How Asian Actors Express Social Criticisms through Their Work - Essay Example

How Asian Actors express social criticisms by their work Name: Institution: The creativity that always comes with the works of art especially in the films, books, plays, or any piece of literature is beyond imagination. The art industry plays a significant role in educating people about the line of themes that it presents in any given piece of literature or art. The importance of such films, novels, plays or any other piece of art can have several interpretations, all of which depends on an individual’s line of thinking (Donald, 2012). This difference in perception of what entails a film is evident due to the creativity that the creator puts to it. Through the choice of actors, the costumes used, the environment chosen, the language used, and art, the creator can pass information pertaining to the targeted audience. Thus, it is through this that various authors, film directors or music producers through their actors or artists, pass information targeting an audience (Zeng & Wen-Pei, 2011). This is thus the cause of various controversial views concerning a single film. This creativity has been highly utilized in the Asian art especially in Japan and China majorly for social criticisms. Cultural actors and creators in China and Japan express social criticisms through their works. Through various cultural actors, the criticism that exists within the social set ups of China and Japan are visible. Through these forms of art, people get to understand various issues that affect most of the social set ups of these two countries (Weston & Jensen, 2007). Through the arts, the issues not well perceived are clear. However, it is essential to note that the understanding of the concepts behind these works of art depends on an individual’s point of interpretation. What a single person finds in these films might differ from the other person. However, some main factors are common and more vivid in these works of art. Change in social set up Of all the criticism revealed in the Japanese works of art, is in the social set up. In a Japanese family set up, the parents form the head of the house or family (Standish, 2006). The children live as per the guidance of their parents or their guardians. This is typical to any family set up since time immemorial. As usual, the parents or guardians are expected to go to work in order to cater for the family needs (Suzuki, 2010). The children, if present, are to go to school or attend cultural lesions. Hence, a normal family should have parents taking care of their children. However, if a situation arises where children need to work to take care of their parents or their guardians, then there is obviously a change in a social family set up. Various cultural actors and creatures in Japan have put much emphasis on the criticizing this possibility. One of such creators, who constantly criticized the change in the family set up of the People of Japan especially with the introduction of western culture, is Hayao Miyazaki (Suzuki, 2001). Hayao Miyazaki is an Oscar winner in the creation of the best-animated feature in 2003. Miyazaki has been in the film industry for a long time. Although he concentrates in creating animated films, which in most circumstances are for children, the story lines of his anime if analysed keenly, always act as the proper reflection of the Japanese family set up especially during the periods when western culture was introduced to Japan (Suzuki, 2010). Through watching films directed and made by Miyazaki, there are several things about the Japanese culture and social set up that is criticized. One of his anime that revealed such change in social set up was “Spirited Away” released in 2001. From this film, Miyazaki becomes a master of anime. “Spirited Away” is a film about a modernizing Japan in a period when the country was engulfed in western cultural influence. This influence of the western culture into the Japanese culture saw the change of the Japanese society to capitalist. One of the things that changed due to this transformation in the Japanese culture was the social values. The storyline of Miyazaki’s work comprise of a young ten-year-old girl called Chihiro who moved with her family to a rural area called Yuya. According to Muyazaki, Yuya is a leisure centre, which built in the spirited world (Suzuki, 2001). Through a witch’s curse, Chihiro’s parents turn onto pigs. According to Suzuki (2001), the witch tells Chihiro that she must work for her in order to save them. One of the resemblances between Yuya to Japan is the mix of people in it. That mix is equivalent to the mix of Japanese and Western styles in Japan. Chihiro has to struggle to save her parents. Through the help of a young boy, she manages to understand how to survive in the spirited world and save her parents (Suzuki, 2010). Through this work, Miyazaki shows what the Japanese went through during modernization of Japan. The change is the family set up represented how things turned out in Japan due to the presence of western influence. The fact that children worked to save their families indicated how the social set up of the country was turned upside down with the introduction of western culture. Low level of exposure In a film or art, set up that involves various cultures, communities or countries, the manner in which the actors and creators of the pieces of art reveal the communities or places they represent. If, in a film, there is a mixture of people from different countries, the way the actors represent their countries is of immense significance in understanding the theme in the creator’s line of thinking. The weaknesses evident in a given representation of a country such as Japan significantly reveal a lot about that country (Chi & Nakamura, 2004). In most of the Japanese films or other films that involve Japanese characters, their part of play reveals a lot of criticism. This is clearly evident in the social set up representation. In most Japanese films, the manner in which most of the actors talk and convey their culture and the country, is in most circumstance too typical that most analysts see then as a mockery of the full potential of the people in general. In Sophia Coppola’s film “Lost in Translation”, the creator pulls a leading critic on Japanese especially on how their literacy level. This film has drawn several reactions across Japan and even across the world. Though most of the viewers considered it of racism, to the creator, it was a reflection the real culture. In fact, according to the creator and other analysts, some of the typical actors had the exact accent they used in the film (Chi & Nakamura, 2004). Through the film, the Japanese actors have trouble pronouncing ‘l’ and ‘r’ in the correct manner. The creator even indicates that his idea was after making several trips to Tokyo and that some of the things that impressed her was the wondrous displacement. The choice of almost 90% of the actors being Japanese creates the essence of a language barrier between the local Japanese and Bill Murray. This creates the aspect of Japanese not civilised and as backwards socially. Social disintegration Apart from Japan, there are also other countries in Asia, which have had social criticism evident in their arts. Another country from the same continent with this similarity is China. The film and theatre industries in china also over the years have shown social criticism. Through pieces of art such as novels, the social aspects of communities and families in China have been revealed various issues that are evident in Chinese cultures and social set ups. Through various acclaimed novelists and actors, the complexities within the Chinese cultural and social set up are more evident. One of such creativity of art is in the novel “Joy and Luck Club” written by Amy Ruth Tan. Although, the author of this novel is an American, the characters she uses in the novel are Chinese citizens. Using such Chinese characters in the novel, the characters tend to pass a message about the Chinese social set up (Tan, 2002). In the novel, Tan includes four main characters of four mothers and their daughters migrating from China to the United States with the bid of escaping poverty. From this concept, it is evident that the novelist considers China during this time as a place where it was hard to live a prosperous life. The social set up of China was composed of war and poor people who considered going to other countries like the US to flee from war and poverty. It thus becomes difficult for them to raise their Chinese daughters in a different cultural setting. The novelist represents a significant generational conflict in the table when one of the daughters have a confrontation with her mother’s friends after her mother’s death. Ying Yang, a character in the novel, if forced to move with her second husband to America after she stayed with her poor family relatives for some time. Ying Yang’s lifestyle clashes with Lena’s, a young, successful woman who is an architect. The daughters, since brought up in the American culture, considers their mothers as old world ‘fossils’ since they still preserve their Chinese cultural and social perceptions. This, therefore, shows how Chinese through cultural mix, the Chinese social and family set up suffers. The daughters cannot relate to their Chinese since they feel Chinese culture is outdated. Through this novel, therefore, the novelist wants people to see that most Chinese children would prefer other cultural attachment than their own. Family brutality and gender imbalance In China, family suffering is an issue that most people need to consider. Various theatre acts reveal suffering especially for the children. This is more evident in the movies and theatre works such as the movie “Blind Mountain” released in March 2008. This movie was directed and written by Yang. This movie is about a story of the occurrences of the 1990s in contemporary China. The main feature of the movie is a young woman, kidnapped and later sold to a villager within the mountains. The storyline involves female babies drowned, and the few available young women available getting married to the men to bear for them sons. One of the ironical incidences is that of family wives buying girls from the city, and at the same time, female babies are killed. The film featured Bai who after finishing college got a job of harvesting herbs in the mountain village and ended up being sold to a peasant family. She continues with Bai being held by her parents so that the son can rape her. On the process, she tries to escape. The most ironic part of this movie involves women in the same village who underwent the same process urging her to comply with the demands. However, through struggle she tries to escapes several times and later gets sympathy from a teacher from the same village. Anger thus mounts in the village between the villagers and the teacher (Yang, 2007). Various issues are revealed from this movie. One of the issues is that the creator decided to bring this movie at this time reveals weaknesses that might be still happening in the social set up of the communities within China and still few people realise. The movie is a reflection of how women still take a lower position within Chinese communities and families. The problems that women still go through in China are still evident with most of them as subjects to male chauvinism (Zhang, 2012). Just as, the movie suggests, some of the women still undergo discrimination especially in the remote communities. However, Bai represents some of the women who have come out to oppose the orthodox style of living especially for women in China. She comes out to be an example for these women struggling to create opportunities for women to stand out for themselves. In conclusion, it is evident, as indicated in the above analyses, that Asian actors and art creators have a common theme of transforming the theatre industries and the cultural practices in the society they consider as unfit. It is evident also that such creativity within the industries creates an effective forum in correcting various practices in the Asian society especially in Japan and China considered unethical. Cultural aspects such as change in social set up, low level of exposure, social disintegration and family brutality and gender imbalance are evident to have criticism within the Asian societies. Through the choice of actors, scripts, themes and environments, the directors communicate the need for a significant change in the highlighted aspects in the Asian societies. Thus, the essay approves the significance of the art theatre industries in Asia, especially in China and Japan. Reference: Suzuki, A. (2010). ‘A nightmare of capitalist Japan: Spirited Away’. Retrieved September 16, 2012 from: http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc51.2009/SpiritedAway/index.html Chi, M. & Nakamura, F. (2004), ‘A Sampling of Japanese Comment on “Lost in Translation”’. Retrieved September 16, 2012 from http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=11981 Yang, L. (Producer & Director). (2007). Blind Mountain, [Motion Picture]. China. Tang Splendour Films Suzuki, T. (Producer) & Miyazaki, H. (Director). (2001). Spirited Away, [Motion Picture]. Japan. Toho & Walt Disney Pictures Tan, A. (2002). ‘The Joy Luck Club’. Retrieved September 16, 2012 from http://www.enotes.com/joy-luck-club-criticism/joy-luck-club-amy-tan Zhang, Y. (2012). A Companion to Chinese Cinema. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Weston, T. & Jensen, L. (2007). China’s Transformations: The Stories Beyond the Headlines. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Standish, I. (2006). A New History of Japanese Cinema. London: Continuum International Publishing Croup. Donald, R. (2012). The Japanese Film: A Personal View. Asian Cinema. 7(2), pp. 3-17. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/ac.7.2.3_1 Zeng, L. & Wen-Pei, X. (2011). The Theory of Intertextuality and Literary Cricism, Foreign Language Research. C.I: I04. DOI: OUTL.0.2011-06-036 Read More

Through watching films directed and made by Miyazaki, there are several things about the Japanese culture and social set up that is criticized. One of his anime that revealed such change in social set up was “Spirited Away” released in 2001. From this film, Miyazaki becomes a master of anime. “Spirited Away” is a film about a modernizing Japan in a period when the country was engulfed in western cultural influence. This influence of the western culture into the Japanese culture saw the change of the Japanese society to capitalist.

One of the things that changed due to this transformation in the Japanese culture was the social values. The storyline of Miyazaki’s work comprise of a young ten-year-old girl called Chihiro who moved with her family to a rural area called Yuya. According to Muyazaki, Yuya is a leisure centre, which built in the spirited world (Suzuki, 2001). Through a witch’s curse, Chihiro’s parents turn onto pigs. According to Suzuki (2001), the witch tells Chihiro that she must work for her in order to save them.

One of the resemblances between Yuya to Japan is the mix of people in it. That mix is equivalent to the mix of Japanese and Western styles in Japan. Chihiro has to struggle to save her parents. Through the help of a young boy, she manages to understand how to survive in the spirited world and save her parents (Suzuki, 2010). Through this work, Miyazaki shows what the Japanese went through during modernization of Japan. The change is the family set up represented how things turned out in Japan due to the presence of western influence.

The fact that children worked to save their families indicated how the social set up of the country was turned upside down with the introduction of western culture. Low level of exposure In a film or art, set up that involves various cultures, communities or countries, the manner in which the actors and creators of the pieces of art reveal the communities or places they represent. If, in a film, there is a mixture of people from different countries, the way the actors represent their countries is of immense significance in understanding the theme in the creator’s line of thinking.

The weaknesses evident in a given representation of a country such as Japan significantly reveal a lot about that country (Chi & Nakamura, 2004). In most of the Japanese films or other films that involve Japanese characters, their part of play reveals a lot of criticism. This is clearly evident in the social set up representation. In most Japanese films, the manner in which most of the actors talk and convey their culture and the country, is in most circumstance too typical that most analysts see then as a mockery of the full potential of the people in general.

In Sophia Coppola’s film “Lost in Translation”, the creator pulls a leading critic on Japanese especially on how their literacy level. This film has drawn several reactions across Japan and even across the world. Though most of the viewers considered it of racism, to the creator, it was a reflection the real culture. In fact, according to the creator and other analysts, some of the typical actors had the exact accent they used in the film (Chi & Nakamura, 2004). Through the film, the Japanese actors have trouble pronouncing ‘l’ and ‘r’ in the correct manner.

The creator even indicates that his idea was after making several trips to Tokyo and that some of the things that impressed her was the wondrous displacement. The choice of almost 90% of the actors being Japanese creates the essence of a language barrier between the local Japanese and Bill Murray. This creates the aspect of Japanese not civilised and as backwards socially. Social disintegration Apart from Japan, there are also other countries in Asia, which have had social criticism evident in their arts.

Another country from the same continent with this similarity is China. The film and theatre industries in china also over the years have shown social criticism.

Read More