Screening Asia - Essay Example

Comparison Critique of Cape No. 7 and Departures Cape No. 7 is a Taiwanese musical-drama with elements of comedy andromance by Wei Te-Sheng in 2008. It is done in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese, although there are some significant parts that are done in Japanese. The film was first premiered in 2008 at the Taipei Festival, going on to win various awards. The movie presents Taiwanese society in various forms from its social life to its culture and economy (Hong 180). The fact that it was such a broad representation of Taiwanese society made it very successful sans any strong campaign to promote it. Departure, on the other hand, is a Japanese drama written and directed in 2008 by Yojiro Takita. The film offers a look into the historic ceremony of “encoffining” in Japan, whereby professional morticians prepare and ritually clothe dead bodies prior to placing them in the coffin (Asai et al 31). While the two films follow contemporary themes popular with other Asian movies, they are unique in that they are grounded in aspects of culture that are peculiar to their countries of origin. All Japanese films need a hero and Daigo, the hero in Departures, is a likeable and impulsive young man who is easy to talk to and understand. Mika, his wife, adores and believes in him, quickly agreeing to return to the town where Daigo was born after they are struck by disaster (Miller et al 45). They move back to his old house that was left to him following his mother’s death, for which they have to pawn his cello in order to pay for the trip. This incident has negative impacts for him since he has no employment or instrument to make a living by, going back to where he started. He looks through the job ads and comes across one that sounds like a job in a travel company. However, after the owner Mr. Sasaki appears at the office where he goes to apply for the job, he finds out that it is an undertaking business, and he is offered the job and advance salary. He is then taken for a job orientation tour of the funeral home where the practice seems more humane than is usually shown in western movies. The ceremony is one of grace and precise ritual with sheets arranged to preserve the corpse’s privacy as it is dressed after washing. While most of the families are silent through it all, some of them show emotional outbursts and here begins Daigo’s life lessons. From his reluctance to tell his wife what job he is in, one can gather that undertaking is important as an occupation but not respectable (Miller et al 46). However, she finds out and tells him she must leave. Cape No. 7 is set in a little town South of Taiwan referred to as Hengchun, which is literally translated to “forever spring”. This town is sleepy, similar to the one that Daigo and his wife have to go back to; although, the town is on the seaside, and it has a pleasant beach. The residents of this town are also conservative, preferring to keep their old and traditional values, despite the fact that there are liberal tourists in the town going around the streets dressed in bikinis when holiday season comes (Wang 137). The town is also host to a yearly concert for rock artists held on the beach in order to attract the visitors. It is for this annual concert that some residents in the town come up with an idea to make a band, which they begin to do some three weeks before the start of the concert. Aga, who is a postman, acts as a new band’s lead vocalist. He also discovers several love letters from Japanese soldiers, which were written during the colonial period and not delivered. The address to which the letters are sent in Taiwan existed during the 40s and is no longer in existence, referred to as “Cape No. 7” Aga proceeds to deliver these letters prior to taking the stage in order to perform with his band. Although the original writer of the letters, who was a Japanese, was forced to leave the country and his lover following the end of colonization in 1945 (Wang 137), Aga persuades his girlfriend, who is also Japanese, to remain in Taiwan. Japanese cinema has always had a special relationship with the theme of mortality and death and Departures is no different. Like in other Japanese films, this particular one handles death as an event in an ongoing life, devoid of hopeless grief, although mourning is presented (Miller et al 50). Departure shows how the Japanese society and its film industry channel their mourning into various rituals to gain comfort. The film does not focus too much on what happens to people after they die, instead focusing its attention on people who survive the dead, as well as what the life of the departed means in a worldly context. Cape No. 7 also captures various unique aspects of the Taiwanese, especially the local population of the Southern parts. For these people, who have never left their local hometowns behind and have hard issues dealing with changes in time, life is simple, and they have close ties to one another. The film is especially focused on the older generation of Taiwanese people, especially their traditional outlook and their foul language (Hong 183). Unlike Departures, however, this particular film does not delve into one aspect of the people’s lives, instead dealing with broad social and cultural issues. The manner in which Takita, the director for Departures, constructs his screenplay is fundamentally solid. This ensures that the film flows well over various scenes. He is able to introduce various sub-themes and sub-plots without the audience necessarily noticing. The funeral home owner, Mr. Sasaki, misses his wife who passed away. His assistant in the office also possesses a sad story. The film ensures that we know something about everyone who is employed in the funeral home, which enables the audience to view how the Japanese live (Miller et al 55). In the film, the writer introduces an old lady who owns and runs a Japanese public bath, while the film also introduces one of her oldest clients, as well as an attendant working in a local crematorium. Through these diverse characters, we learn of Japanese life. We also get to understand the reasons why Daigo’s wife leaves him, especially due to the stigma attached to this work in Japanese society. However, Daigo feels that working as an undertaker has brought meaning to his life and that he must honor where his heart leads him, electing to stay. This shows the audience that most Japanese are driven by doing what adds meaning to their life and this film is full of characters like Daigo, from the old lady who owns the public bath to the crematorium attendant who tells him Daigo he was born to cremate people (Miller et al 56). Wei Te-Sheng is also skillful in the manner that he allows his film to become a mirror for Taiwanese society. He tackles the desire by the people of Taiwan to run away from the anxiety that came from their efforts to de-colonize their country after the end of the colonization in 1945 (Su 179). He also deals with the attempts by the Taiwanese younger generation to pursue modernity as practiced by the Japanese, especially those born in the 80s and early 90s. The film acknowledges these anxieties and attempts to reconcile them via three major elements. These include rehashing the past of colonialism albeit with ambivalent tolerance, characterizing Tomoko, young Japanese character, who possesses vulnerable and likeable qualities that make her part of an imagined community of intra-Asians. In addition, the film also places Aga, the band lead vocalist, at the same level as a popular pop star from Japan as the film comes to a conclusion (Su 179). This film shows the desire by Taiwanese to be modern in the same way as the Japanese sans any guilt of colonialism. Another area in which the two films uniquely present the culture and society from which they originate is in the cinematography and music. In Departures, the cinematography and music are part of the reason that the film is successful in presenting Japanese culture. The use of cello music, sometimes performed by Daigo in a fantasy scene shot outdoors, gives the audience a Japanese sound in an authentically Japanese scene (Asai et al 32). It also shows that Japanese children are encouraged to follow what interests them most. This can be seen through the fact that Daigo owned a cello as a child, which he is more comfortable with than the one he owned as a grown up and had to sell off, while we can also see the marks that the cello left on the floor as he practiced as a child. The cinematography is polite in nature with minimal shots for effect. This is especially meant to show the solemn nature with which death is treated in Japan, while the cello music also adds onto this feeling of solemnity. In fact, the shots that the filmmaker takes with the aim of showing the environment’s beauty, such as Daigo’s outdoor cello performance, feel as if there is sudden freedom in the movie, away from the solemnity that surrounds Japanese funeral procedures (Asai et al 32). Even the scenes, which are cheerful, only act as precursors to how the mood changes when the main plot of the film is reverted to. The success and popularity of Cape No. 7 are also drawn from the cinematographic and musical value of the film. The music, which is mostly Japanese rock and pop, is meant to deal with the way in which Taiwanese people view modernity, as well as the shadow that hangs over their history in terms of colonialism (Hong 185). With a lavish show of the breathtaking scenery in Southern Taiwan using top-notch cinematography, the film is able to explore the Taiwanese youth’s pursuits of love and music, while also intertwining them with small town life, diversity of culture, and differences between generations. These are aspects that one finds recur through the film, indicating that these are the major issues in Taiwan at present. The band that Aga is attempting to create starts playing angry alternative rock, showing that they are looking for an escape from their past. However, as they interact with Japanese tourists and artists, their music becomes happier and more hopeful, indicating Taiwan’s affinity for their former colonial master’s way of life. The film is also at its best when the band is playing music, which seems to show that they have heightened emotions when they are confronted by Japanese art forms (Hong 185). The casting in Departures is also done in a way that reveals how everyday Japanese act and live. In this film, the character role that most symbolizes Japan is Mr. Sasaki. His face, which is serene and wise, is immediately recognizable from famous Japanese faces (Asai et al 33). The character of Mr. Sasaki is understated in the film, rather than demonstrative, which is seen in the manner in which he treats Daigo’s personality and troubles gently. It seems to show that the elderly in Japanese try to understand the younger people, which may explain why experienced and elderly people in Japan are highly respected. This is seen in this film from the manner in which Mr. Sasaki’s assistants adore and revere him. He rarely tells them about how important his work is, instead preferring to demonstrate or imply, while his younger understudies pick up useful lessons (Asai et al 33). However, in the film Cape No. 7, the characterization is made in such a way as to show the life of ordinary adults in Southern Taiwan. The ages of the characters are important in that they allow the filmmaker to demonstrate how adults in Taiwan deal with everyday issues, as well as how they incorporate historical issues into their lives (Hong 187). Apart from one character, all others are adults and, although some of them are young; most of them are old enough to ensure that it does not seem like Cape No. 7 was meant for the younger audience, even though the plot seems to be made for them. The filmmaker sought to show how the historical ties with Japan have affected all generations of Taiwanese people since the end of colonialism in 1945. Uncle Mao and Hong Guorong, a musician and local council representative respectively, are uniquely Taiwanese in the kind of music they play and the way in which they talk about China and the political relationship between them (Hong 187). Departures and Cape No. 7 are not cultural or stylistic breakthroughs for their respective countries’ film industry. However, they both tell an absorbing story that enhances one’s knowledge of their culture. In Departures, the main characters are involved in a trade that most people do not know much about, especially how it is done in Japan. Encoffining, the Japanese form of undertaking, is explored in the movie, along with how the Japanese view death, which is a fascinating topic for all people. Cape No. 7, on its part, was a sort of breakthrough for the Taiwanese film industry that has long been overshadowed by China. It draws us into the lives of ordinary Taiwanese people who are still living with the scars of colonialism under the Japanese, while also trying to assimilate various forms of Japanese modernity. This shows how the country’s adult population is still searching for an identity. Works Cited Asai, Atsushi. Fukuyama, Miki. & Kobayashi, Yasunori. "Contemporary Japanese view of life and death as depicted in the film Departures (Okuribito) ." Med Humanities 36.1 (2010): 31-35. Print. Hong, Guo-Juin. Taiwan Cinema; Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print. Miller, Frederic. P. Vandome, Agnes. F. & McBrewster, John. Departures (Film). Saarbrucken: VDM Publishing, 2012. Print. Su, Chiaoning. "Beyond South of the Border: A Textual Analysis of the Taiwanese Blockbuster Cape No.7." Asian Cinema 20.1 (2012): 176-188. Print. Wang, Chialan. S. "Memories of the future: Remaking Taiwanese-ness in Cape No. 7." Journal of Chinese Cinemas 6.2 (2012): 135-151. Print. Read More

 

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