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Japanese Mythology in Film
A Semiotic Approach to Reading Japanese Film and Anime
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2015
Summary
A cyborg detective hunts for a malfunctioning sex doll that turns itself into a killing machine. A Heian-era Taoist slays evil spirits with magic spells from yin-yang philosophy. A young mortician carefully prepares bodies for their journey to the afterlife. A teenage girl drinks a cup of life-giving sake, not knowing its irreversible transformative power. These are scenes from the visually enticing, spiritually eclectic media of Japanese movies and anime. The narratives of courageous heroes and heroines and the myths and legends of deities and their abodes are not just recurring motifs of the cinematic fantasy world. They are pop culture’s representations of sacred subtexts in Japan. Japanese Mythology in Film takes a semiotic approach to uncovering such religious and folkloric tropes and subtexts embedded in popular Japanese movies and anime.
Part I introduces film semiotics with plain definitions of terminology. Through familiar cinematic examples, it emphasizes the myth-making nature of modern-day film and argues that semiotics can be used as a theoretical tool for reading film. Part II presents case studies of eight popular Japanese films as models of semiotic analysis. While discussing each film’s use of common mythological motifs such as death and rebirth, its case study also unveils more covert cultural signifiers and folktale motifs, including jizo (a savior of sentient beings) and kori (bewitching foxes and raccoon dogs), hidden in the Japanese filmic text.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2015
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-9092-0
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-9093-7
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
244
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Preface No access
Acknowledgments No access
Conventions No access
Chapter 1. Introduction: What Is Semiotics? No access
Chapter 2. Reading Film: The Nature of Interpretation No access
Chapter 3. Mythology in Film: Why Study Mythology in Popular Film and Anime? No access
Chapter 4. Storytelling: What Is in the Story? No access
Chapter 5. Visual Literacy: What Do We Get from Watching Film? No access
Chapter 6. Taoism and Shinto Symbolism in Onmyoji (2001) and Onmyo¯ji II (2003) No access
Chapter 7. Folklore Motifs in Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (2000) No access
Chapter 8. Motifs of Buddhism and Folklore in Dororo (2007) and Departures (2008) No access
Chapter 9. Eclectic Myths in Mushi-shi (2006) and Cyborg Mythology of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) No access
Chapter 10. Conclusion. Social Usage of Mythology No access
Bibliography No access Pages 215 - 228
Index No access Pages 229 - 242
About the Author No access Pages 243 - 244
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