일본의 비평 담론에 나타난 오즈 야스지로 : 가타야마 모리히데와 그 비판을 중심으로

Abstract

In order to examine how the relationship between Yasujiro Ozu and war is addressed within Japanese nationalist discourse, this study analyzes Morihide Katayama"s Ozu theory and, as its criticism, compares it with a case of Yo Henmi. Katayama is a writer who has concentrated on the issue of Japanese identity from the standpoint of right-wing nationalism, dealing with such topics as Japanese fascism and the history of the emperor system. His Ozu theory, discussed in the book The Unfinished Japan (2015), claims that Ozu"s films prioritize the present instead of the past or the future, and idealize characters who endure the unsatisfying present with patience. According to Katayama, this ‘virtue of patience’ is derived from Ozu"s experience of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and as an evidence, he discusses Ozu"s wartime government-sponsored film There Was a Father (1942). The son"s attitude in the film to repress emotions even at his father"s death can be considered supporting the ‘presentness’ of Japan and the Japanese to endure the war as Katayama claims. However, considering the film"s production process distinct from typical government-sponsored films, its family melodramatic narrative, the ambiguous performance by the actor Sano Shuji for the son, and the discourse of contemporary criticism, it is arguable that Katayama"s interpretation requires further multifaceted analyses. In addition to the film analysis, Katayama"s Ozu theory can also be criticized for its essentialist view of Japan"s (and the Japanese") identity and for lacking critical historical consciousness as in other right-wing nationalism discourses in Japan. Yo Henmi"s Ikumina (2015) is an example of critical work that discusses the issue of Ozu and the Japanese identity from a contrasting standpoint to Katayama. The book argues that Japan"s present consists of silence that avoids her past history and its inherent violence. As shown by Katayama and Henmi"s cases, analyzing contemporary Japan"s discursive topography makes it possible to understand more historical and political meanings of everydayness and presentness, the two primary concepts that represent Ozu"s cinema.