Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished Film

In this essay, I consider Oshima Nagisa’s unmade film, Hollywood Zen, to be his historical project. Throughout his career as a filmmaker, Oshima kept questioning the modernized feudal patriarchy of the emperor system after the Meiji Restoration that led to the devastation of World War II, oppression...

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Main Author: Daisuke Miyao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Française des Enseignants et Chercheurs en Cinéma et Audiovisuel 2017-05-01
Series:Mise au Point
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/map/2385
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author Daisuke Miyao
author_facet Daisuke Miyao
author_sort Daisuke Miyao
collection DOAJ
description In this essay, I consider Oshima Nagisa’s unmade film, Hollywood Zen, to be his historical project. Throughout his career as a filmmaker, Oshima kept questioning the modernized feudal patriarchy of the emperor system after the Meiji Restoration that led to the devastation of World War II, oppression toward women and minority groups, and the immorality of the Meiji generation for its subjugation to ultranationalism and fascism during wartime as well as its instant switch to American-style democracy during the post-WWII occupational period. Closely examining the screenplay of Hollywood Zen, which Oshima wrote with Paul Mayersberg, in conjunction with articles written in the 1910s-20s in both American and Japanese trade presses and film magazines, I discuss the politics of representation of race as well as the politics of gender embodied by the stardom of Sessue Hayakawa in the 1910s in different national contexts. I will clarify how the “New Wave” filmmaker who started his career in postwar Japan critically tried to represent the beginning of the star system in Hollywood.
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spelling doaj-art-7d18fda7d33348b199ea2812a663cbcb2024-12-09T15:59:44ZengAssociation Française des Enseignants et Chercheurs en Cinéma et AudiovisuelMise au Point2261-96232017-05-01910.4000/map.2385Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished FilmDaisuke MiyaoIn this essay, I consider Oshima Nagisa’s unmade film, Hollywood Zen, to be his historical project. Throughout his career as a filmmaker, Oshima kept questioning the modernized feudal patriarchy of the emperor system after the Meiji Restoration that led to the devastation of World War II, oppression toward women and minority groups, and the immorality of the Meiji generation for its subjugation to ultranationalism and fascism during wartime as well as its instant switch to American-style democracy during the post-WWII occupational period. Closely examining the screenplay of Hollywood Zen, which Oshima wrote with Paul Mayersberg, in conjunction with articles written in the 1910s-20s in both American and Japanese trade presses and film magazines, I discuss the politics of representation of race as well as the politics of gender embodied by the stardom of Sessue Hayakawa in the 1910s in different national contexts. I will clarify how the “New Wave” filmmaker who started his career in postwar Japan critically tried to represent the beginning of the star system in Hollywood.https://journals.openedition.org/map/2385masculinityOshima NagisaSessue HayakawaTsuru Aokiearly Hollywoodstardom
spellingShingle Daisuke Miyao
Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished Film
Mise au Point
masculinity
Oshima Nagisa
Sessue Hayakawa
Tsuru Aoki
early Hollywood
stardom
title Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished Film
title_full Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished Film
title_fullStr Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished Film
title_full_unstemmed Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished Film
title_short Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished Film
title_sort hollywood zen a historical analysis of oshima nagisa s unfinished film
topic masculinity
Oshima Nagisa
Sessue Hayakawa
Tsuru Aoki
early Hollywood
stardom
url https://journals.openedition.org/map/2385
work_keys_str_mv AT daisukemiyao hollywoodzenahistoricalanalysisofoshimanagisasunfinishedfilm