The Lost Cause of the Feudal Daimyo
Once upon a plane trip I saw a movie called Honnouji hotel. An excellent small scale Japanese film, reminiscent of older Kurosawa films (though not of that level of quality) that venerate Japanese history and culture instead of attempting to destroy their own past. This underlies the simple rationale why reactionaries in America turn to the East, and particularly Japan, for their films and entertainment. First and foremost they are films by a people to promote a people. That is, Japanese filmakers will be responsive to their home audience, and cater to that. Within that there are universal values (i.e. an appreciation for heirarchy and even patriarchy) that can provide a template for Westerners to tell their own stories.
By contrast to the Japanese, modern American films are more considering of the world market and hope to get enough of the American audience to pay back the cost of production. But it goes deeper than that. American films, since the death of the Western, has primarily acted as cultural critic. The culture that many films acted to subvert or critique was an Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, patriarchal culture. Many did this subtly, with reversals of role or gender, or with, say, a captain of industry as a villain. A perfect example of this is Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), in which the villain was based on Rupert Murdoch. Only recently have Hollywood films attempted to reverse this trend by elevating and venerating silicon valley titans with movies like Steve Jobs (2015) and The Social Network (2010) does Hollywood provide a nuanced (and ultimately positive) view of the CEO. But these are recent exceptions that prove the rule and can’t make up for the decades of Lex Luthor, Scooby-Doo villains, and movie like A Civil Action, Erin Brockovich etc etc. that portray capitalists as villains and the system of capitalism itself as flawed.
By comparison, Kurosawa portrayed a captain of industry very differently in High & Low (1963, translated literally as Heaven and Hell). Toshiro Mifune plays an embattled CEO threatened by a faction within his shoe company that wants to make cheap shoes. Mifune’s character, Kingo Gondo, wants to maintain elevated standards of quality where his rivals want to make quick buck by producing lower quality goods. There is a kidnapping that moves the plot forward, motivated strictly by envy of a poor failure. Kurosawa asks the audience to distinguish charlatans from leaders. The veneration for elder statesmen is a common thread in Kurosawa movies. Even film novices will be familiar with classics like:
The Seven Samurai (the basis for the Magnificent Seven),
Yojimbo (the inspiration for “Fistful of Dollars”)
Hidden Fortress (1958) Aspects of this film influenced Star Wars, per George Lucas.
Kagemusha (1980) an actor playing a double for a king who ultimately does a better job than the King himself. The 1993 movie Dave by Ivan Reitman takes this basic concept and turns it into a movie about a jobs program for America.
These are all action based Samurai movies, but High and Low takes a look at modern Japan, and like another underrated Kurosawa classic Red Beard(1965), portrays an intimacy and subtlety in the lead male characters with very few of the large scale action pieces in his better known Samurai films.
Toshiro Mifune plays a dapper captain of the shoe industry in High and Low (1963)
It is this intimacy and emotional depth that is found in Honnoji Hotel (2017). The Samurai scenes of Honnoji Hotel are unimpressive, and in general it is light hearted fare in the vein of the French classic Amelie, in that it follows a beautiful young lady on the verge of marriage with her life ahead of her. Based on casting alone Masayuki Suzuki is at least attempting solid aesthetics, as Haruka Ayase plays the lead character Mayuko Kuramoto with just the right amount of charm and wide-eyed modernist naivete. Through movie magic our heroine is transported back in time to when the Honnoji Hotel was the site of a feudal base of the Daimyo Odo Nobunaga. Spoilers ahead. By comparison, look at Rose Tico from the Last Jedi.
The actress is short and dumpy. She is frumpy and dressed like man. Her job is mechanic. Yuck. Hollywood’s attempt to gain an Asian audience while simultaneously promoting SJW type propaganda backfired as Chinese movie industry shut out the Last Jedi after poor showings at the Chinese box office. By contrast, in Honnouji hotel the female lead is feminine, charming, beautiful, and to some extent relatable for young women trying to find their way as a young adult.
Mayuko finds herself transported just prior to the The Honno-ji incident, which marked a decline in feudalism and the rise of the unification of Japan. Daimyo Odo Nobunaga is remembered as a martyr to a lost cause most reverently. The heroine in her intermittent time travel pieces this together and tries to warn the Daimyo and begs him to flee, but he is resolved to stay and ultimately sacrifices himself.
It is important to note that Mayuko has no influence over the Daimyo. In her own life, she questions and ultimately decides not to marry her fiance. Early in the film she briefly mentioned wanting to be a teacher, but had no qualifications. After witnessing Daimyo Odo’s resolve she decides to become a history teacher. For all her effort, it was the Daimyo that influenced Mayuko. It is a breath of fresh air to see a movie where moderns unapologetically honor their ancestors and deny an easy, comfortable life.