Rough Draft, Transnationalism and the Underdog

The story of the underdog, that is the improvable triumph of the weak over the strong, is an idea that transcends space and time for all mankind worldwide.  It is a story that is told across the globe spanning Western and Eastern lands, “[...] as a multicultural and cross-cultural arena.” (Radovic, 17)   In the modern world with the growth of technology and communications, these stories surpass their land and open up to foreign lands, in the case of film, it is called transnationalism cinema.  Viewers of these transnational films, both foreign and national, will be presented with an array of cinema style and cultural identity, in the form of history, values, imagery, language, beliefs, symbols, and attitude of the presenting culture.  From this, the viewer will gather understanding and empathy of the culture at hand.  But a question arises, how does cultural context move between different backgrounds and what happens when it does so? 

To answer this question, I will be critically analyzing two films from two different times, styles and countries of origin. The first film is from Japan, The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa and released in 1954.  A black and white film, set in the 16th century Japan, is about farmers under siege by bandits and the Samurai that decide to help.  The second film for analysis is a Pixar film directed by John Lassester and Andrew Staton's A Bugs Life. This is an American animated film about anthropomorphic bugs, with ants under siege by grasshoppers and the bigger bugs who decide to help.  It is in these parallel stories that I will define transnationalism relating to cultural identity and genre and later identify the common theme between the two films.

Transnationalism is defined by spreading across national borders.  In terms of film, it is how a movie is produced and directed in terms of cast, technique, location, technology used, style and genre.  A film moves from one cultural to another through the use of technology and makes connections from one culture to another.  “[…]“The Transnational can be understood as the global forces that link people or institutions across nations” (Weebly) By combining with cultural identity, a societies beliefs, principals and values, what would be a national film becomes a transnational film.

The story of the underdog transcends cultural identity of the nation to reach out to a broad audience.  The films The Seven Samurai and A Bugs Life follow parallel story lines with common stories, settings, characters and economic exploitation and military expansion.  Though the two movies have different genres, The Seven Samurai is an action/drama and A Bugs Life is an animated adventure/comedy, the two films share a core of identity.  A group of people/ants are tormented by bandits/grasshoppers and are saved when help is sought out from Samurai/bigger bugs.  Both films make use of filming techniques to tell this story in a way that allows for a world audience viewing.  David Martin Jones believes…

“[…] we do still need to retain history in our teachings. Only, we need to turn less to national histories, and more to world history.  Rather than coupling “world cinema” with “world music” or “world literature,” we need to teach world history and “world-systems.” (Marciniak, Bennett, 112)

What sets The Seven Samurai and A Bugs Life apart are their differences in cultural identity and the available technology of the time.  One film, The Seven Samurai is based on 16^th century Japan, but filmed in 1954, a post war Japan.  During the time of filming, techniques of multiple camera movements were used to convey the story.   Whereas A Bugs Life is an American animated film from 1998 an early age of computer animation.  The story is told from the perspective of bugs so that the movie would appeal to a wider audience.   The influences of the times and local history is what sets these films apart.  To further compare and contrast the two films I will further examine the history, technologies, and styles of The Seven Samurai and A Bugs Life.

To begin, the film The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa was filmed in 1954 at the location of the “Tagata District on the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka” on the island of Japan. (lengdaraytrips) The film set is styled after a farming village dated during the late 16^th century mid-evil Japan. The characters of the film are based on 16^th century farmers, bandits, Ronin, and a verbally mentioned higher class system that are not seen.  Not only did the filming take longer then expected, but the filming went over budget at over $500,000, an amount “seven times” more then other films at that time.  (legendarytrips) 

One of the interesting things about The Seven Samurai is the use of various camera techniques and film editing by Director Kurosawa.  “Editing, deep-focus shooting, framing, and camera movement all serve the narrative here with equal freedom and proficiency. (Bazin, 155) The film is also recorded in black and white, a type of monochrome filming, creating a shadow and light effect over the land and people. This is accompanied by music and sounds of the scenery, such as running water, birds, and other nature sounds.  The actors playing the roles are all from post-war Japan and range from comedians, singers, and dramatic actors of that time. The actor’s performance in this historical film, though excellent, will be viewed differently by an audience of non-Japanese speaking viewers, for them this is a subtitled film.  But it is because of these subtitles that a wide audience is able to view this film on international media standards of the internet, dvds and streaming, the root of transnationalism.

In the film, a village of farmers are in trouble when bandits attack them. The farmer’s hierarchy will not assist the people, so the people find help from Samurai.  After forming a plan to beat the bandits, a battle occurs and in the end a greater good occurs of harmony and prosperity.   There are many side stories, featuring characters with thought-out backgrounds that drive the plot and adds to the action of the movie overall.  This is a movie filmed in a Westernized style of cinematography but fully emerged in 16^th century Japanese cultural identity.  This identity is further defined by the values of the 1954 filming crew a post World War II era Japan. 

            In the opening titles of The Seven Samurai there is a sub-title that reads, “Title: The Sengoku Period was a time of civil wars; it was a lawless era and in the country the farmers were at the mercy of bands of brigands.” (Richie, 25) This line shows a parallel similarity between what was a civil war torn Japan of 1586 to the world war torn Japan of 1954.  Alluding to this, is a shared cultural identity based on similar beliefs and functional society.  The differences between the two time periods are based on the advancement of technology and globalization. Director Kurosawa produced a movie that spoke on a greater good that can overcome adversary. Kurosawa once said, “Normally, an action movie can only be an action movie. But how marvelous it would be if an action film could at the same time paint a portrait of humanity!” (Bazin, 160)

            Wei Yong-Kang once spoke on cross cultural ethos of “Macro and Micro” in terms of the difference in style and focus of Eastern and Western cultures.  That Eastern media evokes the Macro  of“[…] cultural forces such as tradition, authoritative figures, etc., with which the speaker or writer can effectively identify him-/herself.” (Wei, 289) This is in contrast to his theory that Westerners focus on the individual instead of the greater environment or the Micro. But The Seven Samurai contrast this view throughout the whole movie.  The viewers of the film are presented with an Eastern film of mid-evil Japanese traditions and historical figures, but layered with the evolving customs of Japanese traditions of 1954.  Because of this the film transcends Eastern macro and ties into the Western style of micro, the focus of the individual and a global connecting story of the underdog.

            The second animated Pixar film, A Bugs Life, was directed by John Lassester and Andrew Staton in 1999.  The setting is on a fictional Ant Island, but is implied to be in the United States somewhere near the American-Mexican border.  Because the film is animated it does not use traditional camera techniques found in live action films such as The Seven Samurai.  The interesting thing about this film is there is not a single human character, instead the story focuses on a wide variety of bugs that take on an an anthropomorphic role to drive the story.  The story follows a class system that ties into the circle of life, a bigger bug takes the food of the smaller bug and repeats.  The movie is entirely based on American culture and connects to America’s values and belief systems.

            Though the film is computer animated their many features of cinematic structural elements.  The mise-en-scène is focused on a bug’s point of view, but tied into the daily structure of human surroundings, houses, cars, furniture, etc.  For example, the ant’s underground colony is lit up with cool illuminating mushrooms instead of a realistic underground darkness.  The music of A Bugs Life, is composed by the American songwriter, Randy Newman, this further ties the film the American audience.  Similar to how The Seven Samurai has an all Japanese cast, A Bugs Life voice cast is made up of near entirely American cast.  

The plot follows a similar story line to The Seven Samurai.  An ant colony is plagued by a swarm of grasshoppers who take the ants food.  One ant, Flik, seeks the help of ‘bigger bugs’ in the form of a group of circus bugs to help fight the grasshoppers off and save his colony. It is in the wide variety of bugs that an American cultural identity is scene.   America, a country created by immigrants has come to have a wide variety of people of different nationalities, ideals, and an ever mixing cultural identify.  A Bugs Life has this, seen in the the wide variety of bugs with physically different bugs representing different nationalities.  The ants might be viewed as a standardized American born bug, there is an Asian inspired praying mantis, Eastern-European sounding pill bugs, a caterpillar with a German accent, and so on.  But these bugs and their cultural influences function as a normal society, much like America’s society. 

The main protagonist of the film, Hooper once said that, “Its all about food and keeping those ants in line.”  Like many other countries in the world, America was a byproduct of colonialism, but over came it during the American revolution.  In A Bugs Life we a presented with the same story, that the oppressed will rise and fight back to keep what is theirs. Because this is an American film, the ants conquered their enemies using the American values of individualism and hard work.   Flik, the main ant, is a brilliant inventor, but does not follow the rules of the colony, for this he is banished, but in the end he saves the day with his creativity and desire to free his people.  This is the American ideal presented in a world of animated bugs.

Though the American cultural identity is fully present in A Bugs Life, the film has grossed over $363,258,859 worldwide. (BoxOfficeMojo) The film has been both subtitled and dubbed for the international audiences.  A Bugs Life has been interpreted and altered to tailor fit its international audiences.  Meaning it is not just an American film, but one that is transnational story of the underdog prevailing over the oppressive.  “National cinema ‘seems to look across its borders, asserting its differences from other national cinemas.’ However, neither national cinema nor nation can be assumed to be static, ‘fixed in place’ […].” (Radovic, 19)

            Roger Ebert once said that, “Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (1954) is not only a great film in its own right, but the source of a genre that would flow through the rest of the century.”   Eberts speaks on an influence that may have helped inspire the plot of John Lassester and Andrew Stanton’s film A Bugs Life. By making this connection we see the principal concept of transnational cinema.  That instead of a national movie, the world is given a transnational movie.  A parallel story told by many voices of different points of view, from different time lines, to new technologies of that time.  To answer the question of how cultural context moves between different backgrounds and what happens when they do, one must simply watch the two movies no matter where one is from. 

Bibliography:

"A Bug's Life (1998)." Box Office Mojo. IMDB, 17 Apr. 2017. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

Bazin, André, and Bert Cardullo. (2015). Bazin on Global Cinema, 1948-1958. Austin: U of Texas.

Keke. "Uncovering the Village of Seven Samurai in the Izu Peninsula." LegendaryTrips. N.p., 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

Marciniak, K. and B. Bennett (2016). Teaching transnational cinema : politics and pedagogy. New York, Routledge.

Radović, M. (2014). Transnational cinema and ideology : representing religion, identity and cultural myths. New York ; London, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Richie, Donald. (1970). The Seven Samurai a film by Akira Kurosawa. Simon and Schuster, New York

"What Is Transnational Cinema?"- Transnational Cinema & Online Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. <http://358695.weebly.com/what-is-transnational-cinema.html>.

Yong-Kang, W. (2008). Ethos on the web: A cross-cultural approach. In Writing the visual: A practical guide for teachers of composition and communication (8). Retrieved from https://kennesaw.view.usg.edu/d2l/le/content/1203535/viewContent/19640153/View.

Filmography:

A Bugs Life. Dir. John Lassester and Andrew Staton. Walt Disney Pictures & Pixar Animated Studios / Buena Vista Pictures, 1999. DVD.

The Seven Samurai. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Toho, 1954. DVD.