Women and Kokutai in Japanese Film
Kokutai has a strong representation in Mizoguchi’s Story of the Last Chrysanthemum. The use of film language that is not typical to western audiences, forces the viewer to look at the film through a different lens which could be described as “Japanese”. The national emotional ideal in this film is shown through the emphasis on more traditional beliefs and ideals such as gender representation and an unsentimental style of storytelling. These aspects of Kokutai seen in the Story of the Last Chrysanthemum can also be seen in Tokyo Story, Gate of Hell, and The Ballad of Narayama. In the Story of the Last Chrysanthemum Mizoguchi takes an unfamiliar approach to this style of filmmaking; long takes, complicated flowing camera movements, and distance from the characters even in emotional moments help to exemplify Kokutai in terms of film language. In both Tokyo Story, Gate of Hell, and The Ballad of Narayama, the role of women and familial dilemmas in Japanese society are visualized through film language. In each film, kabuki influence can be seen through similarities between the roles of the female characters.
To begin with, in the film Tokyo Story, Ozu uses a unique style and different form of film language that is unfamiliar to western audiences. Although the film itself is based on an American film, it takes that story and gives it a different, Japanese identity through film language. Ozu uses a straight head-level camera angle known as a tatami mat, while the character dialogue is spoken directly into the camera. In a sense, this aspect is itself of Kokutai, as it is a singularly Japanese filmmaking style. Ozu’s techniques such as the elliptical style and 360-degree approach illuminate the uniqueness of his style of filmmaking. These techniques also help to illuminate the discourse within the narrative that relates Tokyo Story to The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum and the Japanese experience during post-war Japan. The film also highlights the rapid urbanization and gender roles in a melancholic dilemma similar to Mizoguchi’s Story of the Last Crysnathenyum. The gender role that is placed on the female character, Noriko, is similar to Onoue symbolically. Noriko is a modern working woman who is more urbanized however she is still tied to the traditional Japanese culture and familiar pressure. The Kokutai influence is seen as Noriko choosing to stay with her late husband's family, devoting time and money to them while their own blood family does not do the same.
Continuing, Kokuai's influence is more heavily present in the film Gate of Hell than in the subtle portrayal in Tokyo Story. Released around the same time as Tokyo Story, in post-war modern Japan, this film is completely different; however, the character Kesa shares the same gender-specific characterization and role in the story as Onoue in Story of the Last Chrysanthemum and Noriko in Tokyo Story. In Gate of Hell, the gender dynamics between the characters Morito and Kesa, show how despite Kesa being a married woman, she still has no power over Morito’s advances. Kesa feels as though she is at fault for Morito’s advances, and eventually when she sacrifices herself it is seen as the only option for her. In this sense, the film represents the Kokutai gender role for a woman to do everything she can to support her — similar to the character of Onoue in Story of the Last Chrysanthemum. However, in this story, Kesa’s death is the catalyst for the men to come to the revelation that they mistreated her. The masculinity and femininity of the characters are hyperextended, and the lack of attention to the women characters' feelings shows they are just there. The objective of the story is an indictment of the gender roles of the time enforced by the Kokutai belief. Kesa is seen as being so faithful that she could sacrifice herself, falling in line with the Kokutai belief of sacrifice for the employer. Overall the film exploits women's suffering while also satisfying another audience.
In this sense, the film also appeals to western audiences, as it matches the values of the American 1950s Golden age, and the film's overall international success is a testament to the similarity of the views of women being portrayed in the 1950s. The film also commodifies Japanese culture by embracing Kokutai to bring a more “Japanese” film to the screen. The ideological artistic trends echo stories of certain sentiments of the feminine role. In many ways, this film is different from the others in its lighting and color, matching how the film's language is used in an unsettling manner to parallel its portrayal of an unsettling situation, bringing the audience’s attention to the colorful nature of the traditional style of the Japanese culture as well as highlighting more modern aspects.
Additionally, Kokutai has a heavy influence on the film, The Ballad of Narayama. This film embraces the Kokutai in the sense of how the story wants to be told, while Kabuki aesthetics play a major important role in how the film looks and the viewers interact with it. By embracing an older Japanese style and ideal, the film illuminates a more traditional Japan both visually and symbolically. Using more traditional elements such as the Shamisen is a traditional Japanese music score, and Joururi, the narrator in kabuki, the film, although post-war, feels more genuine to the values of a more historical Japanese value system. The use of kabuki as a visual film language is very similar to Story of the Last Chrysanthemum. The kabuki’s importance in Japanese culture and art is shown through the use of kabuki elements as film language — both films use kabuki to inspire the style of storytelling, how the characters are placed on the screen and their actions. In the Ballad of Narayama, the makers leaned into the essence of Japanese style, embracing it similarly to The Last Chrysanthemum with film language that is unapologetically in its stage-like long shots. Another Kokutai similarity is found in the roles of the elderly; in both Tokyo Story and Ballad of Narayama, the role of the elderly is a contemporary issue. The importance of Obesute, the act of sacrificing the old, does more than help to drive the plot and create the action in the story; it also shows the Kokutai influence. Obesute, a uniquely Japanese practice, is highlighted and criticized in this film. The character Orin is a very kind woman in a community that is questionable morally. Internally Orin has many connections to gender roles and family as she is a woman and a mother, and she plays an important role in the traditional Japanese household, as seen through her actions. However, she is also shown to have a duty that she desires to complete, driving her desire for self-sacrifice, thereby embracing the Japanese essence of Kokutai; she wants to do everything in her power to help her family, something which results in her own death.
A commonality of the roles of women in these films is the sacrifice for the greater good. Orin sacrifices herself to give her family more food to support her grandchild, Osune sacrifices herself for her husband's career, and Kesa “saves” her husband; these sacrifices are seen as necessary to their communities and honorable. While Noriko’s sacrifice in Tokyo Story is not her life, she still sacrifices time and money to help a family that she is technically no longer a part of. Overall, all of these characters share the fact that they are women in Japan, and in that capacity to be considered honorable and “good wives”, they must make sacrifices for themselves to help others. The Kokutai of Japan enforced the belief that women serve their purpose in the country to give birth to sons, but also played an important role in Japanese culture and cinema as women were faced with the post-war growth and were forced to question not only what it means to be Japanese, but it means to be a Japanese woman. The shifting political and social landscapes are represented in these films while women's identity is seemingly united in the sense that they exist to help Japan itself. The gender regime enforced by the Kokutai influence on Japanese society changed the prominence of the role of women and changed the dynamics of growing feminism in postmodern Japan.
