Transnational Japan in Hollywood
Please note : this season finished in July 2025
Curated by Yuriko Hamaguchi (Pitch to Park Circus 2024 winner), Transnational Japan in Hollywood is a season exploring representations of Japan as "Other" by revisiting a collection of Hollywood films that depict Japaneseness through external lenses. Japan’s transitional images observed in the selected films not only reveal Hollywood’s construction and reconstruction of Japaneseness through pivotal historical moments, but also serve as a mirror, signalling America’s self-reflection, anxieties, and affirmation of its evolving position in the world.
From the interracial romance between an American man and his "kimono girl" portrayed in Samuel Fuller’s CinemaScope film noir House of Bamboo (1955), to Ridley Scott’s Black Rain (1989) produced at the height of Japan’s bubble economy, the selected films contain representations that require critical reflection, including racial stereotypes, objectification of Asian women, and Orientalism.
This season invites audiences to explore and engage in nuanced conversations about the interactions and reciprocal influences shaping narratives, aesthetics, and cultural codes across national borders. Neither a simple celebration nor critique, Transnational Japan in Hollywood exists in a fluid mode, seeking to challenge and expand the discourse around representations of Japan / Japaneseness and cinema’s transnationality.
This strand is presented in collaboration with Park Circus and Cinema Rediscovered, and curated by Yuriko Hamaguchi (Pitch to Park Circus 2024 winner).
