Screening report on either Seven summurai, Wooden Camera or Totsi Essay

Screening report on either Seven summurai, Wooden Camera or Totsi - Essay Example ny films from the analyst’s perspective, we can, without prompting from film critics or historians, begin to understand Kurosawa’s own sense of Japanese nationalism. Perhaps in even more depth, we might gain a sense of what can be described as traditional nationalism. In other words, in his films Kurosawa forefronts the Japanese pre World War II traditions arising out of patriarchal family, honor, humility, and loyalty to Japan’s imperial emperor. There is, too, a great expression of Kurosawa’s sentiment towards the Japanese role in World War II, and the Japanese nuclear holocaust, which brought about an end to the war in the Pacific. His expressions comes through in the director’s choices and use of symbolism, and in contrasting tradition with the move away from tradition, especially the move away from loyalty to the emperor, and towards World War II militaristic governance. This brief analysis, to focus on these elements, we’ll limit that range of focus to just one film, The Samurai Seven. This film embodies Kurosawa’s own sense of traditional nationalism, his sense of his pre and post war culture, and even comments on the Japanese nuclear holocaust. It is important to keep in mind that The Seven Samurai is a post war film. Kurosawa was well received in Japan, even before his great post World War II film career commenced, which was the period for which he is most well known. Sanshiro Sugata was financed in part by the pre World War II Japanese Film Council because, historian David Cook writes, government officials misinterpreted Kurosawa’s metaphoric message, and perceived the film to be useful as propaganda (Cook, 1996, 833). Most of the Japanese filmmaking in the pre World War II era was focused on works that would help move Japan away from imperialism, and toward a military control over the government that was eager to expand Japanese authority and control in East Asia. For the most part, Japanese cinema was very nationalistic, and,