Customer Reviews

Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In hindsight, and after watching this documentary, it's pretty easy to see how we got into the Great Wars against Japan. It's also pretty easy to see how we could have avoided them with a little cultural understanding.

As usual, PBS puts together a well researched, balanced report. As a bonus, it lacks the usual bias that most documentaries seem to inherently possess, and offers very little in a way of "directorial opinion".

I did, however, feel that it relied to heavily on visuals at times, especially on the section covering the Meiji period. I would have preferred a little more detail, especially concerning the upcoming culture wars (not covered in this documentary).

That being said, the visuals themselves are nothing to complain about, and the art direction is excellent. And the music! What a great score for a documentary!

Bottom Line: Recommended, especially for those seeking an intro into Japanese history and culture.

I picked up this video for use with my 8th Grade class. We do a unit on Japanese literature of the Medieval and Tokugawa periods and I used Episode 2 as an introduction.

I loved the visual style of the film. It is striking and dramatic, with re-enactment footage helping the viewer to visualize the clothing, etiquette, and lifestyles of the period. A great deal of valuable information is covered in a compressed period of time without being difficult to understand. So far so good.

However, the film has a very "Eurocentric" attitude right from the get-go. Before Episode 1 even begins, the voice-over announces that Japan was a world completely the opposite of Europe. The rest of the film continues to hammer this idea of Japan as "other." Although the film quotes generously from primary sources about the period. most of these sources are European missionaries. The implication is that we can only understand the strange Japanese culture by reading the memoirs of Portugese Jesuits who spent a few months there. This ignores the fact that Japan at the time was certainly just as accomplished a literary culture as any in Europe, with plenty of authors writing compelling works showing much greater understanding and insight about the culture than European visitors could offer. The film also seems obsessed with the fate of the Christian religion in Japan. This is an interesting story, but it is really only significant to the country's history when discussing the final uprising of the Christians which led directly to the Shogun closing Japan off from outside visitors. Meanwhile, important topics like Shinto, the Emperor, and Zen Buddhism are barely mentioned.

One section that does use a Japanese primary source is the valuable discussion in Episode 2 of travel during the Tokugawa period. The film uses the journal of a Japanese woman, describing the special difficulties women faced in traveling around Japan. This was interesting and enlightening. It was also good to see a woman's perspective in the middle of such a male-dominated tale of power struggles and war.
Overall, I give the film a middling review. The visuals and wealth of information presented is good, but the distorted, Eurocentric focus is a real drawback.

This video is very informative. As a moderately knowledgeable person on Japanese history during the "warring era", I still learned new information. The visual images are colorful. However, this is more like an audio book with very loosely associated video images. It doesn't contain the variety of re-enactments, "on-location" views of historical events, historical photos and/or art work that connect directly to the spoken narrative.

This was an excellent documentary! Absolutely great! It was a good long length, so you definately get your money's worth. The quality was very good, it was accurate, and informative, and definately interesting and entertaining to a certain degree. The only flaw I found in it was that there were a number of repeat shots of people, but it wasn't a big deal. Very good choice, whether you are just interested in the Samurai, or you have a research paper to do. Great all around.

I consider myself a student of Japanese history. I am willing to learn more from many sources. I consider this DVD an excellent treatise in a condensed form of an important aspect of Japanese history. I have loaned this DVD to mnay of my friends.

An excellent 1-disc, 3-hour PBS documentary of the Tokugawa Shogunate period that is Japan's middle history. I sincerely doubt that any better, concise English film summary of this period exists anywhere.

The documentary is narrated by Richard Chamberlain, star of the 10-hour, 1980 fact-based award-winning adaptation of James Clavell's "Shogun," to which it is an excellent companion piece. (The first 90 minutes corresponds to the time period in "Shogun.")

This PBS piece is filled with gorgeous, historically accurate, flattering visuals. It runs eyes closely over authentic samurai dress, Japanese castles & temples, the forging of swords, tea ceremonies, Japanese calligraphy & art, the painting of geishas. Well worth watching for this reason alone.

The 1st hour opens in 1543 with birth of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the arrival of the first European merchant ships and Jesuits, then chronicles the politics and battles leading to the unification of Japan under Ieyasu.

The 2nd hour begins in 1600 with Ieyasu, now titled Shogun, ruling the merchants/farmers of Japan via a samurai middle-class, and follows the rule of grandson Iemitsu, as he tightens control, persecutes Christians and, in the 1640s, isolates Japan from the outside world.

The 3rd hour begins in 1700, where Japan enjoys peace, prosperity and intellectual pursuit. Edo, home to Ieyasu's castle, has blossomed into the city that will become Toyko. This hour covers about 150 years, during which Japanese high culture, and a growing interest in the outside world, matures. Samurai warriors, under peace, morph into a ceremonial class that vests Japan's history, ceremony, ethic and pride. The hour concludes with the 1853 arrival of Perry's fleet, forcing Japan open to world trade.

The threat of invasion removed, rule by Shogunate and samurai ends and Japan begins to move tentatively into its modern role in the world.

My students were thoroughly bored with this film. I tried to elicit their attention by giving some preliminary information; having a short preview and a sort of "what to watch for" information to direct students' attention to what was important in the film. This is essential for 8th graders especially and for educational reasons in particular.
We found the film repeated the same information so much that it was wasting our precious class time. Much of the information was interesting; however, it could have been given in a more dynamic manner and in less time by not repeating the same thing about only a few people. Normally, PBS has motivating films that capture my students' attention. We were all disappointed. I will not show this film next year although I have not yet found a substitute that covers the same time span. I need something on ancient Japan from the 600s to the 1600s AD, the rise of military society, shoguns, daimyos, and samurai warriors.