Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Blog 6- The Last Ronin

1. I would say the first instance is his overall acceptance to leave the 40 warriors on the eve of their battle to take care of their leaders daughter.  I think this was kinda the ultimate sacrifice because he had to go into hiding, he was seen as a disgrace, when in reality he was performing this deed. The second was when he was taking care of the daughter, just his overall behavior towards her, how he treated her, taught her, etc was all very fitting for a samurai.

2. I feel like the biggest difference between the Japanese Giri and the English Obligation is that obligation, to me, doesn't really hold the person to the same standard as Giri.  Obligation is more like, you should do this, but, really, it's not your biggest priority/ you don't really have to do it.  Giri on the other hand is a complete rational where this obligation to the other person means everything, up to and including their happiness.

3. Bushido is more the guidelines to how a warrior should lead their life, how the should follow their leaders and other samurai.  Giri on the other hand seems to be more for everyone than just samurai and is more like a debt of gratitude.  Bushido would be where the other samurai felt they needed to beat up Magoza when he was cleaning the masters grave site, but Giri would be when later they apologize after finding out he was under instruction the whole time and never really abandoned.

4.  The first scene would be where the owner of the silk was trying to find Kane so that she could marry his son.  The other would be the household of Magoza where even though it wasn't really his house he, as a man, sort of runs it and operates it day to day.

5. Well Kane likes Magoza, which even though Magoza raised Kane he isn't her father, making it more socially acceptable.  One main problem is that since Kane is the daughter of Magoza's master it makes it a little awkward when Kane admits to wanting to marry Magoza. Also, since he is sort of head of the house hold and she's kind of like a daughter to him, raised her, took care of her, some of the things that wouldn't normally be acceptable between a man and a young woman are kinda blurred lines.

6. Well Americans themselves, 60 years ago or so, had a very predominately based male culture where the women stayed home and worked while the men went out to work each day and brought home the money. We as Americans in accordance with equality among sexes are well ahead of the curve, maybe not the best as far as female equality goes, but definitely up there. Woman in America obtained the right to vote and have their own equality in the 1920s, where as in Japan it wasn't until the end of WWII or so when women obtained that right there, putting them slightly behind us. They aren't near as bad as some countries, actually quite good, and it's getting better.

7. I don't think her wish is ignored, I think he took how she felt about it into much consideration because he didn't tell the silk maker that he knew the girl and about her really until after she had told Magoza to accept. I think Mogoza's wish as head of the family was mainly to make sure that Kane got married to someone that would make her happy, not necessarily to just marry her off.

8. I think he's kind of confused and doesn't know what to do with himself.  He's been undercover, in hiding, and thought of as this traitor to the samurai way where killing himself with his sword might not cut it (pun intended). He's been out of the loop so to speak taking care of this girl for so long I think being thrust back into the samurai way has sort of shook him.   I can only think that the only thing this movie is missing to befit a samurai movie is a seppuku, someones committing it.

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