For this assignment three films incorporating the Sino-Japanese War will be analysed. This will be done to see to what extent the War is married to the themes invoked by the films.
An overview detailing the socio-political constraints and realities of the war will be put into context before looking at the central themes of the films. Through comparing and contrasting the themes in relation to the war a rationale will then be drawn upon before a conclusion is made regarding the symbolic and actual depiction of the war in a historical context.This will include the relationship between China and Japan that constituted the civilian reality amidst the various conflicts. The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the nations of Japan and China between the years of 1937 and 1945. It began before the Second World War had broken and ended when the Japanese submitted to allied forces in 1945.
The rationale for the conflict was based primarily upon the Japanese Empire’s desire to utilise many of the peripheral resources of China and claim them as their own. This was met with the resistance of China.The battle ground of the War was within the territories of China, many of them 'urban' and culturally integrated with members and representatives of both sides (Carlson 1941, p. 99-105).
This naturally led to espionage and many groups of secret police who gave information back to the administration head quarters of each warring faction. In this sense, the war was coercive and deeply ideological. That is to say, that territory was not easily claimed and the people were not easily established with regards to the side that they represented and the distinction between civilian and soldier was not clear.The roles of nationality obviously played a huge role in the War as both sides were indicative of the nations of China and Japan. However, the ideological catalyst for allegiance to these nations was founded in differing ideologies.
The main difference in ideological split was in the revolutionary faction of the Chinese army that divided into communists and nationalists (Gordon 2006, p. 137-182).This was splintered further in relation to the Japanese army as it had a number of 'collaborationist members' who were 'Chinese in origin' (Barrett 2001, p. -17).
This made the role of nationality highly significant to the civilian population who could not discern the loyalties of other civilians in any definitive way. Essentially, if the fellow civilians in China were Chinese they could be communists, nationalists or collaborationists. From an international perspective, the first Sino-Japanese war had seen some of these peripheral areas of China break from Chinese rule in the early part of the twentieth century, such as Taiwan and Korea.Further, there were a range of intermittent incidents that broke out between China and Japan in the period between the first and second Sino-Japanese war that accentuated the notion of conflict. However, the 'primary event' that led to the classification of the date of 1937 was the incident at 'Marco Polo Bridge', which saw the Japanese Imperial Army take the region 'with considerable ease' (Gordon 2006, p.
137-182).This marked the beginning of the war in the international arena and made China accept that alongside a definitive Japanese military presence, there was also a 'coercive Japanese presence' within Chinese 'territories' (Coogan 1994, p. 282-314). The military reality of the War was somewhat defined by the superior capability of the Japanese Army and the comparative lacking in Chinese might.
This led to much bragging and boasting by the Japanese military in relation to the Chinese resistance forces.These were captured in the idea of Japan being able to take Shanghai in three days and China in three months. However, the 'officials' in the Japanese Empire were often 'reluctant to act' upon such 'rhetoric' (Chien 1942, p. 850-872).
Other distinctive features were the international relations that notably led China to fight many battles that they knew they would lose. This was so as to show their might and determination to the rest of the world. This meant that the reality of acts as theatre and sacrifice were often indulged by Chinese political activists including civilians.Essentially, the activity of the civilians was formed on the basis of tragedy and ideological sacrifice, marrying the civilian reality of the War with high art and culture (Pyle, 2007). This notion of military and political civilian action as symbolic theatre was particularly important in relation to the world war that was emerging and by 1939 had become a reality. Essentially, without it China could have been seen as a desperate and unimportant strategic ally (Pyle, 2007).
The super powers of the Second World War were ultimately significant as the War ended with the over powering of Japan by the US allies in 1945.The military significance of the rest of the world was apparent in China’s dependency upon fascist Germans who had strategic and economic links with China. This created 'ideological links' with the acceptance and utilisation of 'nationalism' throughout the region of China and more significantly throughout its 'activist' and military groups (Coogan 1994, p. 282-314). Alongside this ideological and economic force there were also the communist Russian’s, who had 'strong ideological links' with China and the allies (Parks 1985, p. 93-310).
Communism was becoming the face of China and was heard in the rhetoric of the political leaders of the nation. Mao summed this notion up in a speech to the Chinese people in relation to nationalistic sentiment by stating that: ‘Some people insisted, to show that we do love our nation, we should be more anti-Japanese, but then the nation belongs to Chiang Kai-sak, we communists, our mother-land is Soviet Union, the common mother-land of the world's communists.The aim of we communists, is to allow the Japanese to occupy more land, then a power triangle will be formed, which consisted of Chiang, Japanese and us, which is the ideal situation, the worst come to the worst, if ever Japanese occupy the whole of China, we would then still be able to fight back, with the help of the Soviet Union. ’ (Chang ; Halliday 2005, p. 17) Having utilised China in the opening and pre-cursive stages of the second world war, Germany then sought Japan as an ally, due to its ideological mutuality, its technological might and tactical significance.Although China had an ideological link with Russia, Communist Russia neglected China by not committing to its plight.
This is given rationale in the notion that the fighters who made up the large proportion of the resistance army were in fact national rather than communists. Although the rhetoric being used by many of the political leaders at the time and subsequent to the war was communist in idealism, such as those found in the comment made by Mao, it was nevertheless the nationalists in China that were found to be the main driving force in military and civilian participation.Further, the Japanese Army considered the nationalists as their enemy rather than the Communists, which maintained the rationale of conflict firmly focused upon nationalism and national identity. The military factions were known as the Kuomintang, who committed vast battalions of troops to the frontline in the name of nationalist sentiment and motivation (Parks 1985, p.
293-310). Contrastingly, the communists were more inclined to seek out the harassing of Japanese supply lines and communication with the Japan mainland.Although ideologically opposed, the two factions were both committed in differing ways to resisting Japan. However, this could be seen in relation to vastly different reasons that had an effect on idealised ally in the Second World War. As Russia was communist, so fascist Germany was nationalist.
Further, Japan was also nationalist and turned to fascism later in the War. Therefore, the conflict with Japan in relation to the Chinese nationalists was based primarily upon two different forms of national allegiance.Whereas the communists were ideologically opposed to the hierarchal form of Empire that Japan had instilled. This is perhaps why Russia rejected any significant alliance with China.
Further, Germany’s siding with Japan over China could most likely have been due to the better military strength. What is significant in relation to the civilian landscape in China at this time was that the nationals were more ideologically inclined than the communists to side with the collaborationists. The three films that we will be analysing all depict the Sino-Japanese War in a variety of ways.Essentially, two of the films depict a marriage between fiction and historical reality. This can be seen in the indulgence of a fictional narrative combined with a historical and ideological backdrop to the narrative related entirely to the Sino-Japanese War.
The third film charts the life of a somewhat peculiar historical figure that was caught between the two different nations at war. It is through the contrast of depictions that we will be assessing the themes of the films in relation to the historical events and ideological realities of the Sin-Japanese War.Through this, we will be looking at the significance of certain factors pertaining to the War to see what is being suggested about Japanese and Chinese life, such as cultural relations and the impact that the ideological conflicts had on the identity of the people being portrayed. Humanistic themes, such as sexuality and idealism, will be focused upon while set in relation to the historical context. The film Purple Butterfly is set amidst the backdrop of the conflict between the ideological factions of China and Japan in the region of Shanghai.It is ostensibly a love story following the relationship between the central character Szeto and his former relationships with Ding Hui.
These characters come to symbolise the war and the different loyalties that are open to the main character after his present girlfriend is killed. The Purple Butterfly is depicted as an underground student movement against the oppressive forces of the Japanese invasion that have taken the loyalty of Szeto‘s former girlfriend. However, this is not a group with any definitive basis.In this sense, the director utilises the themes common to western theatre, such as the factions of the Montagues and the Capulets in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Essentially, the warring factions become the back drop and catalyst to the theme of love and grief. However, unlike Romeo and Juliet and similar traditional plays based upon the theme of love, the ideal of love does not reside above such constraints. It does not eventually succumb to tragedy, thus making the role of love appear in some way transcendental to the conditions of the war.Rather, the notion of love itself is in great conflict and subject to the mechanics of war being used as a manipulative tool. It is made to change, due to other stronger ideological truths.
For example, the notion of nationalism is captured in the commitment to the movement of the revolutionary Purple Butterfly. This revolutionary love is seen in the sublimation of the love between the characters. In this, the notion of identity and affiliation with the ideological movement is represented and drawn out between the conflicts internal to the theme of love and loyalty.The notion of nationalism is central to this conflicting plot theme, which refers to the source of loyalty in the film‘s narrative. Contrastingly, Lust, Caution is a film that follows the theme of espionage rather than love although both are represented throughout the plot. However, it contains the same themes of student revolution and combines the idea of intimate love as subordinate to love of an ideological kind.
In this, sexuality becomes distinct from love.In the film’s depiction we see a more Machiavellian and perhaps even existential display of reason. Although committed to the movement, the central figures Chia Chi and Kuang are not ideologically driven or affected by the socio-political landscape in relation to love as they are in Purple Butterfly. Rather, love is not indulged and intimacy is denied and replaced with political idealism and activism. In this respect, the backdrop is something of an existential environment from which the characters negotiate their actions in relation to their identity.
It is in many respects an identity driven narrative that utilises the Sino-Japanese War as a distant background to the lives of the characters and the meaning they apply to their lives and activities. In this, it bears a relation more common with the film noir and detective novels of the west rather than a tragic play. It charts the rise in power that is an allegory to the distant background war, signified in the opening act. The first scene shows the power that Chia Chi has now come to mark.The film then contrasts this to her student beginnings, subsequently charting her interactivity throughout the years of the war. During the following encounters, the national sentiments of the revolution are charted.
A play involving national sentiment is indulged and one of the lead students asserts his ideological rationale for assassinating a seemingly insignificant political figure. In relation to the back drop of the war, he is insignificant. However, in relation to the identity of the character and the meaning they have placed in their day top day travails he comes to symbolise a much greater enemy.The figure is vilified because he is deemed unpatriotic in his stance showing the distaste for collaborationist sentiment. After a failed attempt at taking his life, the severity and significance of the characters involved in the plot rise in power in the later scenes.
For instance, Mr Lee has become a head of the collaborationist secret police; Kuang has formed a group of resistance activists aimed at bringing down the head of the collaborationist movement in the area and Chia Chi has been recruited to help out.In the process of having liaisons with Mr. Yee, Chiu Chi’s existential conflicts begin that reveal the catastrophic emotional and ideological conflicts at play in the story. Although Chiu Chi is aware of her duty and ideological inclination to kill Mr Lee, she is also bound to him sexually and emotionally. Essentially, if she cannot kill him then she risks being in further psychological and ideological conflict herself.
This is something of an allegory with regards to the Sino-Japanese War and relates to Purple Butterfly.Sexuality is a device used to reveal the notions of love that are tied up or in the case of Lust, Caution, denied through the context of ideological war no matter how distant or removed one may be. The film Kawashima Yoshiko also utilises the themes of sexuality, intimacy and identity. This is also displayed in relation o nationality.
However, in this film the notion of nationality is twinned with both sexuality and identity and utilises this in an empowering rather than subordinate way. Essentially, through the use of these intimate human traits, the character then immerses and utilises the back drop of War to her own end.It is perhaps the most explicit depiction of the Sino-Japanese War, given that the figure is at the heart of the exchange between the two warring factions and not negotiating the middle ground prevalent in the Chinese territories of the other two films. However, this is only the case in relation to its explicit depiction of the espionage career of the protagonist of the same name. Kawashima Yoshiko was a character who served the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese war.
In this, the film utilises the role of sexuality in the espionage between China and Japan, whilst also marrying it with the notion of high culture.In this, much is made of the symbolic status of both sexuality and nationality in terms of symbolism. Essentially, the identity of the character who defected to the Japanese came to wear men’s clothes. Although this defied the symbolic social structuring of both Japan and China, it represents the leaving of Chinese femininity and indulging of Japanese Masculinity. The character appears to rise through the ranks in the Japanese occupational forces by way of utilising the Japanese code of masculine hierarchy combined with her sexual knowledge.Dominant Japanese Imperial nationalism is emasculated throughout the film’s use of theme.
It is suggested that this is accepted by the Japanese establishment as it depicts the transformation from her nationality of birth rite to her new supposedly inherited ideological nationality. Essentially, although nationality cannot be changed, neither can one’s sex. By rejecting one’s gender, one can therefore reject one’s national birth rite. This is symbolised in the clothing worn by Kawashima Yoshiko. This makes the role of the film deeply rooted in nationalism.
However, rather than revealing intimate and personal conflicts in such ideological constraints, Kawashima Yoshiko focuses instead upon the way in which nationalism and ideology can themselves be utilised so that personal identity can be explored. Essentially, the exploitation of the political conflict is taken up by the character. This is somewhat more empowering in terms of the individual. However, this also leads to the ultimate downfall of the central protagonist in her highly symbolic death captured in the sentence and punishment given to her by the revolutionary forces in her original name.
This return to her original name defies her sexuality and in turn the national transformation that it signifies. In the three films a variety of different uses of the Sino-Japanese War are utilised in terms of theme. They are different in terms of significance in relation to the narrative. However, the uses of historical events are employed in the backdrop. The central themes are explored in relation to the human traits of love, identity, loyalty, sexuality and combined in various ways with the ideological constraints of nationalism prevalent in the socio-political divide that came to depict the reality of the conflict.Purple Butterfly utilises the notion of love and loyalty amidst the dangerous and fragile political landscape, whereas Lust, Caution looks at the notion of ideological cause and the consequences of denied intimacy.
Contrastingly, Kawashima Yoshiko explores the theme of empowerment through manipulating nationalistic social norms through utilising identity. In all three cases, the narrative and themes essential to the films are bound to the conflict between the nations of China and Japan without being based upon the theme of War itself.
