Proposition:
Films are a cultural product and therefore reflect the period and culture in which they were made.
The super hero then embodies heroic values of a given culture or time.
The binary of the hero is of course the villain and, if the hero embodies our cultural description of heroism, the villain embodies our fears of criminality and ‘evil’ to use a simplistic term.
If we are using Batman The Dark Knight to explore how that Superhero reflect the America Christopher Nolan finds himself in, we can use film to explore other cultures’ values, attitudes and beliefs with regard to the superhero.
In this lesson we are going to look at films from China and Japan and ask ourselves what we can learn about these cultures through their cultural products (films):
Task
Look at the sequences below from excellent films from the orient: What impression do you get of the heroes in these sequences? How are these ideas constructed through the mise-en-scene and cinematography?