Godzilla minus Zero teaser

[Umbran]

I believe that Clint_L is more pointing to how the rhetoric white-washes the 'mistakes' out of existence, rather than actually rehabilitating people.

Okay. I can see that point. And it has been a while since I have seen it. But the read I remember getting off it was not "we were right to be militaristic or we weren't that bad", but more "having been militaristic, we were left in this awful state, and we can now redeem ourselves".

Admittedly, I am not familiar with the rhetoric currently used to try to whitewash the Japanese militarism of the period, so mirroring that rhetoric would mean nothing to me.

 

[Clint_L]

I believe that Clint_L is more pointing to how the rhetoric white-washes the 'mistakes' out of existence, rather than actually rehabilitating people. And I can see his point, though I didn't get the same read from the movie that he did. Part of rehabilitation is acceptance of the wrongs that have been done, either by you or in your name.

Yes. Look, we're treading close to politics now, and I've already been accused of rooting for the genocide of Japan (???), so I have to be careful what I write, but the rhetoric used in the film, and the general plot of the film rehabilitating the reputation of the Japanese military, as if they were victims of the Pacific War, has been part of Far Right politics in Japan for decades - part of a rhetoric of denialism about Japan's share of responsibility for much of what happened, and specifically denialism of the atrocities that were committed by the Japanese military, especially in China and Korea. WW2 revisionism, essentially.

I enjoy history and follow world politics quite a bit, including those of Japan. So when I was watching the film, I was struck by how close its themes are to that controversial (and to my mind, toxic) revisionist position. When challenged on it, in this thread, it didn't take much googling to reveal that this issue was well understood in Japan, making the film quite controversial over there. Apparently this director has a history with the Japanese Far Right, and his films typically embrace their causes.

Thus, my enjoyment of the film (and politics aside, as a Godzilla film, it is fabulous) was problematized by the awareness that it does, in fact, intentionally work to project the Far Right's preferred narrative on that period of history. It's not just a Godzilla movie, and was not intended to be just a Godzilla movie.

 

[Clint_L]

This conversation has me really wrestling with how to discuss overtly political art given the forum rules. It has been argued that all art is political, but generally you can discuss, say, Andor without getting into the specifics of of the fairly obvious but coded commentary on today's political climate. However, when you have a film like this one that is using explicitly political rhetoric (as in some lines that are almost verbatim from political platforms), it is hard not to note that it is doing that, even if you don't want to debate the actual politics.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I appreciate the insight into how this movie is more political than it seems to non-Japanese audiences.

 

[Ryujin]

This conversation has me really wrestling with how to discuss overtly political art given the forum rules. It has been argued that all art is political, but generally you can discuss, say, Andor without getting into the specifics of of the fairly obvious but coded commentary on today's political climate. However, when you have a film like this one that is using explicitly political rhetoric (as in some lines that are almost verbatim from political platforms), it is hard not to note that it is doing that, even if you don't want to debate the actual politics.

Perhaps if we stick to the historical commentary, rather than bringing in current politics, it would still fall within the rules?

 

[gnarlygninja]

Drawing a line in the sand between history and current politics is already difficult, and that's without current politics trying to root itself in history. It can be done, but I definitely understand it leaving people hesitant.