PennTags Feed for /tag/chambara

True Demon Bound By No Rules: AN INTRODUCTION TO CHARACTER AND VENGEANCE IN THE LONE WOLF AND CUB FILMS.

McKenzie, Andrew. "True Demon Bound by No Rules: AN INTRODUCTION TO CHARACTER AND VENGEANCE IN THE LONE WOLF AND CUB FILMS." Metro 148 (2006): 112-115. EBSCO. University of Pennsylvania. 10 Apr. 2008.

Andrew McKenzie’s essay, “A True Demon Bound by No Rules: An Introduction to Character and Vengeance in the Lone Wolf and Cub Films,” places the Lone Wolf and Cub series within the larger context of the Tokugawa Era (1600-1865), the Bushido (“the way of the warrior”), and the films’ reception.

Critics condemn the Lone Wolf and Cub series, arguing that the film’s masterless protagonist, Itto Ogami, is a caricature of the Tokugawa samurai. These critics allude to the meager and powerless existence of the historical ronin (masterless samurai). But McKenzie argues that Ogami’s unique freedom emphasizes the presence of feudal Japanese conventions. Without the existence of these customs, Ogami would not have a force against which to rebel. According to McKenzie, the primary targets of Ogami’s rebellion are the Bushido and the Eastern conception of fate. Ogami first violates Bushido code when he refuses an order from his superior to commit seppuku. McKenzie also cites Ogami’s disregard for his sword as a subversion of Bushido. In Bushido the sword is akin to the “soul of the samurai,” and its wielder should guard it at all costs. In his unorthodoxy however, Ogami hurls it like spear. Finally, McKenzie posits that “Belief in predestination or fate in Eastern culture is standard; Ogami however, simply refuses it” (McKenzie, 114).

The essay establishes Shogun Assassin’s (1980) historical relevance through Lone Wolf and Cub. Shogun Assassin, a reedited version of the first two Lone Wolf and Cub films, contains the same tropes of abandonment and rebellion against feudal convention. The films challenge the conventions and the authority of the Tokugawa era with their gruesome fight sequences. Because of the overt violence, McKenzie argues that critics incorrectly ignore the social and cultural implications of the film, and immediately assign it to the exploitation genre.

Reframing Japanese cinema : authorship, genre, history / edited by Arthur Nolletti, Jr. and David Desser.

. Reframing Japanese cinema : authorship, genre, history / edited by Arthur Nolletti, Jr. and David Desser. 0253341086 series Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1992.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.J3 R44 1992
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.J3 R44 1992
Call#: Van Pelt Library--4 East--Temporary Location Annenberg PN1993.5.J3 R44 1992
Call#: Van Pelt Library--4 East--Temporary Location Annenberg PN1993.5.J3 R44 1992

David Desser's essay, "Towards a Structural Analysis of the Postwar Samurai Film," outlines the sub-genres of samurai film, describes their properties, and examines their cultural implications. The first of Desser's sub-genres is the "nostalgic samurai drama." The chief characteristic of the grouping is what Desser calls "mono no aware." The term refers to a "feeling of sweet sadness, or an almost inexpressible sensation of life's mortality, which is pleasantly painful" (Desser, 148). Characters in these films are generally "powerless yet proud samurai," condemned by the society that created them. However, he does not rebel against the system, instead he "takes the path of righteousness out of a sense of obligation" (Desser, 149). Next, Desser discusses the "anti-feudal drama." The anti-feudal drama, a reaction to America's post-war presence in Japan, tracked its hero from a position of prominence to his ruin. In these films, self-hatred replaces mono no aware. The anti-feudal drama is also more violent than the nostalgic samurai drama, as the protagonist must rage against the flawed conventions of society. Finally, Desser analyzes the "sword film," or chambara. While the author admits that critics generally apply the term chambara as a pejorative, he believes the sword film to be the "most interesting and revealing of all the sub-genres within samurai film" (Desser, 155). The Western viewer's inability to appreciate chambara stems from the movement’s extreme aesthetization of violence, specifically, gores. Sword films use violence as a kind of nihilism. Furthermore, the genre subverts Bushido (“the way of the warrior”) through the meaninglessness of death.

Through Desser’s essay, we can classify Shogun Assassin (1980) within the larger context of the samurai film. The film most fits the conventions of the chambara. Its slow motion decapitations, spurting blood, and high body count all work to undermine the established order. Desser’s assertion that the film’s movement provides both an agenda and an aesthetic, denotes artistry unfound in the exploitation film.

New history of Japanese cinema : a century of narrative film / Isolde Standish.

Standish, Isolde. . New history of Japanese cinema : a century of narrative film / Isolde Standish. 0826417094 (alk. paper) series New York : Continuum, 2005.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.J3 S72 2005

The chapter, "Speed and Movement in Chambara: Stylistic Conventions," from Isolde Standish's book, A New History of Japanese Cinema, examines the use and function of speed in its application to the human body and filming technique. Standish argues that Japanese film uses speed as a "mimetic response to the mechanical ordering of temporality" (Standish, 97). In contrast to Western directors, who frequently used the convention to reflect mechanized industry's effect on the human timetable, Japanese films glorify the process through "spectacle and display" (Standish, 97). Standish grounds her polemic with examples from Japanese theater and early Japanese cinema.
The section attributes Japanese cinema's emphasis on speed to two sources: reactionary sentiment to a rigidly stratified society and the shinkokugeki theater movement. Standish ascribes chambara's (sword-play film) appeal to its visceral effects. The physical freedom of the chambara's characters "provided subjective moments of corporeal intensity and fantasy" (Standish, 99). Images of movement fascinated young Japanese men, who felt constricted by society. The shinkokugeki theater movement of the early 1920s introduced the display of realistic sword fighting scenes on stage. The new style was much more exciting than the detached, suggestive style of kubuki theater. Japanese filmmakers combined real sword fights with filming techniques like long tracking shots and crosscuts over different parallel lines of action to accentuate on screen movement.

Standish's chapter enumerates the different tropes of the chambara. Using her criteria, one can evaluate the effect of Shogun Assassin's (1980) use of speed, movement, and editing. Ogami Itto's fencing skills seem inhuman: his blade often moves too fast for the eye to see. Furthermore, Shogun Assassin uses crosscuts in every fight scene. The shots, which shift between Ogami and his opponents, maintain focus on all characters involved without sacrificing tension. Finally, Shogun Assassin culminates with a tachimawari, or a "climactic sword-fight scene" (Standish, 98). Standish claims that the tachimawari is the hallmark of the chambara film, as it features the most pace and movement.

Stray dogs & lone wolves : the samurai film handbook / Patrick Galloway.

Galloway, Patrick. . Stray dogs & lone wolves : the samurai film handbook / Patrick Galloway. 1880656930 series Berkeley, Calif. : Stone Bridge Press, c2005.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1995.9.S24 G35 2005

Patrick Galloway’s review of Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972) provides an acclamatory summary and informed analysis. Central to Galloway’s review are Lone Wolf and Cub’s origins in manga and its extreme violence. Galloway explains, “The Lone Wolf and Cub Saga, six films in all (1972-1974), was adapted from the popular manga of the same name” (Galloway, 151). The critic praises the film for its efforts to capture the “spurting gore” of the comics. But the movie’s relationship to its predecessors transcends imagery. Galloway argues that the film emulates the psychotic conceptual framework of the manga. In this way, Lone Wolf and Cub propagates a sense of destruction and rage, unprecedented in samurai film. This ambience allows the viewer to understand Itto Ogami’s “bloodlust [and] twisted Bushido rationalizations” (Galloway, 153).

The review classifies Lone Wolf and Cub as a chambara (swordplay film), which is a form of jidai-geki (period film). While this serves the thesis of the paper, it is more important to note the artistic deference Galloway pays the film. The article takes pains to illustrate director Kenji Misumi’s efforts to replicate the manga’s look and feel. Even in his criticism of the film, Galloway is careful to use the Lone Wolf and Cub manga as his measuring stick. He faults the director for allowing the static quality of the manga’s sequenced picture frames to transfer onto the film. Galloway also castigates Robert Houston and David Weisman, Lone Wolf and Cub’s American adaptors, for their shoddy reedited film Shogun Assassin. The writer and director ignored the nuances of the original story and implanted a ridiculously dubbed script. Though focusing on two different films, the contrast between Galloway’s meticulous study of Shogun Assassin’s progenitor and Vincent Canby’s biting New York Times review emphasizes Shogun Assassin’s marketing and reception as an exploitation film. The public did not recognize Shogun Assassin as a stylized reproduction of manga; rather it was just another poorly dubbed film from Asia.

Samurai film / Alain Silver.

Silver, Alain, 1947- . Samurai film / Alain Silver. Expanded and rev. ed. 1585675962 (hbk.) series Woodstock, NY : Overlook Press, 2005.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1995.9.S24 S5 2005

Section 6.3 of Alain Silver’s book, The Samurai Film, entitled “The Red Slayers,” suggests that the gory content and pitiless heroes of the 1970s’ chambara films (Japanese swordplay films) act as a historical corrective of the cynical samurai films of the 1960s. These films, critical of the Romantic conception of the samurai, featured self-sacrificing heroes who championed humanity and subverted violence to question popularized notions of “samurai honor.” While the protagonist of the 1970s chambara film also rejected “samurai honor,” he “manifests his or her rejection of those false standards not merely with words but with actions” (Silver, 221).

Silver also documents the increased self-interest of the 1970’s filmic samurai. His denunciation of the samurai code transcends the typically griped about tenants of fealty until death and honor at all costs. This “new hero” denies humanitarian values in favor of his own advancement or survival (Silver, 221). Samurai betray other samurai to further their careers (Furin kazan) and warriors rob from peasants with a disregard for civic duty. The section culminates with Silver’s ruminations on Itto Ogami, the central character of Shogun Assassin and the Lone Wolf and Cub series. For Silver, Ogami is the paradigm “new hero.” He is a ruthless killer driven by his instinct to survive. He cannot afford to lay down his weapon, “because he is locked into a time where to do so is to perish” (Silver, 223). Silver also provides some examples from the Lone Wolf and Cub saga to illustrate Ogami’s skepticism about the “way of the samurai.”

By including Lone Wolf and Cub (and transitively Shogun Assassin) in his evaluation of 1970s chambara films, Silver grants the film does provide historical insight. The section implies the film’s director, Kenji Misumi, attempted to define the true objectives of the samurai: money, social status, and survival. He accepts Lone Wolf and Cub as a new revision of a historical icon.