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Jan. 14th, 2007 02:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmMy review of Letters from Iwo Jima is here:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976884801
What I didn't address in this review (among other things) is how much I want to get a perspective on this film from someone who doesn't have the connections to Japanese culture that I have (I lived with someone who grew up in Japan and although anglo, was deeply involved both personally and aesthetically with Japan -- it's a long story, mostly his, that I don't wish to get into here).
Leaving the theater, I was deeply surprised to see how much of the audience for the film was Japanese, and while waiting in line at the restroom, was horrified to hear a white woman on line start shrieking about the movie to her movie going companion. "They bombed Pearl Harbor, they deserved it!" Screaming screaming screaming as all these Japanese women around us looked at the floor. The woman continued, "I bet you think we shouldn't have bombed them either!" and thens started going on about how they had deserved Hiroshima and Nagasaki in this shrill piercing loud voice.
Finally, I just stepped out of line and looked at her. "You need to stop now."
Weirdly, and thankfully, she did. I'm still shaken.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976884801
What I didn't address in this review (among other things) is how much I want to get a perspective on this film from someone who doesn't have the connections to Japanese culture that I have (I lived with someone who grew up in Japan and although anglo, was deeply involved both personally and aesthetically with Japan -- it's a long story, mostly his, that I don't wish to get into here).
Leaving the theater, I was deeply surprised to see how much of the audience for the film was Japanese, and while waiting in line at the restroom, was horrified to hear a white woman on line start shrieking about the movie to her movie going companion. "They bombed Pearl Harbor, they deserved it!" Screaming screaming screaming as all these Japanese women around us looked at the floor. The woman continued, "I bet you think we shouldn't have bombed them either!" and thens started going on about how they had deserved Hiroshima and Nagasaki in this shrill piercing loud voice.
Finally, I just stepped out of line and looked at her. "You need to stop now."
Weirdly, and thankfully, she did. I'm still shaken.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-14 07:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-14 08:08 pm (UTC)Some time soon when my plate is a little more clear I ned to start on a serious reading binge about internment, and the Japanese-American WWII experience; I have meant to anyway, but living in Japantown now I feel it is more urgent.