>> In this movie the American preident is a panicy, flackey, unstable fool that wets his pants at every moment of great turmoil. What is this saying about the the American executive branch, or further more, americans in general. When new york was being terrorized, the only american answer was to send countless apaches to their deaths. Drake follows this patteren as well. Its the idea of Less talky more shooty that is present in several forign and domestic films. What do you think?
I know that the American president peeing himself offends the patriotic senses of some Americans. This is a common knee-jerk reaction. I am American, and I feel such a reaction is an overreaction. A few of my reasonings:
i) It is likely not aimed at any one US president. In context of the story, consider the 1980s hit MTV video _Land of Confusion_ , where the going-senile president Reagan wakes up in a nightmare and slaps the nuclear button. This is a level of intellectual satire that some just will never get. And that is sad, I think.
ii) Consider the fact that even Americans love to make fun of their own presidents, and that US presidents have become used to that fact. It doesn't matter whether the fun is with a Democrat making fun of a Republican president, or vice versa. It has been especially the norm for most all of modern time (post WWII) in the US.
iii) Remember that the first Ijin (cloned super-villain) completely destroyed critical parts of Washington. To be taken out that decisively would likely scare the daylights out of any president, US or otherwise.
iv) The insidious brilliance of the antagonist cloning elite villains to help do his dirty work of world destruction demands the elite team of British services and Yomiko's extraordinary powers to step in and stop it all. The Japanese actually love a lot about America, but they also love the British, and the production chose Japanese and British forces to take the lead. The fall of the US leadership is just a convenient and humorous way of handling the way they wanted the plot to progress.
I know this won't change the mind of any Americans who are offended by it, but we should not take the wetting scenes too seriously. Japanese humor is often very subtle, and Yomiko's story is some of the most pleasing subtle humor I've ever experienced in a serious story arc.
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arorashadow_2003
16 years ago
2001, that's a bit soon for a satirical version of Bush. More than likely this was still in production by the time Bush was elected to office. After 9/11 he was at his highest ratings ever. He's not any more.
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stderr
16 years ago
Good point. We should not hastily read too far into it. The Japanese have many cultural adn satirical subtleties that Americans do not understand. A good example is in anime, when a boy walks into a room where there is an attractive female, they sometimes depict the boy blushing deeply and getting a nose bleed. I've yet to hear a description of what is meant by that, even from very knowledgeable anime fans in America.
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zeta1983-1
16 years ago
I definately thought the President was suppossed to be Bush when I first saw it. Peeing his pants was hilarious IMO. But this movie was definately made pre-9/11. I first saw it in 2004 and I remember seeing the WTC in the film so I knew it had to be made in 2001 but pre-9/11 if the President was suppossed to be Bush. But I suppose it could also be Clinton or as someone said just any US president in general.
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