Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

12-2019

Abstract

This article highlights three family-targeted films made under the wartime Japanese empire: Yamamoto Kajir ō ’s musical comedy Songokū (1940) and Seo Mitsuyo’s animated Momotarō films, Sea Eagles (1943) and Divine Warriors of the Sea (1945). Significantly, these films are based on two fantastical premodern stories—the Chinese novel Journey to the West and the Japanese Momotarō legend, respectively—whose quest narratives map onto Japan’s contemporaneous military expansion into mainland China and the islands of the South Pacific. Despite the films’ seeming alignment with ultranationalist ideology, I argue that the geopolitical trajectories of their narratives are rendered ambiguous by their various reception contexts, paratextual relations, spectatorial pleasures, and media modes. In the case of Songokū, the comedic, parodic stylings of its star, Enoken, proved an uncomfortable match with the already nativized Journey to the West story. This pairing generated a great deal of official hostility. The Momotarō films, conversely, were made with the explicit support of the Japanese Navy. I draw on Thomas Lamarre’s work to argue that the hierarchy of beings (human, animal, demon) overlaid representationally on the Japanese, the South Pacific inhabitants, and the Euro-Americans is undercut by the varying degrees of plasmaticity in Seo’s animated line.

Keywords

Japanese film, wartime cinema, animation, film musicals, folk tales, Enoken

Discipline

Asian Studies | Film and Media Studies

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Ex-Position

Volume

42

First Page

5

Last Page

27

ISSN

2663-032X

Identifier

10.6153/EXP.201912_(42).0002

Publisher

National Taiwan University

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/0.6153/EXP.201912_(42).0002

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