moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (05/24/85)
MacARTHUR'S CHILDREN (Japanese, 1984)
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda
Screenwriter: Takeshi Tamura
Cast: Takaya Yamuchi, Yoshiyuki Omori
_MacArthur's_Children_ opens with two Japanese schoolboys in a small
fishing village blacking out sections of their class readers. Japan has just
surrendered to the United States following World War II, and one of the
conditions of surrender is the deletion of sections describing battle or
warlike behavior of almost any kind. Both the boys resist this task --
their fathers have died in the war -- and decide to skip school to watch
the village men who went to war (and survived) return home. What follows
is a "slice of life" film; it examines life in the village during the
occupation period through the eyes of the children, and through the events
which occur to a select number of villagers. Each of the characters are
wonderfully sketched out, and the children of the school make excellent
observers for the audience -- one is reminded of how
_To_Kill_A_Mockingbird_ portrayed another period through the children's
unbiased outlook.
This is undoubtedly one of the best films I've seen so far at the Festival.
It is an examination of a period of time in Japan where a great deal of
change was taking place -- the four or five years following Japan's
surrender to the U.S., and the changes that Japan's defeat and America's
influence made on the country. And while the U.S.'s occupation of Japan is
rarely seen as anything more than passive (any Americans who are
portrayed in the film are always shown as being extremely polite and,
well, gentlemen-like), the American culture is seen to be impressed upon
the Japanese -- sometimes forced, usually assimilated by their younger
generation. This is not always shown to be a bad thing; certain principles
of honor, which oppress one of the main characters at the beginning of the
film, are relaxed under the new social climate. But much of the old
culture decays under the new Japan, and the lost way of life is definitely
considered seen under a mixed light. I was struck by this about halfway
through the film: Glenn Miller's familiar "In The Mood" is played often
throughout the film, and it seemed a smooth, period-setting soundtrack for
this film -- until I remembered that this is a Japanese film. This music,
which seems so natural to an American film viewer, is equivalent to
Kabuki music to us; and that such music is so familiar to Japanese
audiences says something about the "Amercanization" of post-war Japan.
I would recommend _MacArthur's_Children_, which means I recommend it
unconditionally to the average movie-goer; I think you'll find this extremely enjoyable.
"I have no talents. I have genius or nothing. But all genius is
distorted, even my own."
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
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