Week 8 questions

1. Pick a scene or two and consider how editing, cinematography, sound, and mise-en-scene elements shape your response to the story and the characters. (For quick explanations of these and other film terms, click here.)

2. Does the film's director exhibit a signature style? Are there formal elements of the film that strike you as particularly noteworthy?

3. The film's narrative contains many ellipses. Large sections of the story are left unnarrated. How does this technique affect your response to the characters and their experiences?

4. The film seems to mix comedic and dramatic elements. How do these two elements fit together? Do the comical passages detract from the seriousness of the main plot or the issues confronted by the characters?

5. How does the film represent gay life in 21st-century Japan? What is the gay scene? How do Katsuhiro and Naoya participate in this world? How do they define their gayness? How do they challenge assumptions about what it means to be a gay man in Japan?

6. Does the film trade in gay stereotypes?

7. One of the main points of Hall's rather convoluted argument is a critique of the way that Western gay activists evaluate gay identity politics in Japan and East Asia. What is Hall's point? Does the film contribute to that perception? Is this a fair or useful way to think about gay subcultures outside the US?

8. Does it make sense to think about this film as an example of queer cinema? If so, how does it conform to this cinematic trend?

9. Hall also comments upon the prominence of straight female characters in many Japanese "gay boom" films. How does Hall characterize the function of these female characters?

10. Does the depiction of Asako conform to the patterns that Hall outlines? Or is there a better way to describe her role in the film?

11. How would you categorize Asako's quest to have a child?

12. How are the other women in the film depicted?

13. Is the film more about family than sexuality? What does the film suggest about the state of the conventional family unit in 21st-century Japan? Does the film distinguish between urban families and rural families?

14. What are the defining features of the family unit created by Asako, Katsuhiro, and Naoya?

15. Is this an assimilationist vision of family or a challenge to the institution?