Tomorrowland
From exoticism to utopia – the new Japan fashion, not only in cinema
A good mixture: Zen philosophy, samurai fighting techniques, lots of green tea and even more walks in the fresh air are necessary for a traumatized American to find his way again. Edward Zwick’s film "Last Samurai" (since 8.1. in the cinema) describes an unusual learning process – for mainstream Hollywood cinema, it even amounts to a minor sensation: for in this film, Tom Cruise alias Nathan Algren, a U.S. officer who became a suicidal drunk during the Indian Wars, is a hero who hardly knows anything better, who does not give unfortunate savages the "american way of (better) life" but learns something on behalf of his audience – namely curiosity about and respect for a foreign culture that is initially difficult to understand. No self-understanding in times of "war against terror", in which Hollywood is also taken into patriotic duty by the Bush administration. By the end of the film, Cruise has become a true samurai, who speaks reasonable Japanese and has internalized many of the values of ancient Japan. He will not return to America, he despises his countrymen, who are shown in this film mainly as corrupt handlers and imperialists, and only comment helplessly on his transformation: "Why do you hate your people so much?"
At least as far as the aforementioned diatat is concerned, Cruise/Algren is quite representative of many of his compatriots today and, more generally, a lot of people in Western modernity. Asia in general and Japan in particular are chic as rare: Going to the sushi restaurant on the corner is just as much a matter of course as eating with sticks, regular training in kendo or other Japanese martial arts, but also the practice of Zen meditation. Many kids in Western European metropolises have long since swapped Donald Duck and Asterix for manga books, while their parents loll on their futons and read the latest Murakami novel, leaf through a picture book by pop architect Yoshio Taniguchi for a change, or simply patiently snip at the bonsai on the windowsill. In addition runs – pling-plang-plong – Reiki, old Japanese singing bowl music for calming down. From noodle soup to Yamamoto bathrobes, the Japanese lifestyle has long been integrated into our daily lives. But now, as can be seen in the cinema, the perception of Japan seems to be changing at last – from the foreigner, viewed with skeptical fascination and exotic curiosity, Japan is becoming a new utopia, a better version of the familiar modernity.
