MovieChat Forums > Kokoda Discussion > Lack of Japanese in film

Lack of Japanese in film

posted 17 years ago by LukeTheSame
14 replies | jump to latest

I know that it's kind of played as if it's intentional that we never see the features of the Japanese soldiers, but did anyone else think this lent the film a sense of... I dunno, offensiveness or b-gradeness? Did they even try and get Japanese actors to play the Japanese soldiers? Or was it a case that they were unable to? At one point you kind of see one of the Japanese soldier's up close but his face is out of focus and to be honest, he doesn't look Asian.

I just found it a little off-putting.

[–] laclippersrock 17 years ago

The reason the Japanese soldiers weren't really shown is to highlight the fact that fighting in the jungle was like playing hide-and-seek. The Japanese soldiers were so well camouflaged, as apposed to the Australians' khaki uniforms. Also, a lot of the soldiers who fought in Kokoda never saw a Japanese soldier, unless it was a dead body.

Basically, I think they wanted to highlight the feeling of Australian soldiers that they were fighting against some kind of invisible enemy hidden in the jungle.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] LukeTheSame 16 years ago

I'm detecting a slight anti-asian leaning in your post KangarooBoxer.

[–] TakuyaAus 16 years ago

yeah mate im only joking around

sorry if you got offended but the japanese back then were really cruel to our soldiers, thats why most of them wore officers ranks because they knew they would get treated a bit better if they were captured i kid you not!

Gallipoli is one great flick
so is Mad Max
and Romper Stomper
oh and Chopper ahaha

[–] mask_or_face 16 years ago

funny thing is I have it on dvd, and in the scene where Jack shot the 'japanese' soldier that tried to kill Max, if you pause it you can clearly see the actor playing the japanese soldier is in fact...not japanese...or even asian. He is white, with some dirt on his face!

[–] LukeTheSame 16 years ago

I guess that's what I'm trying to get at... would it have been so hard for them to get a Japanese actor to play that one soldier?

[–] alphonceg 16 years ago

His name is SHIGERU YAKOTA a local stuntman - all Japanese extras and featured extras were Japanese nationals (except when an experienced stuntman was needed to do the v. dangerous *beep* eg. getting blown up in the final battle scene but if you can see that he's not Japanese you're kidding yourself.)

you're really obsessing over nothing...

[–] LukeTheSame 16 years ago

i'd hardly call it obsessing, it's just something I noticed and it detracted from the film for me.

[–] UberNoodle 16 years ago

AWESOME!!!! It just goes to show how much the poeple that say crap like "he doesn't look asian" know. The guy WAS Japanese! LOL!

People, from several years living in Japan I can tell you honestly that there is a lot more diversity in Japan than you think. To say someone doesn't look Japanese because they don't fit an image gleaned from movies or magazines (which is usually just more of a reflection of stereotypes anyway) is silly.

[–] nickle98 15 years ago

I agree, and I thought about it whilst watching the film. I enjoyed the movie, but all I got to see of the Japanese were their boots or ferns over their faces. Well, if we're going to see that much of them, let's *see* them. It cheapened the movie a bit for me because I felt at the time that they just didn't bother getting any Asians to play the parts and I fully believe that every 'japanese' soldier was being played by an Aussie, which really let it down, especially having already noticed the rifles bouncing around, clearly rubber, and the crew member dashing through the woods at a really tense point. I didn't read the trivia stuff until I'd seen the film, so I saw it without prompting. I also thought the one in the Aussie uniform wasn't Asian. If he was, wouldn't we have got a shot of either fear or disgust before he was shot, instead of not seeing him at all? Those three little things let the movie down a bit for me.

[–] negativec07 15 years ago

It gave me the impression they weren't fighting people, but ghosts. To explain, I think the intention was to show that to the Australians the Japanese could appear at will and thus displayed few human traits (i.e didn't speak to eachother). Therefore it wasn't a battle in a conventional sense, more a fight for survival.

Whether this improved the film or not is debateable

[–] The_Khazi 15 years ago

I suspect the limited budget played a part here also but watching this again yesterday I think the brief snippets of the Japanese actually worked quite well.Have a look at the end credits and 6 people are credited as being Japanese soldiers:two of them appear to be "kosher" Japanese,the other four are probably Aussies with large ferns on their heads!

[–] LukeTheSame 15 years ago

Did I say that he didn't look Japanese? No, I never even said that. I simply asked if they got a Japanese actor to play the role. It was an honest question, because the film seemed to go out of it's way to avoid showing the person clearly, which was part of my criticism.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

Well I guess you'd be levelling the same criticism at Oliver Stone, because Alister Grierson simply took an identical approach to that of Stone in Platoon.🐭