Dead Japan: a Genre Analysis
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(UN)DEAD JAPAN: A GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE JAPANESE ZOMBIE FILM Kayleigh Murphy Bachelor of Creative Industries (Honours) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Research) Creative Industries Faculty Film, Screen and Animation Queensland University of Technology 2015 Keywords Japanese Zombie Movies, Zombie Movie Studies, Japanese Horror Cinema, Horror Movies, Transnationalism, Genre Studies. Introduction 3 Abstract Since the zombie’s introduction to cinema in the 1930s, it has progressively become one of the most recognisable and popular monsters in cinema history and an icon in popular culture. It has been acknowledged within film studies that the zombie is a quintessentially American monster reflecting and representing the fears, concerns and issues of American and to an extent Western society. However, since the zombie movie’s resurgence in the early 2000s, there has been a significant increase in the production of international zombie films, of which Japan has been at the forefront. Japan has long been acknowledged as playing a critical role in stimulating the modern zombie genre’s popularity following the release of the survival horror videogame Resident Evil (titled Biohazard when originally released in Japan), which enjoyed substantial commercial success both in Japan and internationally following its 1996 release. Nevertheless, research into the zombie movie as a prominent sub- genre in horror cinema has remained focused upon movies from the United States and Western countries, as well as examining themes and generic conventions through a principally Western lens. Since the late 1990s, Japan has consistently produced zombie films, equalling the United Kingdom in terms of the number of zombie films produced for cinema and direct-to-DVD markets. Films such as Helldriver (Dir: Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2010), Zombie TV (Dir: Yoshihiro Nishimura, 2013), Versus (Dir: Ryûhei Kitamura, 2000), Tokyo Zombie (Dir: Sakichi Satô, 2005) and television shows such as the anime series High School of the Dead (2010) have garnered varying degrees of popularity and critical attention both domestically and internationally by playing at international film festivals throughout the United States, Europe and Australia and finding international distribution through Tartan Asia Extreme and Madman distributors. This study is an in-depth examination of the stylistic and generic characteristics of the Japanese zombie film and its relations to Japanese horror cinema and the conventions and tropes of Western zombie movies more generally. The following primary research questions guide this study: 4 (Un)dead Japan: A Genre Analysis of the Japanese Zombie Film 1. How is the zombie sub-genre situated within the broader context of the Japanese horror cinema and how does the production context of Japanese zombie movies influence thematic and stylistic trends? 2. What culturally unique generic and thematic elements define the zombie sub- genre in Japan? What, if any, generic and aesthetic qualities specific to Japanese horror cinema are incorporated into the Japanese zombie film? 3. What are the key thematic and generic points of difference between Japanese and Western zombie film and which Western generic conventions do Japanese zombie films retain? The thesis argues that the Japanese zombie film as a filmmaking tradition is one of heavy cultural exchange and intertextuality. More specifically, the Japanese zombie film incorporates and celebrates the sub-genre’s Western origins, conventions, tropes and stylistic choices for the representation of the monster while also integrating culturally specific aesthetics, tropes and themes to create a sub-genre that is uniquely Japanese. Through generic analysis of key Japanese zombie films released over the last 15 years, this study establishes the sub-genre’s ties to transnational production practices and cult cinema and delineates the position of the zombie sub-genre in regard to both Japanese horror cinema and the Western zombie movie tradition more generally. Introduction 5 Table of Contents Keywords ................................................................................................................................. 3 Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... 6 List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... 9 List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... 10 Statement of Original Authorship .......................................................................................... 11 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................... 13 Research questions and research focus ................................................................................... 16 Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 23 Primary data and research methods ........................................................................................ 24 Genre analysis and genre movie studies ............................................................................ 24 Document analysis ............................................................................................................. 26 Interviews........................................................................................................................... 27 Challenges for the study ......................................................................................................... 29 The language barrier .......................................................................................................... 31 Selecting films for analysis ................................................................................................ 32 Research design ...................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter breakdown ................................................................................................................ 34 Chapter 2: The History and Characteristics of the Western Zombie Movie ..... 36 The horror genre and monsters ............................................................................................... 36 The Western zombie, a monster and a genre .......................................................................... 39 Defining the zombie ........................................................................................................... 40 The enslaved zombie .......................................................................................................... 41 The Romero zombie and psychoanalysis ........................................................................... 43 The abject ........................................................................................................................... 44 The uncanny ....................................................................................................................... 46 The diverging models of the contemporary zombie .......................................................... 47 Contemporary zombie conventions ........................................................................................ 51 Source of the outbreak ....................................................................................................... 51 Speed .................................................................................................................................. 52 Consciousness .................................................................................................................... 56 Setting ................................................................................................................................ 58 Characters .......................................................................................................................... 59 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 62 Chapter 3: Transnationalism, the Japanese Film Industry and Genre .............. 64 National cinema ......................................................................................................................... 65 Transnationalism .................................................................................................................... 66 Globalisation, cultural adaptation and hybridity ................................................................ 66 Transnational definition and concepts ............................................................................... 68 Japanese cinema, the region and transnationalism ................................................................. 70 6 (Un)dead Japan: A Genre Analysis of the Japanese Zombie Film Japanese cinema and the film industry .............................................................................. 70 Regional markets ..............................................................................................................