Japanese Images in Genres: Pretexts of the Japan Complex in Taiwan Cinema

• In Event: Identity in Motion, History in Question: Horizons of the Visual Cultural Practices in Taiwan

Abstract

Through analyzing the representations of Japan in different genres of Taiwan cinema during the 1960s, this paper examines the pretexts of the “Japan complex” to discuss how genres produce national emotions. In postwar Taiwan cinema, the images of Japan were represented within different psychological frameworks, alternating between “anti-Japan” and “pro-Japan,” which could be interpreted as two opposing poles on the political spectrum. My close reading shows that the anti-Japanese images were largely employed in war-themed films in the 1970s; the local Japanese colonial experiences were displayed in the 1980s; and the nostalgia and fantasy toward Japan were exhibited in recent decades. This study does not aim at historicizing Taiwan’s public perceptions of Japan; instead, it looks back to the pretexts in the 1960s, when the genres of films were still developing, experimenting, and evolving, as film workers invested more efforts at that time in exploring possible genres rather than approaching nationalism or patriotism in the films. Looking into genres of spy films, Taiwanese dialect comedies, and parodies, this study investigates how the inventions of genres implicitly produced complicated political perceptions toward Japan, particularly focusing on the analyses of the following films: Lee Hsing’s “Good Neighbors” (1962); Chin-Lung’s “Female Agent No.7” (1964); Li Han-Hsiang’s “Storm Over the Yangtze River” (1968); Akinori Matsuo’s “Rainbow Over the Kinmen” (1962); and Lin Fu-Di’s “Golden Asura” (1963).

Author

• Miwako Akamatsu, Otsuma Women’s University