photo credit: John Griffiths
Hallelujah! Rejoice! Good Tidings to all cinema-going kind! Excuse my outpouring of emotion; I may have got a little over-excited there. Still, maybe you’ll forgive me if you too share in my love of all things Samurai and cinema related. I have great news! What is this news that got me so animated, you ask? Well, perhaps you’ve already heard. Indeed, my sharper readers may even see a tiny little hint in the title of this article. Got it yet? Yes, well guessed. Martin Scorsese, legendary director of such classics as Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, fresh off that glorious Oscar win for The Departed after so often being overlooked by the Academy, is to turn his genius eastward and direct Silence, a film on feudal Japan. Not only that but, if the rumours are correct, he’s put together a pretty spectacular cast. Everyone’s favourite milkshake-drinking oil baron Daniel Plainview (read Oscar botherer Daniel Day-Lewis) is joined by iconic wheezy revolutionary Che Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) and motor-biking wheezy doctor, er…Che Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) in an ensemble of real ability, experience and…hang on. Is that really right? I mean, it’s a damn good cast, that’s for sure. But isn’t Day-Lewis Welsh? Bernal is Mexican isn’t he? I’m pretty sure Del Toro isn’t Japanese either. Now I’m getting a little nervous.
You see friends, Silence is to be another example of a concept fast becoming a sub-genre in its own right, that of the Gaijin in Japan. Scorsese’s movie is being billed as a thriller based on the experiences of Jesuit Priests in the Edo period, and is quite probably more a period-piece set in the time of the Samurai than an outright Samurai Movie. But let’s not waste time on semantics. For I must admit that, after my initial wave of excitement at seeing such fantastic talents turn their attention to a subject so dear to me, I started thinking back to other examples of Hollywood delving into Japan’s past. The results weren’t great.
Things started well enough, as I remembered Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima; a film so well executed that it’s easy to forget the director isn’t Japanese. However, given that Iwo Jima has an all-Japanese cast and a comparatively modern setting, the next examples I came across were perhaps more appropriate and more disconcerting. Memoirs of a Geisha is a classic example of artistic vision being usurped by the almighty dollar, as big-name Chinese actresses wrestle with English dialogue in a Japanese setting, quite probably leaving Ken Watanabe wondering what the hell is going on. Nice costumes though. Likewise, Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai fails to live up to its excellent cinematography as (SPOILER ALERT) a seemingly invincible Tom Cruise learns Japanese around the dinner table and then survives the annihilation of his entire army (twice) to inspire Emperor Meiji to new levels of awesomeness. Or something. Imagine if Yoji Yamada’s next flick involved Tadanobu Asano leading Robert E. Lee’s troops to a spirited defeat at Gettysburg before going on to inspire Abraham Lincoln to abolish slavery. Exactly: cow faeces. Would probably have nice costumes though.
There are other equally dismal examples that spring to mind, such as the Charles Bronson/ Toshiro Mifune western Red Sun, or John Wayne’s “look how tall I am!” snooze-fest The Barbarian and the Geisha. Perhaps the most successful ‘Gaijin’ work is actually the small-screen adaptation of James Clavell’s Shogun, the fictional John Blackthorne standing in for William Adams’ real-life rise to prominence under Ieyasu Tokugawa (given the factual treatment in the excellent book Samurai William by Giles Milton). Yet, whilst Hollywood has managed to produce excellent works on modern day culture clashes (particularly of Tokyo in the likes of Lost in Translation and parts of Babel), true success in producing a feudal period piece to rival the great Japanese directors has so far eluded all who have tried. Why should this be any different for Marty Scorsese? All will be explained in Part 2. In the meantime, your opinions/criticisms/ glowing praises would be much appreciated. Until next time.
