9. Cruel Story of Youth (Nagisa Osima, 1960) Nagisa Oshima’s second feature film is a prime example of the Japanese New Wave, as it focuses on adolescent delinquency, the sexual revolution, and the failures of the post-war generation. Furthermore, it was his first commercial success and the one that introduced him to the rest of the world. Makoto, a high school student has the habit, along with her friends, to ask for car rides from middle-aged men. During one of those, a lecherous individual tries to rape her; however, a university student, Kiyoshi saves her by beating the assaulter and the two of them initiate, shortly after, a romantic relationship. Nevertheless, the affair is onerous from beginning, chiefly due to Kiyoshi’s cruelty, that …show more content…
Using the repeated sequence of Keiko ascending the stairs to the bar, he depicts the transition from her real life to the professional one, which demands a radical transformation. Naruse's trademark pessimism is not missing, since Keiko seems to find obstacles any time she tries to achieve freedom. Hideko Takamine is magnificent as Keiko, elaborately depicting a complex character, who actually lives two radically different lives. 5. Death By Hanging (Nagisa Oshima, 1968) The film is based on a peculiar case that occurred in 1958, when a Korean young man killed two Japanese students and not only confessed his crimes but also wrote about them in detail. Furthermore, his writings ere published in a collection that became as famous as he did. Taking the particular case as base, Nagisa Osima expressed his ideas regarding death sentence, crime and punishment, Japanese racism towards Korean, imperialism and a series of existential matters. The black and white film begins like a documentary, with Nagisa Oshima presenting in detail the place where executions were held and the procedure itself. However, R, who identifies with the Korean perpetrator, does not die in the procedure, with the bystanders (police officers, priests and politicians) being perplexed as to if he is alive or
In George Orwell’s essay, “A Hanging,” and Michael Lake’s article, “Michael Lake Describes What The Executioner Actually Faces,” a hardened truth about capital punishment is exposed through influence drawn from both authors’ firsthand encounters with government- supported execution. After witnessing the execution of Walter James Bolton, Lake describes leaving with a lingering, “sense of loss and corruption that [he has] never quite shed” (Lake. Paragraph 16). Lake’s use of this line as a conclusion to his article solidifies the article’s tone regarding the mental turmoil that capital execution can have on those involved. Likewise, Orwell describes a disturbed state of mind present even in the moments leading up to the execution, where the thought, “oh, kill him quickly, get it over, stop that abominable noise!” crossed his mind (Orwell.
The Love Suicides at Amijima recounts the tale of two disastrous sweethearts, Jihei, a wedded unsuccessful vendor of business Osaka, and Koharu, a wonderful mistress for whom he has gotten a lethally exceptional affection fascination, and from whom his adoration is responded, however an affection which can never be satisfied because of his marriage and family and her obligated status as a paid courtesan. He tries to control his overwhelming energetic affection for Koharu; in fact some portion of him wishes simply to satisfy what society expects of him as a husband and father. Torn between the two restricting universes of obligation (giri) and enthusiastic private craving (ninjo), Jihei is constrained again and again to reject his home and family. Like some other human
Ukiyo is a culture that strives to live a strictly pleasure-seeking routine. The largest flaw in this way of life, as Saikaku points out, is that its superficial nature forces people to live lives as meaningless and fluffy as its name, the “Floating World,” suggests. It is shallow in the physical sense, in that it focuses primarily on “beautiful” external appearances, and in the metaphorical sense, whereby individuals never really make deep-seated connections to anyone because of their addiction to finding these so-called pleasures. One particular character that Saikaku satirizes to embody this superficial nature of Ukiyo is the old, rotting woman found on the verandah in the episode of “A Monk’s Wife in a Worldly Temple.” He cleverly employs situational irony with this character to prove his point, as it is expected for the archetypal old woman to pass moral lessons to the younger generation. By the character’s own, sorrowful admission she claims that she “can’t forget about sex” and is going to “bite right into” (Saikaku 614) the protagonist; completely the opposite of what the audience expects her to say. This satire highlights the extent to which the Ukiyo lifestyle socially conditions individuals; the old woman is so far gone down that path that she no l...
From the time the first colonists arrived in the late Sixteen Hundreds Pennsylvania executions were carried out by public hanging (Cor.state.pa.us, 2014). In Eighteen Forty Three, Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish public hangings. From Eighteen Thirty Four until Nineteen Fifty Three each county was responsible for carrying out private hanging of criminal within the wall of the county jail.
Throughout this paper, it was able to analyze how a love story developed through time between a hero and a damsel with the presence of good and evil having the ending of living together in great happiness and joy. This paper was able to scrutinize the archetypal villains, hero, and damsel in relation to the opposing concepts such as “good versus evil” and “sorcery versus reality”. It started out as a quest for an answer and later on it turned out to be a discovery for love upon seeing the real beauty within.
Teenage films are often thought of films focused on issues such as teen angst, conflict with parents, coming of age, and most notably rebellion. Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause(1955) is one of the first films that could be classified as such. In today’s times, many films that fall into this genre follow the same structure as Rebel without a Cause in that perceptions and activities of youth defy what is considered to be a seemingly more stable adult life. Prior to Rebel Without a Cause, there wasn’t a film that challenged the ideas of masculinity in society and the struggles that teenagers endured in that era, so it is no surprise that the film is considered to be the poster child of youth rebellion in the 1950’s. Ray brings to light a
In every story, there is a protagonist and an antagonist, good and evil, love and hatred, one the antithesis of the other. To preserve children’s innocence, literature usually emphasizes on the notion that love is insurmountable and that it is the most beautiful and powerful force the world knows of, yet Gen’s and Carmen’s love, ever glorious, never prevails. They each have dreams of a future together, “he takes Carmen’s hand and leads her out the gate at the end of the front walkway… together they… simply walk out into the capital city of the host country. Nobody knows to stop them. They are not famous and nobody cares. They go to an airport and find a flight back to Japan and they live there, together, happily and forever” in which their love is the only matter that holds significance (261). The china
In the short story “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” by Junot Diaz, the author pinpoints on the Yunior’s life as a writer and college professor who is also struggling with his romantic relationships. The short story is filled with his experiences of using women for his beneficial needs and how it negatively affects him. It focuses on Yunior’s downfall through life after the destruction of his relationship with his fiance. The diction includes the narrator’s hateful consideration of women and a paradox of his own endeavors which prevent him from pursuing a meaningful relationship, but he grows to realize that he treats women awfully and his ex did the right thing by leaving him due to his untruthfulness.
about the death penalty are brought about in different ways in the film and in
Kogawa conveys that past events can impact an individual's life due to the traumatizing memories and cause them to feel conflicted. For instance, Naomi, one of the main characters, was molested by Old Man Gower, a family friend of hers. When she recalls the vivid images of Old Man Gower handling her and sexually abusing her, she claims that it was "unthinkable to be held by [such] force" (67-68). Here, Naomi cannot even bear the thought of being suppressed in the hands of Old Man Gower when she looks back at the painful memories. It is clear that the sexual violence that was inflicted against her long ago as a child still has an impact on her to the present day and causes her emotional distress just by thinking about it. Furthermore, Naomi experiences frequent nightmares of Old Man Gower sexually harassing her, contributing to her already unstable emotions and fear. She describes one of the nightmares: "The room is dark, the blinds drawn almost to the bottom. I am unfamiliar with such darkness. The bed is strange and pristine, deathly in its untouched splendor" (68). Evidently, Naomi is victimized by the horrific memories of Old Man Gower sexuall...
Capital punishment is punishment for a crime by death, which is frequently referred to as the death penalty. Today, most countries have abolished the death penalty. America is one of the few countries that has kept this form cruel and inhumane form of punishment. In American history, the death penalty was abolished, but it was brought back not long afterwards. Not only is capital punishment inhumane and pricey but it also voids our rights as a citizen and is unconstitutional. Capital punishment is an improper form of punishment that needs to be abolished in all states.
The Reign of Terror, a time prior to the French Revolution, is a scary time. Almost 20,000 people were executed, due to the high standards people are held to, while countless others die in prison or without a trial. Throughout A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens shows numerous eye opening encounters of what occurred prior and during the revolution in France. It covers many of the horrific punishment methods and things people do to be considered prisoners. The Reign of Terror and French revolution are a time of extreme violence, and because of this there need to be prisons, punishment systems, and protocols in place to help regain peace within the country.
The Tale of Kieu, called the most important piece of Vietnamese literature, is the story of a young Vietnamese girl's attempt to right the wrongs of her past lives by enduring hardship in this life. She is sold into prostitution and continuously deceived by men promising her love. The only man whose promise of love is not in vain is Kim Trong, the first man to pledge himself to her. Kieu is visited by a ghost who reveals to her the bad karma she earned in a previous life. Following Kieu and Kim Trong's vows of love, he is called off to attend to his family when his uncle dies. Soon after, robbers brake in to steal and vandalize Kieu's house, and they tie up her father and brother. In order to redeem them, Kieu sells herself into a marriage. Unfortunately, the man she marries then turns around to sell her to a brothel. This is the beginning of her life as a prostitute.
George Orwell’s essay called, A Hanging, describes how he sees capital punishment inhumane to all parties. The essay is structured like a story to convey his point clearly in a way a regular essay cannot. The story follows the narrator as he finally sees a prisoner that he describes in an inhumane to be someone that still has a will to live.
I will accomplish this by first providing you with a brief history of the death penalty, then I will discuss grounds for justifying the death penalty, and finally I will dispute some of the popular arguments against the death penalty. To start off, I will discuss the history of the death penalty. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, boiling, beheading, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. In the Tenth Century A.D., hanging became the usual method of execution in Britain.