Vancouver Asahi

[matsuki]

Saw this recently and while it was pretty decent portrayal, I don't think it was very good at driving home the "They're Japanese Canadians" theme to the average J-viewer. (Didn't help that almost none of the characters speak any English)

[kurogane]

Yeah, there was a fair bit of grumbling about the obvious and rather inaccurate cultural appropriation and more than a few Japanese immigrants have been whining about the internments as though they were there, completely overlooking the irony that the Japanese themselves often interned NA Jpn caught in Japan when the war broke out. The local Jpn-Cdns get rather miffed when the new ones do that, but they seem to keep it in house. Which is fine with me.

Other than that, apparently it's rather well done, and a touching story. I suppose casting all the current airheads was unavoidable, and Hollywood has certainly been ruining perfectly good superhero movies and other remakes by casting vapid metrosexualists. The new Superman aside.

BTW, they have revived the Vancouver Asahi team, which is cool. They lost so much from the internments that every little bit helps.

[matsuki]

Yeah, there was a fair bit of grumbling about the obvious and rather inaccurate cultural appropriation and more than a few Japanese immigrants have been whining about the internments as though they were there, completely overlooking the irony that the Japanese themselves often interned NA Jpn caught in Japan when the war broke out. The local Jpn-Cdns get rather miffed when the new ones do that, but they seem to keep it in house. Which is fine with me.

Yeah...I just looked past it and enjoyed the story but it came across more like "We Kawaisou Japanese living abroad and overcoming racism with sugoi baseball" than "Japanese Canadians using baseball to gain acceptance in Canadian society." Would have been a more legit vibe with Japanese Canadian actors who speak fluent English, the fucked communication and "us vs. them" on POV characters seems to get too mixed in with the "racism", but I was amused by the "stubborn ol beat whitey nihonjinron papa." I guess it can't be helped as the movie is obviously targeted at the "We Japanese" audience.

[dimwit]

Never saw the movie. I did see the NFB film about the same subject and it was well done. I try to avoid Japanese movies about the internment, because they usually miss the point by a mile, and I always have the suspicion that the people backing such projects are the kind of people who also believe Nanking was a hoax.

By the way, in the movie did they get the Canadian flag right? That is always the dealbreaker for me as it is indicative of lazy research.

[matsuki]

Never saw the movie. I did see the NFB film about the same subject and it was well done. I try to avoid Japanese movies about the internment, because they usually miss the point by a mile, and I always have the suspicion that the people backing such projects are the kind of people who also believe Nanking was a hoax.

I think the concept of an immigrant society is simply beyond most J-people's comprehension unless that have some sort of experience living abroad. Add to that, the trend of "nihonjin sugoi! clap clap crap" and as you said, they're aiming at the wrong target.

Ishii himself confessed to a Vancouver newspaper that both Japantown and the Asahi team were unknown to him before he began the project.

Also, the film’s pronounced us-versus-them narrative, with both the team and the Japantown residents continually confronting raw prejudice while living in a Japanese linguistic and cultural bubble, repetitiously simplifies the messy process of assimilation that so many immigrants underwent in that era.

The result is an exercise in soft nationalism targeted at the home market, despite its international veneer. The aim, as was the case with “The Great Passage,” is to make the local audience proud to be Japanese — as well as thankful they don’t have to endure the same harsh treatment from a non-Japanese majority as the film’s much-put-upon heroes.

I like that way of putting it, "soft nationalism"

Other reviews are much harsher and even claiming the movie discourages J-people from considering immigration...which I don't think is the case...but then again I run into sooo many J-people that think LA is nothing but gun toting gangsters and cowboys because Hollywood.

By the way, in the movie did they get the Canadian flag right? That is always the dealbreaker for me as it is indicative of lazy research.

I don't even remember if they showed a single flag in the movie...

[BigInJapan]

By the way, in the movie did they get the Canadian flag right? That is always the dealbreaker for me as it is indicative of lazy research.

I don't even remember if they showed a single flag in the movie...

As the red maple leaf flag is so overwhelmingly predominant, I doubt that even most Canucks under the age of 50 would recognize the Canadian flag prior to 1965.

Threeflag[1].jpg

[kurogane]

ooooh. Major retro trivia kudos on the flag point. That would have been some serious Chawan mushi on the face.

Anyways, yeah, other than the appropriation of an issue and a tragedy they had nothing to do with, if it's a nice movie we're cool with it. The representational issues sound similar to Snow Falling on Cedars: no Nisei would speak like that; they often have a noticeable ghetto accent, but it isn't non-native. As for the Us vs. Them theme, alive as that is it's a White vs. non-white issue, not a nationality issue per se. All the Jpn Cdn friends I grew up with had a fairly heavy Hakujin complex; then again, their parents were encamped. I just try to be a Good German about it all. If the movie does anything beyond entertainment hopefully it captured at least part of the inexpressible sadness and despair of an entire people that paid with everything they had for something they never did just because of who they were.

[matsuki]

Anyways, yeah, other than the appropriation of an issue and a tragedy they had nothing to do with

Well, to be fair, the main character does tell his omoikiri nihonjinron father that he's grateful for bringing the family to Canada. Unfortunately, it does a shit job of differentiating the Japanese Japanese like the father and Japanese Canadians...nor does it show injuns, or any other non-white immigrants like Indians, Chinese, etc. etc. Just a really oversimplified Japanese vs. Hakujin battle for respect.