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I really hold myself back from discussing Ghost of Tsushima, because I know a lot of people are in their feels about that game and it& #39;s very popular.
But it categorically misunderstands the films it& #39;s trying to homage. Kurosawa was rarely reverent to the Samurai.
But it categorically misunderstands the films it& #39;s trying to homage. Kurosawa was rarely reverent to the Samurai.
His best known films around about Samurai abandoning their post, because they had morals. Or a morally ambiguous character disobeying orders and being persecuted for it.
I literally beg people to watch an actual Kurosawa film before trying to reference his style.
I literally beg people to watch an actual Kurosawa film before trying to reference his style.
A lot of western depictions of Samurai don& #39;t understand this. They hear "lone soldier" and miss the whole narrative of them being a ronin.
Or that in context a ronin is a defector.
That& #39;s why so many "samurai homages" walk face first into Japanese far right rhetoric.
Or that in context a ronin is a defector.
That& #39;s why so many "samurai homages" walk face first into Japanese far right rhetoric.
And I love Samurai movies, for clarification here. But all the best ones show the Samurai for who they really were, a beaurocratic army in place to defend those already in power.
Where the protagonists are defectors who regret their past (Zatoichi) or morally ambiguous loners who get caught up in a bigger conflict and show a glimmer of empathy (Lone Wolf and Cub, to a lesser extent Yojimbo)
Anyway, I retweeted Kazuma Hashimoto earlier, and he wrote about this in his Ghost of Tsushima review. It& #39;s a great starting point for learning about the ultra-nationalist revisionism ingrained in the code of bushido.
https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2020/7/23/21333631/ghost-of-tsushima-kurosawa-films-samurai-japan-abe-politics?__twitter_impression=true">https://www.polygon.com/platform/...
https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2020/7/23/21333631/ghost-of-tsushima-kurosawa-films-samurai-japan-abe-politics?__twitter_impression=true">https://www.polygon.com/platform/...
This is also the piece in which a lot of people found out that Yoshitaka Amano was a far right conservative. Or at least he mentions it, I don& #39;t remember if he goes into it detail.
