I just realized that I'm awesome enough to be an early 70s Japanese movie action hero, One man's fantasy is another's banality Options

[Wounded Ronin]

In order to understand this post, I need you to get settled real comfortably. Have a sip of some water. Take a few breaths, and clear your mind. I guess that this post is also technically full of SPOILERS, so you've been warned.

Then, watch this trailer.

I recently watched this film, which came as part of "The Sonny Chiba Collection" published by Mill Creek entertainment. To make a long story short, like many Japanese films from the era, this film introduces a mysterious action hero protagonist but then makes semi-subtle hints towards the end of the movie that the action hero persona is just a fantasy of an ordinary person. In other words, the film is about the Japanese male empowerment fantasy, circa 1970.

But after watching the film, I thought, "what exactly are the elements of the empowerment fantasy? What does the protagonist do that sets him apart from his disempowered low level accountant self?"

I came to realize that while all of the things he does in the movie were probably forbidden and exciting to 1970s Japanese moviegoers, they're actually extremely banal and minor when I look at them in regards to the things that people are able to do today in the United States.

1.) He knows how to box, and how to operate and maintain firearms. Hand in hand in all this, during the movie, he beats people up and shoots them. There is a slightly funny scene (shown briefly in the trailer) where he's shown cleaning a field stripped revolver but the scene is slightly goofed in that he's using a huge dry patch in the cylinder of a .38 caliber revolver and doesn't appear to be using any oils or solvents. To make matters worse on the work surface there is what appears to be a can of WD40, which today most people consider inappropriate for firearms maintenance.

There are a few points where he talks about firearms but it sounds like a guy who looked up something out of a book. At one point he lectures a mafia boss why the three longarm-wielding goons behind him can't shoot him without overpenetrating and also hitting the mafia boss. He also states that since he's only a few feet away from the goons that the rounds will rip through him without expanding or fragmenting but since the mafia boss is just a few feet further away they will fragment or expand when they hit the boss. (LOL, one of the longarms was a shotgun). So then the boss is like, "oh shit," and stands his men down. It's like he read some paper on M16 stopping power in the Vietnam War vis a vis failure of rounds to fragment or tumble at close range, didn't really understand it, and tried to apply it to a different situation, i.e. shooting people who are like 15 feet away with both rifles and shotguns.

Think about how in contrast how trivial it is today in the US for someone to acquire skill and applied knowledge in firearms, tactics, and hand to hand or sports combat.

2.) He tries to buy a large quantity of drugs with a large quantity of stolen money, and just ends up shooting the dealer. This is the intial thing that gets the plot going.

I guess this is supposed to be a badass thing to do, but today in the US it just seems exceedingly banal and stupid. Lots of people buy drugs. Lots of people get into trouble because of buying drugs. Rather than being badass, in my opinion, it's just an example of a boneheaded life choice often made by people who don't have broad and ambitious vision for their future.

Buying drugs is one thing. Can you imagine what a tool someone would be for showing up unannounced at a drug dealer's place of business with a huge suitcase full of money, and then ending up shooting the dealer?

This is one moment where, when I think about it, one man's empowerment fantasy is another man's comedic vision of incompetence.

3.) He sasses the executives at the business where he works by day as an accountant, because he's such a badass. AND he carries on an affair with one of their prostitute trophy wives. Oooh, that's showing them. LOL! At one point the execs become aware that he practices boxing after work so they ask him to perform an assassination for the company in exchange for guaranteed promotions over the years, and then they go ahead and guarantee this to him in writing.


This movie really blows my mind because it made me realize that when you de-construct someone's empowerment fantasy, it becomes as stupid and ridiculous as it does. I never really de-constructed an empowerment fantasy like this before.

I'm also kind of blown away by how, as someone who used to participate in combative sports, and someone who shoots competitively, I'm apparently living part of someone's empowerment fantasy from the 70s. It's funny because on some level to me it seems to banal and so not-particularly-empowering. And yet apparently stuff like that would have impressed the shit out of Japanese entry level accountants from the early 70s.

I guess that when you actually go and live a fantasy to a certain extent, and if the fantasy becomes reality, it becomes banal and loses the fantastic appeal. Like if some kind fantasized about Mr. Miyagi and karate for years, and then he actually joined some karate school and had to actually get in shape, learn the skills, and deal with his initial shortcoming and inadequacies in the sport, and then on top of that learned that there was a certain limit to how dangerous, deadly, or safe the karate would make him in a self-defense scenario.

[CanRay]

Japsploitation!

[CanRay]

OK, to be fair, I should write more. Most fantasy images like this don't stand up to scrutiny, and may even have had those scenes to show his ineptness.

I mean, hell, if a combat expert were to look at my Nightmares, they'd be aghast at the things done in them. Or a firearms expert. Or a automotive expert.

Oh, that poor '57 Chevy.

[Kagetenshi]

At one point the execs become aware that he practices boxing after work so they ask him to perform an assassination for the company in exchange for guaranteed promotions over the years, and then they go ahead and guarantee this to him in writing.

Well, of course. Verbal contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on, and all that. How is there going to be mutual trust if they don't put their agreement in writing? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

~J