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Session 29—Mon, April 2: Japanese (Tokyo) film: Dolls (screening then discussion), First session • Assigned Film Info Quiz—AMQ05
Topics for this session
❖ AMQ05 (for Spring 2012 moved to Session 30)
❖ Recent cinema from Japan (Tokyo): Dolls, first session of four
Overall, persistent topics for this film:
- Layering: Non-linearity in timelines (Overall structure of telling three stories at the same time. Then, at the level of each story: Primary story is non-linear; Secondary story #1 (mafia) is past-oriented; Secondary story #2 is perhaps linear but close to static).
- Faithfulness/bonds/fate : Does this movie explore love as faithfulness or love as unbreakable bond or inescapable bond (fate) and do any of these positions grounded in Confucianism or Buddhism?
- Nihilism: If the "worldview" is fundamentally nihilistic, what is the status of love?
- Comparisons: role of memories in 2046 and Dolls (story-to-story differences / country-to-country differences)
- Comparisons: Dreaminess in Dolls and Genji.
- Comparisons: What is love? — in Dolls and Genji.
Today:
- Faithlessness and its repercussions as imagined by the director.
- Warmup: What is the place of love (choosing to love) in a context that suggests we are controlled by fate?
Thoughts*
Spring 2012 students: see announcement of March 28
Screening details
DVD menu scenes 1-7 (0:00:00-0:36:33, elapsed time 0:37)
The entire film is screened in class. If you have missed a class session, the movie is available as follows:
- Media Resources Center (Moffitt): DVD 5994
Required—to be completed for today's session
Access through sidebar tab FILM MODULES:
✓ Dolls: General comments
✓ Dolls: Director (don't skip this)
✓ Dolls: Characters
✓ Dolls: First session questions (scene summaries optional)
Texts, multimedia notes, links*
nothing yet ...
Other*
nothing yet ...
*THOUGHTS: Reading before class probably helps follow session content, reading afterwards might help consolidate notes, revisiting for tests is recommended. Content might be added before class or anytime up until about 24 hours ahead of a midterm.
*TEXTS, MULTIMEDIA NOTES, LINKS: If I have read from something, shown something or presented audio that is not elsewhere mentioned, I usually include that information here for the curious, sometime after the class (since I often make last-minute decisions about including something). It might take a while and sometimes I forget. You can email me.
*OTHER: When possible I note here names, places, and other details that I have mentioned in a lecture that would otherwise not be accessible in the assigned materials or easily located on your own. As with "TEXTS ..." this is usually sometime after class and, again, I might not be able to get around to doing it.