No land’s man: on remaking the last western in Japan and the politics of revision

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the evolution of Hokkaido as a frontier space in the Japanese western, looking in particular at Yurusarezaru mono (Lee Sang-il, 2013). Drawing closely on Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992), the work has been recognized as a faithful remake of Eastwood’s iconic last western. At the same time, Lee reframes the western to focus on displacement and calls attention in particular to the repression of political and ethnic ‘others’ in the acquisition of Hokkaido in the 1860s. This rewriting of the western is inspired in part by manga artist Tezuka Osamu’s Shumari, a work set at the same early Meiji moment which explores the Imperial origins of the frontier in Hokkaido. Lee’s reinterpretation of Hokkaido as colonial space raises questions about established perceptions of nationhood, identity, and imperial origins.

KEYWORDS:

• Western genre
• politics of remake
• global western

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Charles Exley is an Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Film.

ORCID

Charles Exley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9385-2426

Notes

1 For additional analysis on the close connection between these two genres, see Anderson (1973), especially 9–11. Anderson also states emphatically that Japanese filmmakers were influenced by William S. Hart.

2 In this essay, I use the term ‘revisionist’ to refer to scholarship which reexamines the place of Hokkaido in modern Japanese history. This would include research on the history of the Ainu (Walker), research on the colonial roots of Hokkaido’s development (Mason), and other works that provide a new political, economic, and historical understanding of the period. See in particular Mason and Lee (2012).

3 Tezuka’s Shumari was serialized in Shōgakukan’s Big Comics from June 1974 to April 1976.

4 On representation of Ainu in prewar documentary, see Martin (2015); on representation in postwar television documentaries and film, see Choi (2011) and Ōishi (2011). For more on the logic of imperialism in relation to the policy of protection, see Komori (2012).

5 American film scholar Baird says this of Dances with Wolves with regard to American history; it is just as apt for Japan. Cited in Marsden (2013).