This is an entirely uninspired photo -- a "typical tourist shot," yet to me, it represents a lot. I arrived in Berlin late Saturday afternoon and went straightaway to the Berlinale Film Festival. I was able to get tickets to see two Japanese films -- many others were sold out. The first one's title was a double entendre lost on most of the audience because the translation decidedly took one stance and didn't even acknowledge the other. It influenced how you viewed the film; it gradually dawned on me what the second interpretation was, and eventually it overtook the first meaning. It was an important part of the story unfolding. In this case, the understanding of the visual narrative was swayed by the translation of the title and text.
The second one could be characterized as "contemporary family life in Japan." The themes were universal, and the packed audience laughed, cried, sighed, and clearly connected with the film, despite the fact that most could only understand the brief subtitles. On the other hand, I found every detail so incredibly meaningful that the film reached deep into my search for understanding the story.
The reason these experiences are important to me, and therefore the Berlinale Bear, is that I am embarking on a nearly four month research on the art of the visual narrative. A few years ago, I discovered film festivals as a way of seeing foreign films that I experienced mostly for their visual storytelling. How do you find meaning in visual representations? For most of the people seeing these Japanese films, they were experiencing visual narrative with only brief subtitles. I'll be integrating these film experiences into my own work in researching the role of visual narrative in picture books for children.
Wow. I looked at the photograph and thought "not up to Junko's usual standard" but I read your narrative and now I can understand where this is coming from. It is a tribute to the film maker that the second film still managed to draw emotion from the mostly Occidental audience despite being hampered by subtitles (roll on the day of the universal translator - it can't come soon enough IMO). There are several films of Japanese origin that have touched me and two of these are anime. One is called "Grave of the Fireflies" and the second which I have only watched once because it was so touchingly simple and beautiful is "Whisper of the Heart". Oops. There I go, spouting off again...
Hi Junko -- Paul's comment nails it. What a great adventure to be on! And here am I at home...still...pup next to me. Oh well...have a great first week!
@steampowered@taffy@anazad511 -- thanks for your comments but most of all for taking time to read and understand my rambling narrative. Mostly it was for me to articulate why i found it so important. @steampowered -- Gave of the Fireflies is an incredibly important film. I went to Studio Ghibli last November and saw original cells on exhibit. Do you know the film called "Departures"?
This reminds me of a time when I saw "The Sacrifice" in Swedish with French subtitles--I was studying in France at the time (taking a french film course). I kept thinking how far I had come in being able to watch a foreign film with subtitles in a language different from my own and still rely on the visual presentation for fine tuning what I was hearing (and reading--fortunately, this film was not dialogue heavy).
What were the titles of the films you saw in Berlin? My daughter studies Japanese at our local middle school and we have had the opportunity to see some Studio Ghibli films in Japanese without subtitles now at some special showings (we have seen most of them, so they "knew the story" ahead of time), and it is interesting to see how we respond to the films without the subtitles!
Looking forward to your future posts (photos and narratives!). D.
It is interesting, in everything, how presentation influences what we think and feel about something. Even the news...how they bring on a story can make us sympathize or think 'villain'!
Your research sounds fascinating. I agree with Lynn's post regarding the influence of presentation. I suppose that is why so much money is spent on things like election advertising. I hope you keep us posted as to your research.
@steampowered -- Miyazaki is amazing and I think we own most of his films that are available in DVD. One year, I accompanied @vankrey and 20 high school students on a trip to the traditional bathhouse which had served as the model for one of his films (Japanese title is Sen to Chihiro but i can't recall the English title right now). The students thought they could pay to get smells and flavors just like in the film! The power of good storytelling! But definitely not reality.
@darylo -- the first film was called "Kujira no Machi." The second was called "Tokyo Kazoku/Tokyo Family" and I recommend that one very highly. The first one was interesting but very film fest-y. How interesting that your daughter is studying Japanese at such a young age! Good for her for watching the films without subtitles . . . don't you find the voices very funny?
@tishpics -- Tampopo, such a modern classic of Japanese films! I'm glad you've also seen Departures -- it's really remarkable, isn't it? @steampowered - I'm thinking maybe you should look up the film because if you found Grave of the Fireflies interesting, you might be intrigued by how dying/death/departures is treated in a realistic contemporary film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/
@lynnb@judis@roadshow@pflaume@darylo -- thank you all VERY much! I'm feeling a bit lost at the moment because I think I had a card malfunction and have lost a few days' worth of photos so I truly appreciate your well-timed words of encouragement!! I know I tend to ramble in my narratives so it's very heartening to know that people actually read them and ask me about it . . . and after only three days, boy do I have stories to tell. Welcome to Germany :) stories.
Hi Junko, miss you already! "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" is "Spirited Away" in English and the kids really did have quite a time associating their anime vision of the bathhouse with the reality. Having said that, experiencing something in the flesh will likely serve as a strong memory in those student's memory as time passes, and likely be romanticized by the visual story told in the anime. I feel a similar stretch of reality when we visited the oh-so-odd Ishite-ji and even the youth hostel in Matsuyama. How much of my memory is impacted by my desire to feel something otherworldly in that place - and it really did seem to happen! I think this happens a lot with children's literature, does it not?
@vankrey -- oh, right, Spirited Away! The memory of that particular trip is made more vivid because of the grand bathhouse, the spooky cave and the unique hostel! I agree completely with you, both in children's literature but also in life, that our experiences are affected by what we hope will happen, and that in turn affects what we perceive of the experience, and ultimately -- how we retain the experience in our memories and share it with others. Great philosophical comments that set me thinking, Michael! Thanks for your thoughts . . .
February 26th, 2013
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What were the titles of the films you saw in Berlin? My daughter studies Japanese at our local middle school and we have had the opportunity to see some Studio Ghibli films in Japanese without subtitles now at some special showings (we have seen most of them, so they "knew the story" ahead of time), and it is interesting to see how we respond to the films without the subtitles!
Looking forward to your future posts (photos and narratives!). D.
Look forward to more in your research.