BScCollateral
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- Joined
- May 28, 2018
Of course, in this case it's not at all unusual for Kurosawa -- it's not like the rest of his films were all chest-thumping glorification or anything.I'm not sure but for the first few years after VJ day, America did definitely supress any form of Imperial Japanese culture or symbolism. I remember hearing about American troops banning a martial arts club because the kanji for ”martial arts club” were mistranslated as ”Military Virtues Association”, for instance, so it wouldn't surprise me.
There's an anecdote about how Dostoyevsky was pressured by his editors to tone down a subplot that would offend people. The mental image of someone saying "Fyodor, this just won't do" really amuses me for some reason, and I'd be interested in seeing how de-Nazification / de-militarism impacted cinema.
The Zatoichi films always had a strong theme of the bad guys being people in power using their power for selfish reasons. I can't help but think there's a deliberate comment there, even though that's a perfectly reasonable message to give.