Rethinking the Humanity and the Humanness of the Emperor in <i>The Sun</i> (2005): “Looking at/Being looked at”, Movement, and Acting

Natori Masakazu

doi:10.18917/eizogaku.108.0_57

<p>The Sun (2005), directed by Aleksandr Sokurov, has been praised for being the first film to portray Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) as a protagonist and a human being. On the other hand, his humanity and humanness are multi-layered and not limited to the obvious forms of joking with his attendants, worrying about his bad breath, writing a letter to his wife (the empress), and ultimately making a “human declaration”. This paper will first analyze the text in terms of “looking at/being looked at”, movement, and acting, in order to show that the humanity and the humanness of the emperor in this film are closely connected to a variety of cinematic techniques. Importantly, such techniques contribute to representing the complexity of the fact that a human being is the emperor and the emperor is a human being, and allow this man to appear as a being who goes back and forth between the two. Through these analyses and discussions, I will conclude that the significance of the film lies in its (unconscious) efforts to convey the difficulties involved in considering the humanity and the humanness of the emperor to the audience by representing his “humanization” as entirely a realistic process of negotiation.</p>

Rethinking the Humanity and the Humanness of the Emperor in <i>The Sun</i> (2005): “Looking at/Being looked at”, Movement, and Acting

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