This week we watched Botchan, a story about a schoolteacher who is transferred from Tokyo to a small country town. It was very short film but still very good. The theme of the story seemed to be centered on morality. While I watched the film, I realized how different Japanese education at the high school level was from my own experience. In the film the students challenged the teacher’s authority, an act of rebellion that wasn’t as present in my high school experience. Sure there were trouble makers and sometimes I wouldn’t respect the teacher as much as I should, but there was never a group effort between myself and my classmates like shown in Botchan. In the movie the students respect the teachers that have earned their respect, for example Porcupine. This is very different from my western education experience, where the teachers expected you to respect them despite whether they have earned it. Another difference is when students do something wrong in Bontchan, the teachers accept responsibility, while in western culture the student takes all the responsibility for his or her actions. In the first film we watched during class this week, we observed how much pressure is put on the students and how important education is to the Japanese. Both of these films gave a lot of insight into the education system in Japan.
In the story Bontchan you learned about the politics of teaching and the control that the principal and vice principal have over the faculty. The character Redshirt represents corruption and the elitist side of Japan. Redshirt speaks of morals but is in fact immoral. He is having relations with a geisha despite the schools strict rules forbidding such an act. He also is able to get Uranari (Green pumpkin) transferred for his own selfish reasons. Bontchan and Porcupine are able to get revenge on Redshirt and Nodaiko for what they did to Uranari. At the end of the story Bontchan goes back to Tokyo and becomes a train conductor. He is paid little for his work, but he stuck to his morals and that’s what counts.
This week in class we watched Perfect Blue, a sociological and psychological thriller that addresses the issues of loss of identity, innocence, and “hyper life”. I honestly really enjoyed this movie. While it was very confusing at some points, it was very action packed and had a well thought out plot. It was also very reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock film in the way things seem to get crazy and spin out of control. The main character, Mima, shifts from being a pop star in the hit band “CHAM”, to pursuing an acting career. While seeking this goal, she is asked to do some things that her past pop star self would never do, like act out a rape scene or strip for a photo shoot. These sudden changes make Mima feel lost and unsure of whom she is. Earlier in the week we also watched the beginning of Black Swan, a film with a similar premise about a dancer. In both films mirrors or reflections play a big role in establishing reality or the lack of it. In Perfect Blue Mima is constantly looking at reflections of her self and seeing a different her. Something similar also occurs in Black Swan when Natalie Portman sees another version of her self on the subway. There also is a similarity in how they are both sexually used in some sort of way—Mima by the photographer and director of the sitcom and Natalie by the dance company leader. Throughout Perfect Blue you get the impression that Mima is the killer while in fact, it is her Rumi her manager. Rumi is another example of loss of identity. Rumi used to be a Pop singer and now hardly represent her former self and glory. In many ways Rumi lives her dream through Mima’s pop singing career, which is why she is so opposed to her becoming an actor. There are many scenes in the movie where I think we are not seeing Mima’s feelings and reactions but Rumi’s feelings and reactions superimposed on Mima’s body. It could be argued that the main plot development we see in the movie wasn’t from Mima’s point of view but from Rumi’s adopted personality of Mima. 
