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Session 32: Dolls, Fourth session: general discussion
Topics for this session
❖ Recent cinema from Japan (Tokyo): Dolls, fourth 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.
This session:
- Open topics
Thoughts*
Dolls presents some analytic challenges. In addition, we have less discussion time with this film than the others. Please review the above "persistent topics" and arrive to class with some notes on them, ready to respond clearly and from an interesting perspective. I will be drawing cards and I will expect you to have ideas already formulated, not generated on the spot.
Screening details
DVD menu scenes 8-14 (0:34:00-1:03:34, elapsed time 0:30)
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
✓ Dolls presents some analytic challenges. In addition, we have less discussion time with this film than the others. Please review the above "persistent topics" and arrive to class with some notes on them, ready to respond clearly and from an interesting perspective. I will be drawing cards and I will expect you to have ideas already formulated, not generated on the spot.
✓ I take roll on this day.
✓ Remember to bring in the topic questions for this film, at minimum.
✓ Complete and submit Responses to daily QuickThink questions according to the instructions on the form.
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.