The Wanderer Archetype and its transformation in Contemporary Japanese film
From the Loner Hero to the Group Hero
All human beings, no matter of their nationality, in its nature are social entities. Especially Japanese are renowned with its social orientation that praises the prosperity of the group, instead of the individual achievements of each person in the group.“Most Japanese consider it an important virtue to adhere to the values of the groups to which they belong. This loyalty to the group produces a feeling of solidarity, and the underlying concept of group consciousness is seen in diverse aspect of Japanese life. In Japan, group members create their own social codes of behavior, and group consciousness has become foundation of Japanese society.” (Roger J. Davies and Osamu Ikeno, The Japanese Mind-Understanding contemporary culture, Charles E Tuttle Co; 2002, p.195)
This outlook is erected very deeply in the Japanese culture and is inevitably reflected in the cinema as well. The “group harmony” (wa) and group-orientated values have always been emphasized. The devotion towards fulfilling the moral code of duty (giri) and loyalty, which in Japan surpasses the importance of all moral codes, can be seen in one of the oldest and most repeated story of “The loyal 47 Ronin” (Chushingura). Chushingura story has been presented on screen since 1908 after the kabuki play was released in 1907. The story has been made into a film over eighty times from 1907 to 1962*(Tadao Sato, Chushingura:Iji no Keifu,Tokyo:Asahi Sensho,1976, p.96).Chushingura story continues to live on the TV screen, which is confirmed with the fact that, between 1991 and 2007 thirteen different TV productions pictured the Chushingura saga. The story has for its main character a group hero- the loyal 47 retainrs that committed seppuku in order to show loyalty and respect for their master.
Nearly half of the Chushingura movies were produced just about before and after the Second World War, when preserving the group values (including the “bushido”, whose codes are defined with loyalty towards the higher authority or the group) was something that was of critical importance.
The story covers some vital qualities that modern Japanese are obligated to preserve- patience of the unbearable before realization of a collective goal and revenge occurring as an expression of loyalty to a master. Loyalty to the defeated country (Japan) in the Second World War was a virtue of greatest worth. The Chushingura story is rather a singular example of group hero, because the Japanese cinema after the war gave birth of many individualistic hero types.
Wanderer Hero featured in Japanese cinema till late ‘70s was usually a Lone Hero or also called “lone wolf Hero”, who was representing an image of a hero that is wiling to sacrifice for altruistic causes. This characteristic brings the Wanderer Hero closer the mythological Hero archetype, which is seen in the mythology all around the world. What makes the Wanderer Hero in Japanese cinema different is that, he is not typical Hero type, but rather he is anti-hero type.
This antihero is an outcast, a Loner figure that finds its strongest revelation in the yakuza genre.
Wanderer heroes in the beginning were exiles like Chuji of Kunisada or Tokijiro(“Tokijiro Kutsukake”). They have broken the rules of the society and therefore are condemn to flee, to wander. The sentiments connected to these characters are usually nostalgic and they are seen as tragic heroes. They represent the repressed desire to oppose the society, to separate from the group, to liberate oneself from social strains and obligations. Besides this, one should note that these Heroes operate inside the society, either to support it and make it better (Sanjuro, Zatoichi, Kunisada Chuji, Tora san) or to destroy it and through destruction purify it (the yakuza nihilist hero).
It is not until after the WW II that scenario writers took the freedom to portray the wandering heroes simply as wanderers, not as previously, as exiles or vagabonds. This period aroused the rebellious yakuza hero and some other hero-types like Tora san, Zatoichi, Chikuzan (Chikuzan hitoritabi, 1977), Sanjuro(“Yojinbo”, 1961) and many others. These characters have chosen the wandering life as alternative not as unavoidable condition. They are symbolic representation of the development of the consciousness of Individuality that opposes the conformity of the Group.
Archetypes are not passive, they transform and modify together with social changes and respond to the current national identity. They prove to be actual and relevant in any historical settings, because they are the foundation of the collective subconscious of one nation. Even most traditional archetypes, placed in contemporary context and playfully moderated can turn into originators of new models of expression.
The archetype of a blind wanderer with deadly sword -Zatoichi is one such example. The movie with the same title “Zatoichi” was one of the most popular movie series in Japan (running from 1962 to 1989). Zatoichi’s magnet for the audience reconfirmed with the smash box-office hit of Kitano’s “Zatoichi” remake in 2003. The movie not only that was warmly embraced by the Japanese audience, but it was affectionately accepted worldwide wining many international rewards (Silver Lion on Venice Film Festival). The movie financial success boosted back the production of jidaigeki movies, genre that bring fame of the Japanese film abroad in the past, but was already out of production (the genre managed to survive only on TV). Yamada Yoji made some stunning and refreshing flick in the genre, one year earlier then “Zatoichi”, with the movie “The Twilight Samurai” or Tasogare Seibei (“たそがれ清兵衛”), representing for a first time one another type of samurai-a “gentle samurai”. Another variation of the samurai genre is the black comedy “Hana Yori mo Naho” (花よりもなほ,2006) from the director Hirokazu Koreeda. The reviving of the samurai genre in the recent years is a occurrence curious enough for deeper research.
Akira Kurosawa once said, “If I make a film starring Kitano, it will be “Zatoichi”. (quoted in Sugimura, 2003: 96). Kurosawa-one of the most internationally claimed Japanese film director, knew how to recognize a potential hit, mixing the national with the international. Kitano, same as Kurosawa, in the beginning of his film career didn’t had much success in Japan, cause his domestic “persona” was the one of the Beat Kitano-the TV comedian. Kitano earned his fame and recognition in the West, wining several prizes at film festivals, some of which the eminent Venice and Cannes Film Festival. However, Kitano’s “Zatoichi” happen to be the most viewed movie by the Japanese themselves, confirming my previously noted observation about Japanese audience affinity towards re-makes, appreciation of repetition and attachment to genre movies. “Zatoichi” was a movie that was “ordered” and financed by a woman that was a close friend and financial backup for the Zatoichi’s series star Shintaro Katsu. Being said to make a craftsman film(shokunin eiga) Kitano in “Zatoichi” shows a maturity of director who is willing to give up on his non-genre directorial style in order to pay homage to the traditional jidaigeki genre (especially to Kurosawa and to Shintaro Katsu).
Kitano's first quotation to the original Zatoichi come out as a ten minute parody sequence in his 1995 comedy “Getting Any?”, in which he parodies the character of Zatoichi. Even though Kitano had little interest in this character at that moment, he later exposed that his affection for the character of Zatoichi has always been part of his creativity. Even though Kitano stays faithful to the jidaigeki genre conventions he doesn’t forgets to which audience he is addressing this movie. To appeal to the young Japanese “cool generation” Kitano sophisticatedly shaped this jidaigeki movie, mixing traditional with modern, serious with funny and high with low culture. From geisha shamisen play to tap dance at Japanese seasonal matsuri (festival) this movie balances between arty and kitschy stylistic. Kitano employs very active, moving camera that makes panorama movements from left to right and many dolly shots that reveals from detail to overall shot. Fast editing and sharp cuts are combined with slow motion edited in parallel way producing very powerful impact. Kitano with “Zatoichi” mixes the traditional Japanese aesthetic with digital effects and Hollywood digital stylistic. This responds to the overall concept, among which is Kitano’s approach in creating the character of Zatoichi. Kitano’s Zatoichi is less “ego-centered” i.e. the audience doesn’t identify with his character only, but several stories of several characters mixes in a inter-dependable way to create the conflict and lead to dénouement. In scenario writing theory this is called a multi-narrative story line and the characters featuring in these kinds of stories multi-protagonists or group Hero (*there is a slight difference between the two, which is explained later in this text). Although the main Hero undoubtedly is intended to be recognized in Zatoichi, there is a feeling that Zatoichi is only a part of a group hero consisting of the widow (Michiyo Ookuso), her nephew Shinkichi (Gadarukanaru Taka), two geisha assassins, Okinu and Osei (Yuko Daike and Daigoro Tachibana) and Zatoichi himself (Kitano Takeshi).
Kitano’s films, especially the one made after “Getting Any”( みんな~やってるか,1995), including “Zatoichi” have strengthen its “tendency toward plurality”(Casio Abe, Disuke Miyao, Beat Takeshi Vs Takeshi Kitano, Muae Publishing/Kaya Press, p.237)
That plurality is not expressed only with employment of multi-protagonist but also creating narrative structure that is fragmented rather then linear combined with parallel editing and jump-cuts rather then linear editing. The “omnibus-like” narrative and fragmentary is best seen in “Dolls”(2002) and “Kukujiro no natsu”(1999). This phenomenon is not only case with Kitano, in fact it is a very curious fact noticeable in the contemporary Japanese movies, especially the ones that have the wandering motif as basic in their narrative. Consequently it is very difficult to talk about one main Wanderer Hero in contemporary sense, because a “multi protagonists or a group hero” carries out the main motif in these movies.
Usually the Hero is a “couple”(male/female or elder/youth) or just group of friends. Thos shifts the identification that audience had before i.e. identification with the main hero is now identification with a group hero.
“The structuring of a film's plot as the trajectory of the goals and desires of a single protagonist can be seen as the most critical development in cinematic narrative. In addition to its commodity implications via the star system and its centrality to a range of important film theories about fantasy and pleasure, the single protagonist is the linchpin of the cinema's ability to transmit messages that confirm the most basic myths about the power of the individual in society. While Hollywood's use of the single protagonist as a model for the self is particularly detrimental in the United States, the international dominance of American cinema means that this narrative convention can affect the formation of the self around the world.” (Sandy Carmago, Mind the Gap, M/C Journal of Media and Culture, Volume 5 Issue 5 October 2002 http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0210/Carmago.php)
This Hollywood influence is definitely present, however, I find that the single protagonist Hero is a universal idea, seen around the world in the Hero journey stories from mythological times. The archetypical one for Japan is Susano-O myth or the Yamato’s Takeru myth. This idea of one single person opposing much stronger enemy (the eight-head snake-Yamata no Oroshi, in Susano-O myth) is not Hollywood’s “creation” but only an archetypical pattern repeated in the storytelling all around the world.
However, the endeavor in the contemporary film allows us to observe another phenomenon where the single protagonist is being replaced with a group hero or multi-protagonist. The same tendency is seen in Hollywood movies as well, here are some examples: Short Cuts( Robert Altman,1993), Babel(Alejandro González Iñárritu,2006), Pulp Fiction(Quentin Tarantino,1994) , Crush(Paul Haggis,2004), later Star Wars series(George Lucas), Magnolia(Paul Thomas Anderson,1999)est.
Before I go further I must note one slight difference between “multi-protagonist” and “group Hero”. The multi protagonist according to the scenario writing expert Robert Mckee, is part of a story that “have no central plots, instead there are few stories, each with its own protagonists, each about the size of a subplot. The key is that every story is a variation on one master theme.” ( http://www.focal.ch/script/chats/robert_mckee.cfm)
From this definition it is obvious the conclusion that multi-protagonists are part of a movie story that have multi-narrative lines (as is the case with Kitano’s “Dolls” in Japanese cinema for example).
A “group Hero” is the protagonist in the movie consisted of two or more characters that are united around common central plot and generate an action that leads towards resolving common conflict.
The group Hero is not new occurrence in Japanese cinema. Group Hero, as I mention earlier features in Chushingura Story, one of the oldest and most distinguishing examples in movie history. Another examples are Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai(1954) and Rashomon(1950).
“The Seven samurai” is frequently given for reference as originator of the cinematic narrative formula of gathering heroes into a team and creating a group hero that is set to accomplish a common goal. Seven Samurai was re-made in Hollywood as Magnificent Seven (John Sturges,1960). The same model have been used in films such as The Guns of Navarone(J. Lee Thompson,1961), Ocean's Eleven(2001 as well as , Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007, Steven Soderbergh), The Dirty Dozen( Robert Aldrich,1967) and many others.
Much earlier, in 1928, Masahiro Makino made his first masterpiece epic story “Roningai”( “Daiichiwa Utkushiki Emono”,eng. Streets of Masterless samurai) .The movie was re-made by himself few times and resurrecting the jidaigeki genre in 1990, re-made by his grandson, Kazuko Kuroki. In the new version features Shintaro Katsu(Zatoichi) in the main role, doing its last performance on the screen, before he pass away. The story is constructed around three samurai who gather forces to oppose evil. Makino’s “Roningai” was regarded by film historians as the earliest "left-leaning" or "tendency films" in Japan, criticizing the feudal system rather than over-romanticizing samurai.
“Nevertheless, the fact that proletarian period films showing a group struggle were only popular from 1929 to 1931 indicates the futility of protest in modern prewar Japan.” (Tadao Sato, Currents in Japanese cinema, Kodansha Amer Inc, p.253)
Social criticism is also expressed in Hideo’s Gosha “Sanbiki no samurai”(1964), a movie with a plot very much resembling the “Roningai”. When three farmers kidnap the daughter of the local magistrate in order to call attention to the starvation of local peasants, a wandering ronin appears at the crumbling mill where they hold her captive and decides to help them. In the process, two other ronin with shifting allegiances are embroiled in the widening conflict, which leads to betrayal, assassination and legions of mercenary ronin fighting to the death. The Three samurai, are unlike “The Three Musketeers”(1884) in the novel of Alexandre Dumas, for they have are not pictured as adventurist romantic Heroes, but rather as cynical rebellions risking their lives for the hopeless but noble "little man’s" cause.
Three Outlaw Samurai, like many postwar samurai films, uses class inequality in the feudal system to provoke rebellion.
Conventionally, the group protagonist was usually associated with social criticism and politically orientated movies, since, Eisenstein in the movies “Battleship Potemkin”(1925) and “Strike”(1924), replaced the Single protagonist with a group of workers, which become a model of Group Hero.
“Eisenstein maintained that this was the first time collective and mass action had been seen on the screen in contrast to individualism and the 'triangle' drama of bourgeois cinema (which distils down to boy meets girl and then has to overcome obstacles - invariably in the form of a rival - in order to keep girl and resolve drama).”
(In perspective: Sergei Eisenstein, Anna Chen, Journal of the Socialist Workers Party (Britain) July 1998 Copyright © International Socialism)
In Hollywood’s movies the single protagonist serves as the “The other Self”, through whom the audience identifies, therefore his function is to arouse emotional response not intellectual. Audience doesn’t easily relate to group heroes i.e. the identification is on another, transcendental level. The transcendence is recognized in the emotional impact that the Group Hero provokes when common ideas and ideals are being projected on the audience. This identification is on deeper level. That is the same emotional impact that national ideas and ideals provoke, the same emotional need for rituals and initiation of the individual into the group. This necessity for ritual and initiation is seen in the ending of Kitano’s “Zatoichi”, where all the village after defeating the evil(thanks to Zatoichi’s intervention)celebrates during the seasonal festival. They all dance facing and looking into the camera’s objective, breaking the convention of cinema and employing the convention of pre-theater or tribe dance in which the audience is invited to take part in it. They all dance in “yukata” a rhythmic tap dance style, mixing again the traditional with modern.
All human beings, no matter of their nationality, in its nature are social entities. Especially Japanese are renowned with its social orientation that praises the prosperity of the group, instead of the individual achievements of each person in the group.“Most Japanese consider it an important virtue to adhere to the values of the groups to which they belong. This loyalty to the group produces a feeling of solidarity, and the underlying concept of group consciousness is seen in diverse aspect of Japanese life. In Japan, group members create their own social codes of behavior, and group consciousness has become foundation of Japanese society.” (Roger J. Davies and Osamu Ikeno, The Japanese Mind-Understanding contemporary culture, Charles E Tuttle Co; 2002, p.195)
This outlook is erected very deeply in the Japanese culture and is inevitably reflected in the cinema as well. The “group harmony” (wa) and group-orientated values have always been emphasized. The devotion towards fulfilling the moral code of duty (giri) and loyalty, which in Japan surpasses the importance of all moral codes, can be seen in one of the oldest and most repeated story of “The loyal 47 Ronin” (Chushingura). Chushingura story has been presented on screen since 1908 after the kabuki play was released in 1907. The story has been made into a film over eighty times from 1907 to 1962*(Tadao Sato, Chushingura:Iji no Keifu,Tokyo:Asahi Sensho,1976, p.96).Chushingura story continues to live on the TV screen, which is confirmed with the fact that, between 1991 and 2007 thirteen different TV productions pictured the Chushingura saga. The story has for its main character a group hero- the loyal 47 retainrs that committed seppuku in order to show loyalty and respect for their master.
Nearly half of the Chushingura movies were produced just about before and after the Second World War, when preserving the group values (including the “bushido”, whose codes are defined with loyalty towards the higher authority or the group) was something that was of critical importance.
The story covers some vital qualities that modern Japanese are obligated to preserve- patience of the unbearable before realization of a collective goal and revenge occurring as an expression of loyalty to a master. Loyalty to the defeated country (Japan) in the Second World War was a virtue of greatest worth. The Chushingura story is rather a singular example of group hero, because the Japanese cinema after the war gave birth of many individualistic hero types.
Wanderer Hero featured in Japanese cinema till late ‘70s was usually a Lone Hero or also called “lone wolf Hero”, who was representing an image of a hero that is wiling to sacrifice for altruistic causes. This characteristic brings the Wanderer Hero closer the mythological Hero archetype, which is seen in the mythology all around the world. What makes the Wanderer Hero in Japanese cinema different is that, he is not typical Hero type, but rather he is anti-hero type.
This antihero is an outcast, a Loner figure that finds its strongest revelation in the yakuza genre.
Wanderer heroes in the beginning were exiles like Chuji of Kunisada or Tokijiro(“Tokijiro Kutsukake”). They have broken the rules of the society and therefore are condemn to flee, to wander. The sentiments connected to these characters are usually nostalgic and they are seen as tragic heroes. They represent the repressed desire to oppose the society, to separate from the group, to liberate oneself from social strains and obligations. Besides this, one should note that these Heroes operate inside the society, either to support it and make it better (Sanjuro, Zatoichi, Kunisada Chuji, Tora san) or to destroy it and through destruction purify it (the yakuza nihilist hero).
It is not until after the WW II that scenario writers took the freedom to portray the wandering heroes simply as wanderers, not as previously, as exiles or vagabonds. This period aroused the rebellious yakuza hero and some other hero-types like Tora san, Zatoichi, Chikuzan (Chikuzan hitoritabi, 1977), Sanjuro(“Yojinbo”, 1961) and many others. These characters have chosen the wandering life as alternative not as unavoidable condition. They are symbolic representation of the development of the consciousness of Individuality that opposes the conformity of the Group.
Archetypes are not passive, they transform and modify together with social changes and respond to the current national identity. They prove to be actual and relevant in any historical settings, because they are the foundation of the collective subconscious of one nation. Even most traditional archetypes, placed in contemporary context and playfully moderated can turn into originators of new models of expression.
The archetype of a blind wanderer with deadly sword -Zatoichi is one such example. The movie with the same title “Zatoichi” was one of the most popular movie series in Japan (running from 1962 to 1989). Zatoichi’s magnet for the audience reconfirmed with the smash box-office hit of Kitano’s “Zatoichi” remake in 2003. The movie not only that was warmly embraced by the Japanese audience, but it was affectionately accepted worldwide wining many international rewards (Silver Lion on Venice Film Festival). The movie financial success boosted back the production of jidaigeki movies, genre that bring fame of the Japanese film abroad in the past, but was already out of production (the genre managed to survive only on TV). Yamada Yoji made some stunning and refreshing flick in the genre, one year earlier then “Zatoichi”, with the movie “The Twilight Samurai” or Tasogare Seibei (“たそがれ清兵衛”), representing for a first time one another type of samurai-a “gentle samurai”. Another variation of the samurai genre is the black comedy “Hana Yori mo Naho” (花よりもなほ,2006) from the director Hirokazu Koreeda. The reviving of the samurai genre in the recent years is a occurrence curious enough for deeper research.
Akira Kurosawa once said, “If I make a film starring Kitano, it will be “Zatoichi”. (quoted in Sugimura, 2003: 96). Kurosawa-one of the most internationally claimed Japanese film director, knew how to recognize a potential hit, mixing the national with the international. Kitano, same as Kurosawa, in the beginning of his film career didn’t had much success in Japan, cause his domestic “persona” was the one of the Beat Kitano-the TV comedian. Kitano earned his fame and recognition in the West, wining several prizes at film festivals, some of which the eminent Venice and Cannes Film Festival. However, Kitano’s “Zatoichi” happen to be the most viewed movie by the Japanese themselves, confirming my previously noted observation about Japanese audience affinity towards re-makes, appreciation of repetition and attachment to genre movies. “Zatoichi” was a movie that was “ordered” and financed by a woman that was a close friend and financial backup for the Zatoichi’s series star Shintaro Katsu. Being said to make a craftsman film(shokunin eiga) Kitano in “Zatoichi” shows a maturity of director who is willing to give up on his non-genre directorial style in order to pay homage to the traditional jidaigeki genre (especially to Kurosawa and to Shintaro Katsu).
Kitano's first quotation to the original Zatoichi come out as a ten minute parody sequence in his 1995 comedy “Getting Any?”, in which he parodies the character of Zatoichi. Even though Kitano had little interest in this character at that moment, he later exposed that his affection for the character of Zatoichi has always been part of his creativity. Even though Kitano stays faithful to the jidaigeki genre conventions he doesn’t forgets to which audience he is addressing this movie. To appeal to the young Japanese “cool generation” Kitano sophisticatedly shaped this jidaigeki movie, mixing traditional with modern, serious with funny and high with low culture. From geisha shamisen play to tap dance at Japanese seasonal matsuri (festival) this movie balances between arty and kitschy stylistic. Kitano employs very active, moving camera that makes panorama movements from left to right and many dolly shots that reveals from detail to overall shot. Fast editing and sharp cuts are combined with slow motion edited in parallel way producing very powerful impact. Kitano with “Zatoichi” mixes the traditional Japanese aesthetic with digital effects and Hollywood digital stylistic. This responds to the overall concept, among which is Kitano’s approach in creating the character of Zatoichi. Kitano’s Zatoichi is less “ego-centered” i.e. the audience doesn’t identify with his character only, but several stories of several characters mixes in a inter-dependable way to create the conflict and lead to dénouement. In scenario writing theory this is called a multi-narrative story line and the characters featuring in these kinds of stories multi-protagonists or group Hero (*there is a slight difference between the two, which is explained later in this text). Although the main Hero undoubtedly is intended to be recognized in Zatoichi, there is a feeling that Zatoichi is only a part of a group hero consisting of the widow (Michiyo Ookuso), her nephew Shinkichi (Gadarukanaru Taka), two geisha assassins, Okinu and Osei (Yuko Daike and Daigoro Tachibana) and Zatoichi himself (Kitano Takeshi).
Kitano’s films, especially the one made after “Getting Any”( みんな~やってるか,1995), including “Zatoichi” have strengthen its “tendency toward plurality”(Casio Abe, Disuke Miyao, Beat Takeshi Vs Takeshi Kitano, Muae Publishing/Kaya Press, p.237)
That plurality is not expressed only with employment of multi-protagonist but also creating narrative structure that is fragmented rather then linear combined with parallel editing and jump-cuts rather then linear editing. The “omnibus-like” narrative and fragmentary is best seen in “Dolls”(2002) and “Kukujiro no natsu”(1999). This phenomenon is not only case with Kitano, in fact it is a very curious fact noticeable in the contemporary Japanese movies, especially the ones that have the wandering motif as basic in their narrative. Consequently it is very difficult to talk about one main Wanderer Hero in contemporary sense, because a “multi protagonists or a group hero” carries out the main motif in these movies.
Usually the Hero is a “couple”(male/female or elder/youth) or just group of friends. Thos shifts the identification that audience had before i.e. identification with the main hero is now identification with a group hero.
“The structuring of a film's plot as the trajectory of the goals and desires of a single protagonist can be seen as the most critical development in cinematic narrative. In addition to its commodity implications via the star system and its centrality to a range of important film theories about fantasy and pleasure, the single protagonist is the linchpin of the cinema's ability to transmit messages that confirm the most basic myths about the power of the individual in society. While Hollywood's use of the single protagonist as a model for the self is particularly detrimental in the United States, the international dominance of American cinema means that this narrative convention can affect the formation of the self around the world.” (Sandy Carmago, Mind the Gap, M/C Journal of Media and Culture, Volume 5 Issue 5 October 2002 http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0210/Carmago.php)
This Hollywood influence is definitely present, however, I find that the single protagonist Hero is a universal idea, seen around the world in the Hero journey stories from mythological times. The archetypical one for Japan is Susano-O myth or the Yamato’s Takeru myth. This idea of one single person opposing much stronger enemy (the eight-head snake-Yamata no Oroshi, in Susano-O myth) is not Hollywood’s “creation” but only an archetypical pattern repeated in the storytelling all around the world.
However, the endeavor in the contemporary film allows us to observe another phenomenon where the single protagonist is being replaced with a group hero or multi-protagonist. The same tendency is seen in Hollywood movies as well, here are some examples: Short Cuts( Robert Altman,1993), Babel(Alejandro González Iñárritu,2006), Pulp Fiction(Quentin Tarantino,1994) , Crush(Paul Haggis,2004), later Star Wars series(George Lucas), Magnolia(Paul Thomas Anderson,1999)est.
Before I go further I must note one slight difference between “multi-protagonist” and “group Hero”. The multi protagonist according to the scenario writing expert Robert Mckee, is part of a story that “have no central plots, instead there are few stories, each with its own protagonists, each about the size of a subplot. The key is that every story is a variation on one master theme.” ( http://www.focal.ch/script/chats/robert_mckee.cfm)
From this definition it is obvious the conclusion that multi-protagonists are part of a movie story that have multi-narrative lines (as is the case with Kitano’s “Dolls” in Japanese cinema for example).
A “group Hero” is the protagonist in the movie consisted of two or more characters that are united around common central plot and generate an action that leads towards resolving common conflict.
The group Hero is not new occurrence in Japanese cinema. Group Hero, as I mention earlier features in Chushingura Story, one of the oldest and most distinguishing examples in movie history. Another examples are Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai(1954) and Rashomon(1950).
“The Seven samurai” is frequently given for reference as originator of the cinematic narrative formula of gathering heroes into a team and creating a group hero that is set to accomplish a common goal. Seven Samurai was re-made in Hollywood as Magnificent Seven (John Sturges,1960). The same model have been used in films such as The Guns of Navarone(J. Lee Thompson,1961), Ocean's Eleven(2001 as well as , Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007, Steven Soderbergh), The Dirty Dozen( Robert Aldrich,1967) and many others.
Much earlier, in 1928, Masahiro Makino made his first masterpiece epic story “Roningai”( “Daiichiwa Utkushiki Emono”,eng. Streets of Masterless samurai) .The movie was re-made by himself few times and resurrecting the jidaigeki genre in 1990, re-made by his grandson, Kazuko Kuroki. In the new version features Shintaro Katsu(Zatoichi) in the main role, doing its last performance on the screen, before he pass away. The story is constructed around three samurai who gather forces to oppose evil. Makino’s “Roningai” was regarded by film historians as the earliest "left-leaning" or "tendency films" in Japan, criticizing the feudal system rather than over-romanticizing samurai.
“Nevertheless, the fact that proletarian period films showing a group struggle were only popular from 1929 to 1931 indicates the futility of protest in modern prewar Japan.” (Tadao Sato, Currents in Japanese cinema, Kodansha Amer Inc, p.253)
Social criticism is also expressed in Hideo’s Gosha “Sanbiki no samurai”(1964), a movie with a plot very much resembling the “Roningai”. When three farmers kidnap the daughter of the local magistrate in order to call attention to the starvation of local peasants, a wandering ronin appears at the crumbling mill where they hold her captive and decides to help them. In the process, two other ronin with shifting allegiances are embroiled in the widening conflict, which leads to betrayal, assassination and legions of mercenary ronin fighting to the death. The Three samurai, are unlike “The Three Musketeers”(1884) in the novel of Alexandre Dumas, for they have are not pictured as adventurist romantic Heroes, but rather as cynical rebellions risking their lives for the hopeless but noble "little man’s" cause.
Three Outlaw Samurai, like many postwar samurai films, uses class inequality in the feudal system to provoke rebellion.
Conventionally, the group protagonist was usually associated with social criticism and politically orientated movies, since, Eisenstein in the movies “Battleship Potemkin”(1925) and “Strike”(1924), replaced the Single protagonist with a group of workers, which become a model of Group Hero.
“Eisenstein maintained that this was the first time collective and mass action had been seen on the screen in contrast to individualism and the 'triangle' drama of bourgeois cinema (which distils down to boy meets girl and then has to overcome obstacles - invariably in the form of a rival - in order to keep girl and resolve drama).”
(In perspective: Sergei Eisenstein, Anna Chen, Journal of the Socialist Workers Party (Britain) July 1998 Copyright © International Socialism)
In Hollywood’s movies the single protagonist serves as the “The other Self”, through whom the audience identifies, therefore his function is to arouse emotional response not intellectual. Audience doesn’t easily relate to group heroes i.e. the identification is on another, transcendental level. The transcendence is recognized in the emotional impact that the Group Hero provokes when common ideas and ideals are being projected on the audience. This identification is on deeper level. That is the same emotional impact that national ideas and ideals provoke, the same emotional need for rituals and initiation of the individual into the group. This necessity for ritual and initiation is seen in the ending of Kitano’s “Zatoichi”, where all the village after defeating the evil(thanks to Zatoichi’s intervention)celebrates during the seasonal festival. They all dance facing and looking into the camera’s objective, breaking the convention of cinema and employing the convention of pre-theater or tribe dance in which the audience is invited to take part in it. They all dance in “yukata” a rhythmic tap dance style, mixing again the traditional with modern.
To examine the Wanderer hero in contemporary Japanese cinema means to deal with a Group protagonist (consisted of several characters that doesn’t have strong individual characteristics and in the movie functions like one organism), OR a pair (syzigy) of - male/female (the anima-animus) or the elder-youth archetype (old wise men archetype and Child archetype). This change within the archetype’s form has several reasons. As, I’ve noted previously, archetypes are ideas that alter and modifies together with the social changes. The Lone Hero is vanishing from the screen because he became too unpopular for the contemporary audience and this is not only case with Japanese cinema.
“The Lone Hero archetype puts the hero apart from his or her community. Sure they save it and protect it, but almost always from a distance or they’re here and then they’re gone. The Lone Hero lives apart from the world. He or she appeas only when needed and disappears soon after. In this way, the Lone Hero feels untruthful. Collective change is where we stand. It is the direction our society is evolving towards. Gone are the days of individual leaders standing above the din of group. The Lone Hero has passed us by. We have incorporated them and are in the process of trying to transcend them. The new story is of the Collective Hero. The new narrative is a plural one. It tells the tale of community power and group action and teaches the values of unity and the strength of many.”
We now all relate to The Collective Hero because it’s the world we now all live in.(http://journal.barleyhut.com/superman-does-not-blog/)
The Group Hero and the multi-protagonist phenomenon can be explained with the global change that we are all going through. The globalization and common fears of terrorism, global warming, as well common benefits from the global markets and global communication (internet) shifts people’s consciousness, as well as the ideas about their role in the society and the idea with which Hero-type they will identify. The restoring of the real communication (in the big cites) that have been reduced to business related communication mostly thru computers and mobile phones, created new need for re-union with the community. The Wanderer motif in Japanese art and literature has always been connected with re-uniting with the Nature and what are we seeing now in contemporary movies, as main motif is the re-union with other people. Therefore we have a group Hero as a main protagonist.
I will give as an example the movie “Tabi no okurimono –Osaka 0:00 Hatsu“ (Harada Masaki,2006). Based on a Takeyama Masatoshi novel, Departing Osaka Station at 0:00 (a.k.a. Tabi no Okurimono 0:00 Hatsu) is a journey of discovery and consolation. As the title reveals, a train(resembling the train of the Lumier’s movie “Train arrival in the station of La Ciotat”) leaves from Osaka exactly on midnight. This “Cinderella time” is symbolical and transfers the passengers to a “mystical land”. In fact that mystical land is very real and not so exotic since it is only hours away, in a port village “風町” in Japan. On the other hand, compared with the industrialized Osaka, the journey to this place seems like a time travel. The contrast between the busy and hostile city and the calm and friendly village is huge. The first shots of the movie reveal Osaka from bird perspective, showing the skyscrapers, the lights and the aggression of the city. These shots are combined with shots of the train station, rushing people to catch the train, announcements and disturbing city noise. The music and the hand held camera creates an atmosphere of danger, disorder and hostility.
The contemporary wanderers in this movie ride the “midnight train” without knowing the destination, cause this train is a special one, one that takes only troubled passengers and brings them to the Wonderland. In “Wonderland”(“風町”) they are accepted and greeted same as they were expected to come. All the villagers act as they have nothing else to do but to accept these poor people from the big cities. In “Wonderland” old values seems to be still preserved -the people greet each other and act warmly towards one another; family values are kept sacred and other people are allowed to be part of those families. In “Wonderland” seems like another time is in power, not the “human made time” but the cosmic time that is connected with seasons and harvesting the ground. Although we have a group hero in this movie, they hardly speak to each other and the communication is the most difficult thing they need to cope with. There is one scene at the end of the film, during a fire festival, where all of them seat near the sea enjoying this event together, as if they were all “healed” by the mysterious power of the nature and the villager’s kindness. In this movie we have untypical group hero, because all of them stands out with their personality and problems and seems that have nothing in common in-between, however, for the director was important that all of them achieve one common goal- a positive transformation.
Two Group Heroes group leads in this movie- the “town’s(Osaka) people” and “the village people”. Few characters that creates the “town’s Group hero are - young working woman in her ‘30s that have been betrayed by her lover(she is typical middle age working Japanese lady: self-confident, ignorant, and mistrusting); (typical) salarymen that have lost his self-esteem due to the “ijime and ignorance” in his company as well as in his house, by his own daughter and wife ; young adolescent girl that escapes from planed “group internet suicide” and have difficulties to communicate with people; ex- talent girl with blond wig and good sense of humor but lost the identity of who she is and who she want to become; and a strange retired man who walks around with the picture of this dead wife(in a frame) preaching how one should not waste life like him, working without having time to enjoy. His wife is dead but however, now he have time to take her out and share some time with her(her portrait).
The other “group hero” is “the village people”-they are all older, nice and bright, kind and problems-free. Exception is the young doctor, which has moved to the island before few years and still hasn’t fully adjusted to the new environment. I find the plot of the story as over- constructed and the characters in some way shallow, lacking the reality and truthfulness. The character’s background from which the plot is constructed seems like a compilation of the most frequently featured news on the Japanese TV, stories of serious deviations in the Japanese society like- suicide, over-work, low self-esteem and lack of motivation; low moral in interpersonal relationship, lost of family ties and so on.
All the characters are stereotyped and flat and have nothing to do with the wanderer archetype Hero I am talking about, however the idea to wander, to go back to the roots of traditional values is the common tie. However, I think that was the intention of the director (Harada Masaki)- to create characters that are similar to “ordinary” people from the plane TV reality and appeal to audience that is familiar to the Japanese TV. The stylistic of the movie is also TV- like and somewhat the movie resembles on Tora san movie series (“Otoko wa tsuraiyo”). There are some old values of the Japanese society that were glorified with the Tora san movies, values as the “yasashisa” of the Japanese people; the “warmth of the family and home”; the safety of the country (Tora san traveled everywhere without any fear that he might be attacked or robed) which makes all Japan to appear as one big and safe Home.
In the case of the Loner Hero wanderer- Tora, during his wanderings he helps other people to solve their own problems( Zatoichi does it as well). In case of “ Tabi no okuremono”, the character is a group that need to go out from the “toxic” environment of the big city(Osaka) in order to re-discover some old values and by that “save themselves”. There is no longer Heroes that will arrive at the city from nowhere and save the poor people, that kind of Hero is not really necessary anymore, because the evil which needs to be defeated lays in the human’s inner world not in the outer. Seems like Harada Masaki(winner of an educational video prize by Monbusho) with this movie wanted to “educate” the people and send a message to the audience that responds to their contemporary reality in the big cities in Japan, or all around the world. Masaki just scratches the surface of those problems and offered easy happy ending, but, however at least was brave enough to face up with some very actual and serious problems that the age of Globalization and overpopulation of the cities brought. This group hero, similar as the group hero in Eisenstein’s movies is here to represent one idea- the social change in which the individual is part of.
“The Lone Hero archetype puts the hero apart from his or her community. Sure they save it and protect it, but almost always from a distance or they’re here and then they’re gone. The Lone Hero lives apart from the world. He or she appeas only when needed and disappears soon after. In this way, the Lone Hero feels untruthful. Collective change is where we stand. It is the direction our society is evolving towards. Gone are the days of individual leaders standing above the din of group. The Lone Hero has passed us by. We have incorporated them and are in the process of trying to transcend them. The new story is of the Collective Hero. The new narrative is a plural one. It tells the tale of community power and group action and teaches the values of unity and the strength of many.”
We now all relate to The Collective Hero because it’s the world we now all live in.(http://journal.barleyhut.com/superman-does-not-blog/)
The Group Hero and the multi-protagonist phenomenon can be explained with the global change that we are all going through. The globalization and common fears of terrorism, global warming, as well common benefits from the global markets and global communication (internet) shifts people’s consciousness, as well as the ideas about their role in the society and the idea with which Hero-type they will identify. The restoring of the real communication (in the big cites) that have been reduced to business related communication mostly thru computers and mobile phones, created new need for re-union with the community. The Wanderer motif in Japanese art and literature has always been connected with re-uniting with the Nature and what are we seeing now in contemporary movies, as main motif is the re-union with other people. Therefore we have a group Hero as a main protagonist.
I will give as an example the movie “Tabi no okurimono –Osaka 0:00 Hatsu“ (Harada Masaki,2006). Based on a Takeyama Masatoshi novel, Departing Osaka Station at 0:00 (a.k.a. Tabi no Okurimono 0:00 Hatsu) is a journey of discovery and consolation. As the title reveals, a train(resembling the train of the Lumier’s movie “Train arrival in the station of La Ciotat”) leaves from Osaka exactly on midnight. This “Cinderella time” is symbolical and transfers the passengers to a “mystical land”. In fact that mystical land is very real and not so exotic since it is only hours away, in a port village “風町” in Japan. On the other hand, compared with the industrialized Osaka, the journey to this place seems like a time travel. The contrast between the busy and hostile city and the calm and friendly village is huge. The first shots of the movie reveal Osaka from bird perspective, showing the skyscrapers, the lights and the aggression of the city. These shots are combined with shots of the train station, rushing people to catch the train, announcements and disturbing city noise. The music and the hand held camera creates an atmosphere of danger, disorder and hostility.
The contemporary wanderers in this movie ride the “midnight train” without knowing the destination, cause this train is a special one, one that takes only troubled passengers and brings them to the Wonderland. In “Wonderland”(“風町”) they are accepted and greeted same as they were expected to come. All the villagers act as they have nothing else to do but to accept these poor people from the big cities. In “Wonderland” old values seems to be still preserved -the people greet each other and act warmly towards one another; family values are kept sacred and other people are allowed to be part of those families. In “Wonderland” seems like another time is in power, not the “human made time” but the cosmic time that is connected with seasons and harvesting the ground. Although we have a group hero in this movie, they hardly speak to each other and the communication is the most difficult thing they need to cope with. There is one scene at the end of the film, during a fire festival, where all of them seat near the sea enjoying this event together, as if they were all “healed” by the mysterious power of the nature and the villager’s kindness. In this movie we have untypical group hero, because all of them stands out with their personality and problems and seems that have nothing in common in-between, however, for the director was important that all of them achieve one common goal- a positive transformation.
Two Group Heroes group leads in this movie- the “town’s(Osaka) people” and “the village people”. Few characters that creates the “town’s Group hero are - young working woman in her ‘30s that have been betrayed by her lover(she is typical middle age working Japanese lady: self-confident, ignorant, and mistrusting); (typical) salarymen that have lost his self-esteem due to the “ijime and ignorance” in his company as well as in his house, by his own daughter and wife ; young adolescent girl that escapes from planed “group internet suicide” and have difficulties to communicate with people; ex- talent girl with blond wig and good sense of humor but lost the identity of who she is and who she want to become; and a strange retired man who walks around with the picture of this dead wife(in a frame) preaching how one should not waste life like him, working without having time to enjoy. His wife is dead but however, now he have time to take her out and share some time with her(her portrait).
The other “group hero” is “the village people”-they are all older, nice and bright, kind and problems-free. Exception is the young doctor, which has moved to the island before few years and still hasn’t fully adjusted to the new environment. I find the plot of the story as over- constructed and the characters in some way shallow, lacking the reality and truthfulness. The character’s background from which the plot is constructed seems like a compilation of the most frequently featured news on the Japanese TV, stories of serious deviations in the Japanese society like- suicide, over-work, low self-esteem and lack of motivation; low moral in interpersonal relationship, lost of family ties and so on.
All the characters are stereotyped and flat and have nothing to do with the wanderer archetype Hero I am talking about, however the idea to wander, to go back to the roots of traditional values is the common tie. However, I think that was the intention of the director (Harada Masaki)- to create characters that are similar to “ordinary” people from the plane TV reality and appeal to audience that is familiar to the Japanese TV. The stylistic of the movie is also TV- like and somewhat the movie resembles on Tora san movie series (“Otoko wa tsuraiyo”). There are some old values of the Japanese society that were glorified with the Tora san movies, values as the “yasashisa” of the Japanese people; the “warmth of the family and home”; the safety of the country (Tora san traveled everywhere without any fear that he might be attacked or robed) which makes all Japan to appear as one big and safe Home.
In the case of the Loner Hero wanderer- Tora, during his wanderings he helps other people to solve their own problems( Zatoichi does it as well). In case of “ Tabi no okuremono”, the character is a group that need to go out from the “toxic” environment of the big city(Osaka) in order to re-discover some old values and by that “save themselves”. There is no longer Heroes that will arrive at the city from nowhere and save the poor people, that kind of Hero is not really necessary anymore, because the evil which needs to be defeated lays in the human’s inner world not in the outer. Seems like Harada Masaki(winner of an educational video prize by Monbusho) with this movie wanted to “educate” the people and send a message to the audience that responds to their contemporary reality in the big cities in Japan, or all around the world. Masaki just scratches the surface of those problems and offered easy happy ending, but, however at least was brave enough to face up with some very actual and serious problems that the age of Globalization and overpopulation of the cities brought. This group hero, similar as the group hero in Eisenstein’s movies is here to represent one idea- the social change in which the individual is part of.
Walking to Self -Urban wanderings
Modernization and loosing the connection with nature Japan is a country that since 19th century started its modernization (which is usually misunderstood for westernization) that was boosted even further after the Second World War after Japan lost the war and was determinate to remodel the country following the example of the developed Western countries. Japanese people for the past few decades rushing into economical prosperity didn’t have time to consider the price that they have to pay on the traditional values that lay in the foundation of the Japanese culture. Modernization and prosperity besides the benefits of more comfortable living and higher life standard brought many problems such as overpopulation in the big cities, social gap between groups, increased the number of suicide and produced a syndrome of social alienation - “to be alone among millions”.
“Like other cultural traditions in the East, Japanese traditional culture has placed great value upon the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Looking at present Japan, however it is clear that all Japanese at present do not necessarily preserve the traditional worldview.”(HIRAI Naofusa, TRADITIONAL CULTURES AND MODERNIZATION: Several Problems in the Case of Japan, http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cimac/hirai.html)
Traditional values can be seen vanishing together with the religious concepts, in the case of Japan that is Buddhism and the indigenous Shinto religion, that worships symbolically 8 million Gods, which inhabitants all living and non-living things. The wandering for the shintoizam is a form of pilgrimage into the Nature, where Gods live, that offers a chance to connect with all those living Gods in the Nature and to show them a reverence. The Buddhism, according to which life is only a journey and illusion, also supports the idea of wandering in order merge deeper in the inner Self; to open the inward eye and to become one with the divine nature.
Poets like Saigyo(1118-1190) and Matsuo Basho(1644-1694) wandered across Japan in order to unite with that transcendental world of Nature which is the core of Self in eastern thought. “Thus the act of wandering, and along the way composing poetry, becomes an act of communion and communication between the poet and the Shinto kami—an act which corresponded to the European pilgrimages of the Middle Ages to redeem the soulscondemned to Purgatory. In this way art, nature, reverence, and the self are fused in the process of poetic composition and travel. (Watanabe, Shōichi (1989) 'Nihonjin no tabi to bungei no keifu,' Kokusaikachikaigi: Sekai no tabi, Nihon no tabi:Nihonbunka to kokusaikouryū, Tokyo: IBM Japan: 12-15)
In the correlation to the wandering and space, Japanese traditional concept of travel within the Nature, is seen as extending the depth of space, which is to be experienced as extension of Self. The modernization and the urbanization of the living space limited the interaction with the Nature. The position of Self in the urban space merged different motivation for wandering. Electrical devices and especially computerization of the entire sphere of daily functioning (business and private sphere of living) increased the gap between the Man (human) and the Nature. Contemporary wanderings, as seen in many movies, aims for direct experience of reality and search for Self in the labyrinths of the urban space.
All rights reserved © Andrijana Cvetkovik. Reproduction in whole or in part of any article without permission is prohibited.
“Like other cultural traditions in the East, Japanese traditional culture has placed great value upon the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Looking at present Japan, however it is clear that all Japanese at present do not necessarily preserve the traditional worldview.”(HIRAI Naofusa, TRADITIONAL CULTURES AND MODERNIZATION: Several Problems in the Case of Japan, http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cimac/hirai.html)
Traditional values can be seen vanishing together with the religious concepts, in the case of Japan that is Buddhism and the indigenous Shinto religion, that worships symbolically 8 million Gods, which inhabitants all living and non-living things. The wandering for the shintoizam is a form of pilgrimage into the Nature, where Gods live, that offers a chance to connect with all those living Gods in the Nature and to show them a reverence. The Buddhism, according to which life is only a journey and illusion, also supports the idea of wandering in order merge deeper in the inner Self; to open the inward eye and to become one with the divine nature.
Poets like Saigyo(1118-1190) and Matsuo Basho(1644-1694) wandered across Japan in order to unite with that transcendental world of Nature which is the core of Self in eastern thought. “Thus the act of wandering, and along the way composing poetry, becomes an act of communion and communication between the poet and the Shinto kami—an act which corresponded to the European pilgrimages of the Middle Ages to redeem the soulscondemned to Purgatory. In this way art, nature, reverence, and the self are fused in the process of poetic composition and travel. (Watanabe, Shōichi (1989) 'Nihonjin no tabi to bungei no keifu,' Kokusaikachikaigi: Sekai no tabi, Nihon no tabi:Nihonbunka to kokusaikouryū, Tokyo: IBM Japan: 12-15)
In the correlation to the wandering and space, Japanese traditional concept of travel within the Nature, is seen as extending the depth of space, which is to be experienced as extension of Self. The modernization and the urbanization of the living space limited the interaction with the Nature. The position of Self in the urban space merged different motivation for wandering. Electrical devices and especially computerization of the entire sphere of daily functioning (business and private sphere of living) increased the gap between the Man (human) and the Nature. Contemporary wanderings, as seen in many movies, aims for direct experience of reality and search for Self in the labyrinths of the urban space.
All rights reserved © Andrijana Cvetkovik. Reproduction in whole or in part of any article without permission is prohibited.