slipped out mechanically when one is satisfied with the service just
offered to him. In other words, Bond is in no way seeking genuine communication
5
For more, see Takeuchi Michiko, “‘Pan-Pan Girls’ Performing and Resisting Neocolonialism(s) in the
Pacific Theater: U.S. Military Prostitution in Occupied Japan, 1945-52,” in Over There: Living with the
U.S. Military Empire from World War Two to the Present, ed. Maria Höhn and Seungsook Moon
(Duke University Press, 2010), 78–108.
6
For the linguistics of domination in Western cinema, see Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Unthinking
Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (New York: Routledge, 2013), 191–94.
Sommer 2017
with the culturally Other. He utters here and there a word or two in Japanese only to
make his encounters appear more exotic. His ultimate attitude to language can be
summed up like this: since English is the lingua franca, why bother speaking Japanese
even if one can?
Moreover, Bond has a “tourist guide” with him most of the time, whether the guide is
Tanaka, Aki, or Suzuki, another Japanese Bond girl in the film. They pack Bond’s
itinerary with must-dos in Japan. Tanaka, as mentioned, brings him to try out the
“Japanese” bath with women in bikini serving as bath girls; and this is merely the
appetizer. To make Bond’s short journey truly unforgettable, Tanaka suggests three
more daring events. He says to Bond, “First, you become a Japanese. Second, you
train hard and quickly to become a ninja. Third, to get you a special cover, you take a
[Japanese] wife.” The purpose of such doings, Tanaka explains, is to let Bond move
around unnoticed in a Kyūshū fishing village so as to find out the secret headquarter
of the criminal organization SPECTRE. But as we will see, this is an excuse rather
than a valid reason. What is really at stake is a taste of exoticism. It is as if Bond were
brought to a Japanese theme park.
For the first event, the whole dressing-up thing is comparable to modern-day cosplay.
With the help of Aki and her assistants of cosmetic surgery, Bond is given a wig and
has prosthetics put on his eyes (fig. 4); his skin is dyed and his chest waxed. As he is
deemed too tall for a Japanese man of average height, he also has to hunch over to
appear shorter. All these endeavours, however, fall short of persuasion. The make-up
effects turn out to be miserable if not outright ridiculous (fig. 5). But clearly this does
not matter at all, for no one in the film, including Bond himself, seems to have taken
his new identity as a Japanese fisherman seriously. Rather, he is treated as a harmless,
fun-seeking tourist who has just rented a local outfit for a day ready to take pictures.
Next, Bond is trained in a ninja school secretly run by Tanaka. There, however,
spectacles instead of training seem to be the focus. He watches a programme of
entertaining performances such as one person fighting off multiple enemies, ice-
breaking with Iron Head (fig. 6), and a watermelon being slashed with a judo chop.
Sommer 2017
Tanaka merely mentions that ninja is an art of “concealment and surprise”. There is
no further philosophizing about what it really is. For this reason perhaps, Bond does
not take his ninja lesson seriously (despite dressing in a ninja outfit later, fig. 7). He
half-jokingly apologizes to his training partner when the latter forces him to lose hold
of his weapon. Only when this partner reveals himself to be a SPECTRE assassin by
trying to seize this opportunity to kill Bond does he resume his usual superiority and
kill the assassin instead (fig. 8-9), thus retaining the white supremacy.
Bond goes on to marry Suzuki, a subordinate of Tanaka. The fake wedding, which
takes place in a shrine with priests and maidens holding the ceremony, is just another
exotic experience ready made for Bond (fig. 10). His conversation with Suzuki further
reveals the shallowness of his cultural encounter:
Bond: Is this the only room there is?

Suzuki: Yes, That is your bed. [points to one side of the room]
Suzuki: I shall sleep over there. [points to the other side of the room]
Bond: But we're supposed to be married.
Suzuki: Think again, please. You gave false name to priest.
Bond: Yes, but we must keep up appearances. We're on our honeymoon.
Suzuki: No honeymoon. This is business.
Bond: [pushing aside his plate of fresh raw oysters] Well, I won't need these.
“Appearances” are apparently what Bond expects and looks for. His ultimate aim is
nothing but “kiss kiss bang bang”. When Suzuki puts down his request, daringly
saying that “this is business”, Bond the Customer clearly feels offended. At this
moment, all appearances become even unnecessary. He ends the game of pretending
to be a Japanese (by pushing aside the Japanese dish) and resumes his initial identity
as an egoistic outsider. We can hardly notice any psychological growth in the sense of
Bildungsroman taken place in Bond by the end of his journey. His role as a tourist/
customer restricts him to accept change. The Bond before Japan remains to be the
Bond after Japan.
The super-consumer of other cultures does not consume Japan in Japan only. In The
Sommer 2017
Man of the Golden Gun (1974), we awkwardly see Bond confronting sumo wrestlers
and karateka in Thailand (fig. 11). The incorporation of these Japanese elements into
a non-Japanese setting surely had something to do with the kung fu mania surging in
the West during the 1970s, which can be best exemplified in our case by an American
comic book magazine named The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Its May 1975 issue
features Bond in karategi vs. a sumo wrestler and a number of karateka on the cover
with the title: “James Bond invades the martial arts” (fig. 12). Indeed, it is an
“invasion”. Not only has Bond appropriated Eastern martial arts; through this kind of
collage he has also fully decontextualized Japan. A deep, context-based understanding
of Japan is thereby made impossible.
It then comes as no surprise that Bond’s appropriation of martial arts remains at the
bodily level only. He is not bound by the philosophical idea behind and is free to
break the rules whenever he sees fit. For instance, in a karate match in The Man of the
Golden Gun, Bond knocks out his opponent within seconds by giving him a pre-
emptive kick while the latter, according to the ritual, is still bowing to him (fig. 13).
Interestingly, we usually remember Bond as an English gentleman only. Not only

because he dresses very well, but also because of his image as a guardian of European
civilization. In Moonraker (1979), there is a fighting scene between Bond and a
Japanese kendo henchman in a glass gallery in Venice. Bond is about to throw a
precious glass cup with cultural significance at the henchman, but then he hesitates
and finally puts it back to the showcase. The henchman, however, does not give the
matter a single thought, shattering the cup with his armor-shield right away (fig. 14-
17). Thus, the Japanese is portrayed as the barbarian who understands nothing about
(European) high culture while Bond is trying to preserve it.
James Bond is an “imperialist without an empire”.7 As the world has been largely
politically decolonized, his identity changes from an undisguised colonizer to a tourist
who now makes use of his consuming power, generated and maintained in a capitalist
7
Christoph Lindner, ed., The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2003), 148.
Sommer 2017
system institutionally favorable to the West, to recolonize the world economically. To

a certain extent, Bond is comparable to the colonial traders in Joseph Conrad’s novels
or the colonial officers in W. Somerset Maugham’s short stories. These figures adhere,
more or less, to the norms of European civilization at home, but once they are in Asia
or Africa, they easily cross the line, for there they are no longer facing their equals but
their subordinates. And in 1960s and 1970s, just a few decades after the total
surrender of Japan, the psychological state of the victorious Allies, personified by
Bond, must have been still very much present.
The Last Samurai — the Enlightened/ Enlightening Expatriate
As said, James Bond was a product of the Cold War. From today’s perspective, he
looks rather like a man of yesteryear. Above all, his Eurocentrism has become
increasingly unbearable, making him unfit to handle issues as complex as
multiculturalism of the 21st century. In the wake of 9/11 and the resurgent concern for
“the clash of civilizations”, the West has felt greater need than ever to understand the
culturally Other(s). It is under such a background that Edward Zwick’s The Last
Samurai was produced.
The film tells the story of Captain Nathan Algren. Haunted by the memories of his
involvement in the atrocities during the American Indian Wars, he imposes on himself
self-exile by accepting an offer to become a military adviser of the newly formed
imperial Japanese army, whose latest mission is to suppress the samurai rebellion led
by Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto. Soon after his arrival in Japan, however, Nathan is
captured in an ambush by the samurai group. While being kept in the samurai village,
he grows to appreciate bushido and finally decides to fight along with Katsumoto.
In The Last Samurai, Japan is clearly not a movable backdrop that can be transferred
at will as what happens in the James Bond movies. Despite the fictional nature of the
story, much effort was spent on contextualization. The director tells in an interview
that years before the shooting began, a team of his people had already been sent to
Sommer 2017
Japan for research. 8 Indeed, the historical accuracy of the costumes and military
equipment in the film has been praised by Jonathan Dresner, a scholar who
specializes in Meiji-ere social history.9 On the whole, this shows the production crew
paying respects to Japan.
The respect for Japan includes the Japanese soul as well. The film begins with an
opening remark made by Simon Graham, a friend of Captain Algren who has worked
in Japan as a translator for years: “… Japan was made by a handful of brave men.
Warriors, willing to give their lives for what seems to have become a forgotten word:
honor.” And Algren, having lived (rather than stayed!) with the samurai and their
families for a while, observes that:
They are intriguing people. From the moment they wake, they devote themselves to the
perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline. I am surprised to
learn that the word ‘samurai’ means, ‘to serve’, and that Katsumoto believes his
rebellion to be in the service of the Emperor.
Furthermore, Algren is well aware of his cultural limitation:
There is so much here I will never understand. I’ve never been a church going man, and
what I’ve seen on the field of battle has led me to question God’s purpose. But there is
indeed something spiritual in this place. And though it may forever be obscure to me, I
cannot but be aware of its power.
Captain Algren is in this regard much more humble than James Bond, who, by
throwing the book Instant Japanese back to Miss Moneypenny, seems to suggest that
there is nothing more to know. In contrast, Algren is even ready to “betray” his own
race to die for Japan:
Higen (nephew of Katsumoto): Will you fight the white man, too?
8
Jeff Otto, “An Interview with the Director and Cast of The Last Samurai,” IGN, December 3, 2003,
http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/03/an-interview-with-the-director-and-cast-of-the-last-samurai.
9
Jonathan Dresner, “How True to History Is Tom Cruise’s ‘The Last Samurai’?,” History News
Network, August 8, 2005, http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/2746.
Sommer 2017
Algren: If they come here, yes.

Higen: Why?
Algren: Because they come to destroy what I have come to love.
The American captain, awakened by the purity of the Japanese soul, has overcome his
trauma. He is no longer lukewarm but is passionate about the people around him. He
has received a “cultural shock” and is enlightened in the process. In fact,
enlightenment is a central motif of the film. Algren learns from Katsumoto about the
Zen philosophy, which is embodied in bushido:
Katsumoto: Like these blossoms, we are all dying. To know life in every breath, every
cup of tea, every life we take. The way of the warrior…
Algren: Life in every breath…
Katsumoto: This is, bushido.
In another scene, Algren is told more concretely about what bushido is:
Nobutada (Katsumoto’s son): Please forgive; too many mind.

Algren: Too many mind?
Nobutada: Hai, mind the sword, mind the people watch, mind enemy — too many
mind… No mind.
Algren: No mind.
So far so good. But every coin has two sides. As we witness how swiftly Algren
acquires enlightenment (e.g. within six months, he manages to hold his sword teacher
Ujio to a draw), one begins to question whether beneath the respect and admiration
for Japan lies not a subtler, yet a more radical form of the white supremacy. If Bond
becoming a ninja is a kind of bodily appropriation, then Algren becoming a samurai
should be read as spiritual appropriation. Not only the skills but also the soul of the
culturally Other are now at one’s disposal.
A dialectic sets off. Algren is enlightened by the (old) Japan, and in turn he is
enlightening the (new) Japan. It is he who encourages Katsumoto to keep fighting
Sommer 2017
after the tragic death of his son Nobutada:
Katsumoto: The way of samurai is not necessary anymore.

Algren: Necessary? What could be more necessary?
Katsumoto: I will die by the sword. My own, or my enemy’s.
Algren: Then let it be your enemy’s.
And it is again Algren who presents the sword of the late Katsumoto to the young
Meiji Emperor, reminding him of his own cultural roots (fig. 18):
Algren: He [Katsumoto] hoped with his dying breath that you would remember his
ancestors who held this sword, and what they died for. May the strength of the samurai
be with you always.
…
Emperor Meiji: I have dreamt of a unified Japan. Of a country strong and independent
and modern. We have railroads and cannon, Western clothing. But we cannot forget
who we are. Or where we come from.
We may further suggest that Algren the Student is enlightened only to become Algren
the Teacher so that he can enlighten Japan in an even more powerful way (i.e. not just
as a military adviser but also as a priest-like figure preaching national dignity). In the
end, he always manages to keep his upper hand in spite of some setbacks in the
process — he is a veteran with a lost soul but comes to Japan as a well-paid military
advisor; he is captured as a prisoner by the samurai group but soon becomes
Katsumoto’s close ally and later even has the honor to help Katsumoto perform
seppuku; last but not least, although he has fought against the Meiji government, by
convincing the young emperor that he was actually doing good to Japan, he manages
to leave the court intact without being punished, while Omura, the businessman who
advocates the country’s full westernization, has his property confiscated by the
emperor. In short, even though Captain Algren has switched sides several times, he
never loses his superiority. This phenomenon fits well with Edward Said’s
observation on orientalism — “Orientalism depends for its strategy on this flexible
positional superiority, which puts the Westerner in a whole series of possible
Sommer 2017
relationships with the Orient without ever losing him the upper hand.”10
Such a flexible positional superiority also manifests itself at the personal level of
intimate relationships. Taka, whose samurai husband has been killed by Algren during
the ambush, is requested by Katsumoto to host the “enemy”. There is a scene in which
Algren wants to help Taka with the housework. They have a short conversation in
Japanese:
Taka: Japanese men don’t do that.

Algren: I am not Japanese.
It is fair to say that Algren chooses the best identity available to him according to the
situation. When confronting Omura, who intents to sell Japan to foreign countries
through unequal trade treaties, he faithfully adheres to bushido and is in this sense
more Japanese than a Japanese, thus winning the trust of the emperor. But when it
comes to winning Taka’s heart, he switches from the (supposedly) chauvinist
Japanese warrior to the loving family man of the West. All in all, Algren’s
appropriation is highly selective. Such a strategy is probably better and more effective
than the unpolished one employed by James Bond in You Only Live Twice:
Tanaka: In Japan, men always come first; women come second

Bond: I might just retire here.
Captain Algren has the kind of sensitivity to the culturally Other that our self-
obsessed MI6 miserably lacks. And this sensitivity can be used to one’s advantage,
essential for survival in the international politics of the 21st century.
Ninja — Casey The Legitimate Insider
Isaac Florentine’s Ninja is a smaller production when compared with You Only Live
Twice and The Last Samurai. It is an adventure film in the broad sense with a strong
10
Edward W. Said, Orientalism (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014), 7.
Sommer 2017
emphasis on martial arts. Taken that the director himself is a blackbelt bearer and was
an instructor of twelve dojos, it is no surprise that the film pays special tribute to budo.
The plot centres around Yoroi Bitsu, a set of mysterious ancient weapons said to be
left by the last Kōga ninja. It is passed down to Sensei Takeda, who, at the beginning
of film, is looking for an heir to the treasure as well as his dojo. Two of his students,
Casey and Masazuka, stand out. Masazuka is jealous of Casey. He nearly kills Casey
in a training session and is therefore expelled. The sensei, who expects that Masazuka
will come back for revenge at all costs, asks a number of his students, including his
daughter Namiko and Casey, to secretly transport Yoroi Bitsu to New York for better
protection. Masazuka, who now becomes an assassin upon joining an American-based
criminal organization named The Ring, indeed comes back. He kills the sensei, traces
the group, kidnaps Namiko, and demands a final fight with Casey. The film ends with
Casey saving Namiko and winning the fight. He goes back to Japan with Namiko and
becomes the new sōke of the dojo.
In many aspects, Ninja is a typical orientalist martial arts film with a white savior
narrative. 11 The good guy is a white person, while the bad guy is a Japanese; the
former defeats the latter and wins the heart of a Japanese girl in addition. But what
makes the film particularly interesting for us is the identity of Casey. We are told that
he is an American orphan adopted by Sensei Takeda when he was twelve. His father
was a marine stationed in Okinawa. Because he became a drunkard, the mother
detested him and finally abandoned both to begin a new life herself. So, raised in a
Japanese family, Casey is in a way an insider (if we think of James Bond as an
outsider (spy/ tourist) and Captain Algren as an expatriate only). This gives Casey
certain legitimacy to the heir, and the accusation of appropriation becomes invalid, as
appropriation is generally defined as “members of one culture (outsiders) take for
their own, or for their own use, items produced by a member or members of another
culture (insiders).”12
11
For more, see Matthew Hughey, The White Savior Film: Content, Critics, and Consumption
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2014).
12
James O. Young, Cultural Appropriation and the Arts (Malden: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), 5.
Sommer 2017
But is Casey really an insider? Not really. He is first of all an American. He

communicates with other characters — even with his fellows in the dojo — mostly in
English. He also does not shy away from taking his top off while training (fig. 19).
Such a proud presentation of the muscles in the dojo is rather unthinkable if the
person involved is a Japanese. Here, we notice again the flexible positional
superiority of the white protagonist. The blurring between insiders and outsiders until
the two finally being synthesized (in the sense of Hegelian dialectic) into “human” is
a clever strategy. Sean M. Tierney elaborates this point clearly,
(H)ow the unquestioned invisibility of whiteness rationalizes the adoption or

appropriation of Others’ cultural activities as an expression of a universal, human
impulse or right… The appropriation of the term ‘‘human’’ is a strategic rhetoric of
whiteness. Through its use, Whites’ behavior becomes ‘natural,’ and hence harder, if
not impossible, to criticize… perpetuate the conflation of White with human to
rationalize and camouflage cultural appropriation as a normal, harmless, natural
behavior, and to promote a kind of supraethnic viability for Whites that is not equally
represented for Others.13
Perhaps we should not forget that Ninja was released in 2009 just under the new
presidency of Barack Obama, who announced that America, after years of distraction
by the “War on Terror” in the Middle East, was determined to go back to the Pacific.
This timeframe, though indirectly, provides us a possible reading of the film, i.e.
Casey (America) will in the near future rightfully lead the dojo (Japan). He is
presented as the legitimate heir — not as Captain Algren, who is unilaterally invited
by the Meiji government and can be dismissed anytime, nor as James Bond, whose
stay in Japan is destined to be temporary only and whose brute colonial mind is
deemed too undesirable for today’s international relations. As the legitimate heir,
there is no appropriation, or more precisely, absolute appropriation is no appropriation.
Concluding Remarks
13
Sean M. Tierney, “Themes of Whitenesss in Bulletproof Monk, Kill Bill, and The Last Samurai,”
Journal of Communication, no. 56 (2006): 609.
Sommer 2017
Cultural appropriation has nowadays become such a norm that most appropriated
groups no longer make a fuss about it. The Last Samurai, for instance, has been
overall well received in Japan, praised as an innovative attempt to make a jidaigeki,
whereas the charge of the white supremacy complex and the like come mostly from
Western film critics only. 14 By accepting Tom Cruise as one of or even the last
samurai, the image of samurai as the once most representative form of Japanese
masculinity is now dissolved, for it is no longer exclusive to the Japanese. In the
global capitalized world, it has become a consumer product that goes beyond national
boundaries. It is so vastly reproduced in the media, in advertisements particularly, that
the yesterday’s yellow peril has undergone a de-mystifying and belittling process. We
thus can see a suit-wearing samurai with a coca cola bottle as his chonmage (fig. 20)
or a group of sumo wrestlers presenting themselves as car-washing hot chicks in a car
advert of Subaru (fig. 21-22), a Japanese company that originated from Nakajima
Aircraft Company, which, with some irony, was a major manufacturer of aircraft for
Japan during the Second World War. The contrast is made more striking if we recall
the popular images of sumo wrestlers as representatives of national dignity during the
late Edo and Meiji periods (fig. 23-24). Erich Hobsbawm once talks about the
invention of tradition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the purpose of
nationalism; in the 21st century, however, it seems that what really counts is the
globalized capital.
14
Mark Ravina, “Fantasies of Valor: Legends of the Samurai in Japan and the United Stats,”
ASIANetwork Exchange 18, no. 1 (2010): 80–99.
Sommer 2017
Bibliography
Benesch, Oleg. “Bushido as an Invented Tradition: A Uniquely Japanese

Ideology.” Reitaku Daigaku Daigakuin Gengo Kyouiku Kenkyuuka:
Language & Civilization 2, no. 3 (2004): 91–107.
Dresner, Jonathan. “How True to History Is Tom Cruise’s ‘The Last
Samurai’?” History News Network, August 8, 2005.
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/2746.
Hoxha, Tim. “The Masculinity of James Bond: Sexism, Misogyny, Racism,
and the Female Character.” In James Bond in World and Popular
Culture: The Films Are Not Enough, edited by Robert G. Weiner, B.
Lynn Whitfield, and Jack Becker, 193–207. Newcastle: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2012.
Hughey, Matthew. The White Savior Film: Content, Critics, and
Consumption. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2014.
Lancaster, David. “Review: The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical
Reader.” Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and
Television Studies 34, no. 1 (2004): 82–83.
Lindner, Christoph, ed. The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.
Michiko, Takeuchi. “‘Pan-Pan Girls’ Performing and Resisting
Neocolonialism(s) in the Pacific Theater: U.S. Military Prostitution in
Occupied Japan, 1945-52.” In Over There: Living with the U.S.
Military Empire from World War Two to the Present, edited by
Maria Höhn and Seungsook Moon, 78–108. Duke University Press,
2010.
Otto, Jeff. “An Interview with the Director and Cast of The Last Samurai.”
IGN, December 3, 2003.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/03/an-interview-with-the-
director-and-cast-of-the-last-samurai.
Ravina, Mark. “Fantasies of Valor: Legends of the Samurai in Japan and
the United Stats.” ASIANetwork Exchange 18, no. 1 (2010): 80–99.
Sommer 2017
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014.

Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism
and the Media. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Tierney, Sean M. “Themes of Whitenesss in Bulletproof Monk, Kill Bill,
and The Last Samurai.” Journal of Communication, no. 56 (2006):
607–24.
Young, James O. Cultural Appropriation and the Arts. Malden: John Wiley
& Sons, 2010.

Essay - Seminar of Yellow Perils

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Essay - Seminar of Yellow Perils

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg IKO MA Student: Yung Hing Wang

Zentrum Ostasienwissenschaften (Japanologie) Matrikelnummer: 3347215

James Bond — The Egoistic Outsider

James Bond is a fictional character created by novelist Ivan Fleming (1908-1964) in

Everything is attuned to the consumer’s preference, including language. 6 As Bond

Bond: Is this the only room there is?

Interestingly, we usually remember Bond as an English gentleman only. Not only

system institutionally favorable to the West, to recolonize the world economically. To

The Last Samurai — the Enlightened/ Enlightening Expatriate

Furthermore, Algren is well aware of his cultural limitation:

Algren: If they come here, yes.

Nobutada (Katsumoto’s son): Please forgive; too many mind.

after the tragic death of his son Nobutada:

Katsumoto: The way of samurai is not necessary anymore.

Taka: Japanese men don’t do that.

Tanaka: In Japan, men always come first; women come second

Ninja — Casey The Legitimate Insider

But is Casey really an insider? Not really. He is first of all an American. He

(H)ow the unquestioned invisibility of whiteness rationalizes the adoption or

Benesch, Oleg. “Bushido as an Invented Tradition: A Uniquely Japanese

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen