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Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️🐲👊 Profile picture
@Richmond_Lee
Mar 14, 2023 • 9 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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Western Samurai movies: We must preserve our honor above all else. Honor is everything (#honor)

Japanese Samurai Movies:
What I'm saying is Westerns were already the Samurai movies of the west
(literally)
Sukiyaki Western Django (dir by Takashi Miike, 2008) is a beautiful meditation on the history of Cowboy/Samurai films and the concept of cultural exchange in general. It's incredible. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
I highly recommend it if you're in the mood for something really surreal and goofy (it's phonetically acted in English!) but also stylish as hell and thematically weighty. Just make sure you watch the original Japanese cut. The international cut is missing 22 minutes of footage!
Sukiyaki Western Django is a must watch for Yusuke Iseya fans. I don't think he (or any other human being) has ever looked better than this. Though it wasn't based on a comic, this movie is some of the best live action manga you'll ever see.
Back to the original joke post, my point is that Western takes on samurai stories (should have said stories in general not just films) tend to be uncritical and romanticized and focused on "honor" while Japanese samurai stories tend to not do all that.
Most well regarded/popular samurai films from Japan tend to be critical of samurai and don't have a fixation on "honor". More thoughts (with brief references to actual films) here:
More food for thought: most Samurai in Japanese media (movies, games, comics, anime) don't wear samurai armor. Armor is for going to war, not for going about your life!
twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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More from @Richmond_Lee

Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️🐲👊 Profile picture
Oct 22
Anime & manga should be accessible to everyone. Everyone should be able to enjoy it. But there's an ethnic/national/cultural component to anime and manga that people love to erase so they can discuss it purely through an Anglophone lens and declare their naive conclusions gospel.
This isn't to say that you must be Asian or Japanese to "get" anime. Anyone anywhere can potentially relate to it and have insights into it. But if you are only capable of filtering themes through the lens of American Left vs Right politics, you are VERY SHORT SIGHTED. Image
It's impossible to ignore the USA empire on the world stage. But the American mindset, so obsessed with punditry and local groupthink is NOT global. It's absolutely not the framework that anime and manga are produced from. There's a bigger world out there. America ISNT the world!
Read 10 tweets
Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️🐲👊 Profile picture
Jul 27
There's no music during the firebombing scene in Grave of the Fireflies. There's no cinematic contrivances to make the scene more exciting or heart rending. It's eerily silent. Because that's what Takahata remembers from living through it as a child. The silence.
It's not unusual for people to get defensive after watching Grave of the Fireflies. They feel taken advantage of emotionally, because the film hits so hard. I tell them "watch it again. See how little it does to manipulate your feelings." They always come back impressed.
Grave of the Fireflies already knows the subject matter is sad. So it doesn't rub your nose in it. Instead it presents the story with as much straightforward humanity as possible. Warts and all. It's not just simply "war is bad." It's also about how the brother fucks up SO BADLY.
Read 9 tweets
Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️🐲👊 Profile picture
Jan 10
It's interesting how Nujabes ended up being unquestionably one of the most beloved and influential musicians of the 21st century. He wasn't necessarily revolutionary at any particular thing, but he hit on the PERFECT VIBE that everyone has been chasing.
Let's say that Samurai Champloo was where he was launched to international fame. It's been 2 decades since then. And every year since then, new music only sounds more and more like Nujabes.
You know the "Thing Japan" meme? How people often say "you only like that cos it's Japanese!" I'm so glad that basically NO ONE says that about Nujabes. Everyone I know that loves hip hop (and I mean REAL TRUE LOVE) loves Nujabes.
Read 17 tweets
Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️🐲👊 Profile picture
Apr 5, 2024
🧵Here's a great example of why you shouldn't always go by Western sources on non Western subjects

Eng Wikipedia page: Yoshitoshi was the last Ukyo-e master. The art died with him😔

JPN Wikipedia page: Yoshitoshi had over a dozen notable protegés with their own Wiki entries 😃

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🧵The Western take on Yoshitoshi is that he was a tragic figure waging a lone war against industrialization and modernization. A war that he lost and thus the traditions he championed died with him. It's a romantic notion that also satisfies tons of biases.
🧵But it's so far from the truth. Yes Ukyo-e fell out of favor for more modern methods of reproduction like photography. But it never died out. For instance there was the Shin-hanga (新版画) movement of the early 20th Century, whose purpose was to keep Ukyo-e alive and evolve it.

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Read 9 tweets
Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️🐲👊 Profile picture
Mar 16, 2023
1. Manga has been more popular than Marvel or DC comics in the west for decades now

2. Marvel & DC =/= All American comics. Dog Man is one of the best selling books (not just comics) in the US. Americans definitely still enjoy reading American comics!
In fact, there have been times where Dog Man has been the #1 best selling book in the US overall!
Dog-Man is the most popular comic in America, outselling any manga. But for some reason it's not really considered a comic by most, i guess cos it's for kids? Where are the articles about how Dav Pilkey is a threat to Superhero comics lol
Read 13 tweets
Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️🐲👊 Profile picture
Mar 14, 2023
Listening to this nice piece on the film "Living" and how the author, British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro was inspired by the Akira Kurosawa film "Ikiru," an internationally beloved classic whose title means "To Live."
npr.org/2023/03/06/116…
The piece drops the ball at the end tho, when the narrator says that the film "is not just a remake" and they have a Brit critic that goes "'Ikiru,' by Kurosawa, seems to be a film about Japan, 'Living,' by Ishiguro and his colleagues. seems to me a film about humanity"

Like WTF
What does that mean? Ikiru has been widely regarded as one of the "great films" internationally for decades. It's obviously very universal in its appeal. How is it that "Ikiru" being set in Japan makes it "about Japan" but "Living", being set in the UK, makes it "about humanity"?
Read 10 tweets

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