As a social science student, the reading approached me as a recreation of history by creative imagination. ‘Destruction’ is newly defined in Japanese visual culture, as the way to reconstruction and modernization into urban society. Functions of fantasy contribute to ‘coping’ with the catastrophe, in which coping means repressing and re-imagination their memories of violence and averting its eyes from reality. From the sociological perspective, the disaster film genre became a socialization agent to emphasize vulnerability to disasters and the spiritual unification and resilience of the Japanese nation at the same time. This is clearly shown by open-ended nihilism in the ending, in which the audience can easily assure the victory from the monster.
Japan’s ‘doom-laden’ pop culture reflected in film contains both historical aspects and creativity of utopia and dystopia. It was interesting to see the film into two genres, documentary and science fiction.
Seoyeong Bak
3035660110
A “re-creation of history by creative imagination.” This is an interesting conclusion indeed. Rather than a re-creation, Tsutsui is analyzing the genre from the perspective not only of the films themselves but their reception i.e. the audience. Films have a direct and reciprocal relationship with viewership. Why do the audiences keep going back, despite the seeming repetition of similar images of destruction? This is one of the fundamental questions that is being explored here. On that note, I do appreciate your reading of the sociological analysis of the apocalyptic genre in understanding the Japanese society and cultural psyche.