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April 23, 2000
ENEMY
LINES: WHEN
JAPANESE ARE THE BAD GUYS
I've grown up with negative portrayals of Japan in popular culture, especially in movies about World War II. They invariably show the Japanese military, from soldiers and sailors to the highest generals as ruthless, fierce, maniacal fighters. Even award-winning films such as the 1957 "The Bridge on the River Kwai," for which Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa received an Oscar nomination, added to this popular culture image.
| It made me think about how Native Americans have felt for the better part of the century about their portrayal in popular films. |
Growing up, those images seldom made me twinge, I suppose mostly because I identified more with the American side of the story. To me as a child, those Japanese were like Nazis -- the bad guys on the other side of the war. It seemed easy to make the distinctions between the brutal wartime Japanese and the virtuous Allies because, well, because war is hell and each side fights with all they have.
The distinction gets hazier for me today, as an older film viewer. I'm not so sure I can watch movies about "The Pacific War" and identify solely with the American side.
But also, I feel more uncomfortable today with Japan's role as dominators of East Asia.
This feeling has been highlighted recently with two martial arts films: The 1972 "Jing wu men" (U.S. titles "Fist of Fury" or "Chinese Connection"), and a 1994 remake, "Jing wu ying xiong" ("Fist of Legend").
Both are about the mysterious death of a martial arts master in Shanghai during the Japanese Occupation which started 1937, and how one of his students, Chen Zhen, returns to the school to avenge the death, even though it means he'll have to die at the hands of the occupiers.
I remember seeing the first, which was Bruce Lee's second kung fu classic and the movie that really helped establish him as a star in the West, when I was in high school, and kung fu became cool. I don't remember how I felt then about the brutality of the Japanese occupiers, or the intensity of hatred felt by Lee and the other Chinese characters towards them.
But this time I squirmed as I watched it, knowing that the Chinese probably had good cause for their venom, and also knowing the film was a huge hit with Chinese audiences all over the world. I felt the portrayals of the bad guys were too simplistic.. but then realized that's always the case with bad guys in movies. It made me think about how Native Americans have felt for the better part of the century about their portrayal in popular films.
Then I saw "Fist of Legend," which was produced by and stars Jet Li, who is an awesome athlete who incorporates much of Bruce Lee's talent into an equally charismatic but more understated persona (he's still Asian, while Lee lived much of his life in the U.S.).
Li's version of the Chen Zhen story is richer in plot and deeper in intent. Although the fighting scenes are obviously paramount, Li adds several layers of racial tension, characters with more dimensions, romance, and a much more hopeful ending than the earlier film's bleak resolution.
In "Legend," Li shows how the oppressed Chinese characters had as much racist enmity (though perhaps understandable) towards the Japanese as the other way around. One of the central themes is a romance between Chen and Mitsuko, a Japanese woman he meets while attending university in Kyoto before returning to Shanghai when he hears of his master's death. The romance flowers even though Chen's kung fu school won't allow her to stay with him there, and the pair are even kicked out of a Shanghai hotel to jeers of "traitor" and "go back to Japan" (I expect the original Chinese dialogue was probably stronger in tone than the dubbed English translation).
Yet, Chen perseveres over his fighting opponents by incorporating elements of Japanese karate and even Western body-building exercises -- one early scene shows the students at the kung fu school mystified by and then amazed by Li's one-handed pull-ups and pushups. And after one particularly thrilling fight scene with a Japanese master (the two battle blindfolded because the master was blinded by dust, and Chen Zhen wanted to fight on equal grounds), Chen gratefully receives advice from the Japanese after he gains his respect.
The remake also features both Chinese who are duplicitous and evil, and Japanese characters who are sympathetic to the Chinese and feel marching down the militaristic path in East Asia is wrong. In Bruce Lee's 1972 story, the Chinese were virtuous and Japanese not -- a simple-minded snapshot of a bleak, black-and-white world. Instead, early in "Legend," Mitsuko implores Chen, "Don't hate us all."
Even the ending is more hopeful in Li's version.
In the original, Lee, still filled with fury and hatred, leaps to his death at soldiers lined up to execute him. In "Legend," the sympathetic Japanese ambassador acknowledges that because a general has been killed, the Tokyo government will demand some punishment of someone, but he comes up with an ingenious way for Chen Zhen to stay alive and live out his life with Mistuko, even though it means he has to give up his Chinese identity.
This more complex telling of the Chen Zhen story, on top of Li's phenomenal gymnastic ability, grace and strength, and a much bigger production budget and a grand soundtrack, make "Fist of Legend" a powerful film. It doesn't just belong in the martial arts shelf at your local video store.
"Fist of Legend" portrays Japanese as the bad guys, but in a way that made me think about why, and how not everyone on either side of any conflict is pure in its good or evil aspects. That's some nourishing food for thought.
You can find the films I've mentioned at your local video retail or rental store, or online at Amazon.com.