contents 04-1

Articles

Charles ROSS
Introduction to Shakespeare on Film in Asia and Hollywood

Yu SHIBUYA
Hamlet's "Globe" and the Self as Performer in England and Japan
Abstract: In his paper, "Hamlet's 'Globe' and the Self as Performer in England and Japan," Yu Shibuya argues that Hamlet sees his life as a performance. Shibuya presents examples from Tsuneari Fukuda's Japanese translation to suggest that Fukuda makes choices that emphasize the theatrical side of Hamlet's character. If Hamlet perceives himself as an actor, then his definition of theater or an actor is ultimately a definition of himself. Shibuya uses the theme of self-definition to examine Kenneth Branagh's film version, especially the Mousetrap and the "O what a rogue and peasant slave" scenes. By analyzing Branagh's staging and directorial decisions and his recognition that Hamlet is a performer, Shibuya shows how Branagh's directorial decisions complement his abilities as an actor that make this aspect of his Hamlet one of the finest moments in Shakespeare on film.

Lei JIN
Silence and Sound in Kurosawa's Throne of Blood
Abstract: Lei Jin argues in her paper, "Silence and Sound in Kurosawa's Throne of Blood," that silence and sound are employed as vehicles to explore the major themes of Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, fate, ambition, and destruction. By examining closely a few dramatic moments of the film, Lei demonstrates that silence and the interaction between silence, natural sound, and Noh music enhance the effect of Kurosawa's visual images, enforce their symbolic messages, and intensify the characters' psychological conflicts. Although Asaji's introspective speech and most of the dialogue between Washizu and Asaji are eliminated, silence bespeaks Asaji's unfathomable evil. In turn, Washizu's silence conveys his inner struggle between ambition, moral consciousness, and the social code of the samurai. The harmonious and disharmonious relationship between the performance, music, and silence of the film is traced back to the Japanese tradition of Noh theater.

Yuwen HSIUNG
Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth
Abstract: Yuwen Hsiung presents in her paper, "Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and East Asia's Macbeth," a comparative study between Kurosawa's film Throne of Blood and a contemporary Taiwanese play, Kingdom of Desire, both of which are adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Stepping from Eastern cultural background, both show similar orientation towards the original play, for instance the sizing down of the number of witches and the decreasing of Macbeth's heroic status. Gilles Deleuze's theory of movement image provides an insightful look into Kurosawa's filmology, which emphasizes the interrelatedness of every individual under the same condition. The idea of collectivity could be examined in two ways, diachronically and synchronically: Kingdom of Desire, although it resembles Throne of Blood in terms of plot, brings our attention back to individuality by focusing on the transformation of the protagonist. Macbeth, the character, would never appeal to the traditional Chinese theater; however, it is made accessible in Chinese culture by centering on individual responsibility towards one's own action.

Alexander C.Y. HUANG
Shakespeare and the Visualization of Metaphor in Two Chinese Versions of Macbeth
Abstract: In his paper, "Shakespeare and the Visualization of Metaphor in Two Chinese Versions of Macbeth," Alexander Huang proposes that, in addition to political uses, visualization is an important dimension of cultural translations of Shakespeare. In recent studies, Shakespeare's global presence has been investigated from various perspectives of critical inquiry, especially with postcolonial theories and in East-West literary relations. Instead of faulting cultural imperialism or foregrounding political statements in theatre, Huang explores the visual dimension of cultural translation found in Kingdom of Desire (a Beijing opera adaptation of Macbeth) and Story of the Bloody Hand (a Kunqu opera appropriation of the same play). Both adaptations re-write Shakespeare in visual terms and translate verbal metaphors by stylization and initiating the development of new appropriative modes and performing idioms. Metaphors encoded in verbal messages are transformed into visual signs in temporal-spatial terms. Thus, both productions foreground the visual nature of the metaphors, especially the color red.

Mei ZHU
Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and the Tradition of Screwball Comedy
Abstract: In her paper, "Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and the Tradition of Screwball Comedy," Mei Zhu argues that Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is controversial owing to the subtlety and complexity of the text as well as its subject matter. Franco Zeffirelli's 1967 film version seems to follow the narrative structure of the original play closely while its effect is different. Through a detailed analysis and comparison of Shakespeare's play and Zeffirelli's adaptation, Mei argues that Zeffirelli's Taming is based on the Hollywood genre of screwball comedy. Rooted in mid-1930s USA during the Great Depression, such films feature a comic battle of the sexes, with the males generally loosing. Zhu also notes that Shakespeare influenced Chinese films during the early twenthieth century, although his influence was indirect.

Xianfeng MOU
Cultural Anxiety and the Female Body in Zeffirelli's Hamlet
Abstract: Xianfeng Mou analyzes in her paper, "Cultural Anxiety and the Female Body in Zeffirelli's Hamlet," the workings of power, both discursive and visual, behind Zeffirelli's handling of the Nunnery and Mousetrap scenes, focusing on feminist interpretations of the female body and female sexuality. Drawing on theories by Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, and Julia Kristeva, Mou analyzes how Zeffirelli, using Hamlet as his spokesman, constructs his negative meanings about Gertrude's sexuality as rampant and aberrant and Ophelia's body as disloyal, insincere, and insignificant. Mou argues that Zeffirelli's discursive and visual constructions confer absolute power upon Hamlet and that this reflects Zeffirelli's intentions as well as society's desire for more power over the female body. That cultural desire, in turn, disguises male anxiety about the power of women in cultural production.

Charles ROSS
Underwater Women in Shakespeare Films
Abstract: In his paper, "Underwater Women in Shakespeare Films," Charles Ross looks at the film tradition of representing the social oppression of women by scenes submersion, a trope that has its literary roots in the classics, the French Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the novel. Ross argues that unlike classic directors such as Kurosawa, Kozintsev, and Polanski, modern filmmakers not only like to enhance the female body, but also to draw on this trope as a cinematic shorthand to symbolize the oppression of women by various forces. Hollywood films made in the 1990s often go overboard in their attempts to make women wet in the movies. Jane Campion's The Piano probably influenced Kenneth Branagh and Michael Almereyda, which soak Ophelia perhaps more than is necessary. Despite pandering to his audience, Baz Luhrmann obtains some significant effects by putting both Romeo and Juliet underwater, while Julie Taymor's Titus also uses and overcomes the convention.

Peirui SU
Method Acting and Pacino's Looking for Richard
Abstract: In her paper, "Method Acting and Pacino's Looking for Richard," Peirui Su explores the influence of method acting on Al Pacino's decision to film Shakespeare's Richard III as an unconventional docudrama. She compares Pacino's film to Laurence Olivier's 1955 film of Richard III and Ian McKellen's 1995 modernized version to show how Pacino's documentary structure solves the problems raised by films that try either to recreate the Elizabethan world or to update Shakespeare, thereby introducing anachronisms. Su argues that Pacino engages US-American audiences by filming interviews and open rehearsals. Su concludes her paper by analyzing the well-known scene of Richard's wooing Lady Anne to show how Pacino's characterization of Richard III relies on the insight that Richard, like Pacino himself, is an actor.

Laura REITZ-WILSON
Race and Othello on Film
Abstract: In her article "Race and Othello on Film," Laura Reitz-Wilson discusses Shakespeare's treatment of race in Othello and compares it to what Hollywood as a producer of culture has done. Reitz-Wilson looks at nine different film versions and analyzes their approaches to Othello's race and character. She parses the historical and textual evidence for racism in Shakespeare's and concludes that it exists and should not be overlooked. Othello's otherness is, in fact, directly connected to his blackness, but Hollywood has rarely captured the tenuous line Shakespeare creates between barbarian and civilized Venetian. Her analysis of the film versions of Othello concentrates the cinematic and directorial tricks that directors have used to avoid the issue of race and concludes with a discussion of how Tim Blake Nelson's O presents the issue of a race in a way that is pedagogically useful.

Simone CAROTI
Science Fiction, Forbidden Planet, and Shakespeare's The Tempest
Abstract: In her paper, "Science Fiction, Forbidden Planet, and Shakespeare's The Tempest," Simone Caroti illustrates the way in which Cyril Hume and Fred Wilcox's 1956 science fiction movie Forbidden Planet -- whose plot is inspired by Shakespeare's Tempest -- reconfigures in Shakespeare's play. Caroti begins by defining the genre of science fiction and explaining its attraction for modern audiences. Following Darko Suvin's notions of science fiction, Caroti highlights the theme of cognitive estrangement and shows how Forbidden Planet offers a cultural translation of this theme in The Tempest. The result of Caroti's analysis is to read Prospero and his magic in contemporary terms: the film translates Shakespeare's sense of wonder and the conflict between the rational interpretive self and the forces of the irrational into a search for truth and an understanding of the place of humanity in the universe.

Lucian GHITA
Reality and Metaphor in Jane Howell's and Julie Taymor's Productions of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus
Abstract: In his paper, "Reality and Metaphor in Jane Howell's and Julie Taymor's Productions of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus," Lucian Ghita looks at how Jane Howell's 1985 BBC production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Julie Taymor's film 1999 adaptation Titus re-fashion the image of Young Lucius. In Ghita's interpretation this happens by structuring the boy as the nexus of a cycle of violence that disturbs not only Andronicus's household, but also the moral and socio-political structures of ancient Rome. Ghita shows how the two directors politicize and ritualize their films by using cinematic techniques to distinguish, on the one hand, the real from the imaginary, and on the other hand, private morality from the psycho-political dynamics of a particular cultural environment: Shakespeare's representation of Roman absolutism. Ghita's interdisciplinary treatment of the audiences' reception and involvement in the filmic sequence reflects his belief that the cinematic shift of perspectives represents not only the directors' desire for novelty but also an effort to defamiliarize Shakespeare's play in order to uncover what Titus can teach contemporary audiences about personal and public morality.

Bibliography

Lucian GHITA, comp.
Bibliography for the Study of Shakespeare on Film in Asia and Hollywood