Japan’s New Left and New Wave. An Ideology’s Perspective as an Alternative to That of National Cinema

Abstract

Starting from the perspective that national cinema is not a neutral concept, but rather a film expression with ideological implications, in this article I will argue that what should be analysed in films is not what connects them to certain nations, but with certain ideologies. Rather than claiming the national nature of a film, it is more accurate to identify for instance elements of a national ideology underlying the film. It can be more enriching to analyse different film trends that are based on their connections with different ideologies, thus stressing their political nature, rather than highlighting cultural or geographical features in order to determine the supposedly natural outline of national cinemas. From this point of view, I consider the Japanese New Wave cinema of the 1960s and early 1970s to be a reflection of Japan's coetaneous New Left ideology. In order to illustrate this political reading of the Japanese New Wave, I focus on the analysis of a paradigmatic film: Eros + Massacre (Erosu purasu Gyakusatsu 1969), directed by Yoshida Kijū.

Japan and the “Transnational Cinema”

“…We should not forget that there have been and are, even now, very active international flows in Japan of images, stories, iconographies and theories. As many papers in this volume note, even films considered as milestones of Japanese National Cinema were clearly exposed to foreign influences, such as those of Kurosawa Akira (Martinez 2018), Mizoguchi Kenji and Ozu Yasujirō (Centeno Martín 2018), Yoshida Yoshishige (De Vargas 2019) or Kawase Naomi (Schoneveld 2019). Most of the articles included in this Issue question whether external influences and Japanese film uniqueness are compatible or not, or to what extent Japanese specificity is compromised by foreign codes of representation.…”

“…Kawashima describes Yamamura's animation as an example of transnational cinema, which both adapts and renews foreign cultural elements at the same time. De Vargas (2019) questions the validity of the national cinema model by claiming that films should be assessed not in relation to national identities but rather political affiliations. Rather than studying the national culture in a film, his article proposes to analyse certain national ideologies that the film is aligned with.…”