Akira & Walt

I found Rashomon to support the common phrase "there are many sides to every story." Just as Benjamin described the complexities that go into filming an actor, Kurasowa captures both the actors and the stories creating multiple works of art at once. I enjoyed the way that the perspectives the viewer sees are stories seen, manipulated, told, manipulated, and retold while being manipulated. Beyond that Kurosowa is retelling a story through film and the camera is retelling the stories of what the actors did. The viewer also must manipulate the stories to decide what really happened and base their decision off what the actor did, the camera captured, and they saw. I enjoyed the film and the reading really plays off of its strengths.

Rashomon & Walter Benjamin

While watching Rashomon this weekend, I was as much interested as bored. Focusing on the subscript of a movie really takes away from the movie and is truly not that fun. However, I did wonder if the movie’s meaning/impact may have gotten altered during the translation from Japanese to English. Does translation change the movie into something less unique like Benjamin says? Overall, the movie really wasn’t that interesting but I would like to know which story was told correctly. I guess since each witness of the same event told the story differently, the person watching the movie has the opportunity to interpret what really happened for him/herself; true literature at its best.

Rashomon and "Reproduction"

While I was initially discouraged by the 20 pages of reading and the hour and a half long movie, I actually enjoyed the entirety of Rashomon and the way that Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” was very cohesive with the movie. Benjamin is focusing on the idea of how a recreation of something never gives quite the same effect as its original. All of us can attest to this as many of our favorite books are turned into movies. A work is created in a specific way for a reason, a book isn’t meant to be watched and a stage play isn’t set up for the big screen. This isn’t to say that recreations can’t work out in the right context, because I can appreciate a play turned into a good movie or a book turned blockbuster. So, I don’t think Benjamin’s ideas should be the end all be all of all forms of recreations. However, if Rashomon had been remade today in English, it would lose a lot of its meaning. As non-Japanese speakers, we as an audience probably lose a lot of the intended meaning in translation. However, if we were to take away the original performances of the actors as the original director had intended, the movie would be much less effective. Well, maybe not “much less” effective, but definitely effective in a different way. Essentially, a recreation isn’t always just a copy of its original; it becomes an entirely separate work of its own.

Walter Benjamin

I was especially interested in what Walter Benjamin had to say about the differences between a stage actor and a movie actor. If I am correct, he describes a sort of disembodiment not experienced by the stage actor. The idea that a camera, unlike the perspective of a live audience, not only segments the film and therefore the artwork, but also the actor is disturbing on some levels. Film then becomes much like a collage and so does the actor. Their character and their identity become nothing more than a conglomeration of fragments purposefully connected to convey a particular persona.

Rashomon and Walter Benjamin

Going into watching this film I was interested to see what it was going to be like. I did not look up anything about it because I wanted it to be a surprise. The surprise for me was not as good as I had hoped but I still enjoyed seeing the different types of literature that Benjamin talks about in his writing. When watching the movie i had many questions about it because I was very confused for the first like hour of it. The only thing that helped me get it was the expressions of the actors. I was not too impressed with this movie, but I do have to say that it is good for the time period that it was made in. The thing that I did not like most about it was that it was in Japanese and I am not a big fan of movies in different languages in general so this is probably what I was not very impressed with it. I am very interested in hearing the comments from the rest of the class on this movie and also the reading to see how other people liked the style and different form of literature.

Rashomon and Walter Benjamin

I went into watching the movie thinking it would not be interesting at all. I read the wikipedia entry on the movie and was bored reading that. However, after watching the movie, I no longer feel that way. I see why it was important to watch this movie and experience it as a form of art, like Benjamin shares, instead of a boring black and white film. This once again, reinforces the idea that literature is not just a piece of text, but so much more than that. Now I view things other than text as literature which makes, ie movies, limitless. As we were talking about translations a lot last week, and the week before, it really makes me think of what could have been lost through the translation.

Rashomon & The Work of Art...

I, like almost everyone else, was not looking forward to having to watch a movie with subtitles at first. To my surprise though, the movie actually ended up being pretty good. Thankfully there weren't a whole lot of subtitles, which can get distracting, so I was able to actually enjoy the movie. After finishing the movie and reading the passage it was obvious there was a direct correlation. The reading caused me to think of film as more of an art form. I never have really thought of film as art before. I mean, who really thinks of Superbad or The Hangover as being anything close to art? When something is changed from its original form, Benjamin says, it is no longer unique. I can definitely see this in the movie. What if the movie were to be re-made in English with American actors? I don't think the movie would have as much of an impact as it is in its original form.