24 Eyes

24 Eyes (二十四の瞳, Nijuu-shi no Hitomi), a 1954 film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and based off a 1952 novel by Sakae Tsuboi, follows a schoolteacher Hisako Oishi as she arrives in a small village in Shodoshima to teach a group of twelve elementary school students, while also showing the effects of World War II on each of their lives as they grow older. 

Starting off with Miss Oishi's arrival in the small village, the twelve schoolchildren quickly develop a fondness for their new strangely modern yet playfully involved schoolteacher; her routine of riding her bicycle while wearing a suit to school every day, and using songs and games to help her students learn garners her both admiration from her students and suspicion from the simple parents within the town. When a prank by the children causes Miss Oishi to suffer a debilitating wound that prevents her from getting to the school, she is forced to quit teaching in the village, but this does not stop her students from visiting her, whether it be to bring or food or assess her new husband-to-be.

The tone quickly becomes more somber as World War II starts to affect the small village; young boys are drafted, with many of them never returning home from the war due to losing their lives in battle. Both the now-adolescent schoolchildren and Miss Oishi must deal with the sacrifices of war, whether it be being drafted into the war, becoming ill, or losing those close to them.

The melodramatic characteristics through its themes and characters are definitely a major contributor to 24 Eyes being one of Japan's most well-known films to this day. For example, Miss Oishi's character as almost a "tragic heroine" displays the use of an exaggeration not of her emotions, but of her experiences throughout her life: she originally suffers a serious injury that prevents her from biking to and from the village, but as World War II starts to affect all of Japan, more tragedy befalls her, such as the loss of her husband in the war, and the death of her daughter after she falls from a tree. Moreover, her students are also victims of this excess of tragedy, as many of them die in the war after being drafted as well, while one becomes blind, and another contracts tuberculosis. While the excessive emotion is not as prominent as other melodramas, the use of subtle somber musical choices and settings accompanied with the tragic experiences of both Miss Oishi and her students nonetheless emphasize the resulting feelings of helplessness and sadness similar to those of more obvious melodramas. 

In addition, it is this tragedy accompanied with the setting of the film, a small, poor village within Shodoshima untouched by war until World War II, that establishes a polarity between the initial blissful peace of the village pre-war time and the debilitating effects of war that Kinoshita emphasizes. These opposing forces can be particularly seen in the scene where Miss Oishi talks with her eldest son about the end of the war; while he continues to be saddened by Japan's loss in the war, Miss Oishi put particular emphasis on the less-obvious yet heavier loss of lives as a result of the war. The theme of the damaging effects of the war in spite of the patriotism some characters insist upon is prominent throughout the entire movie; it is made clear by Tsuboi and Kinoshita that the "evil" that the characters must face is the war itself, along with the fear-induced and blinded patriotism some characters use to defend it within the movie.

While more subdued in its use of exaggerated emotion and polar opposing forces of war versus peace, 24 Eyes uses these aspects in similar ways as other, more obvious melodramas to express its overarching theme of the importance of peace and understanding that make an essential part of Japanese cinema.

All That Heaven Allows

All That Heaven Allows follows the story of Cary Scott and her romance with Ron Kirby. Cary is an affluent widow living in New England with two college-age children. Her friend attempts to set her up with a fellow widower, and Cary is on the receiving end of male attention in the Country Club. But none of these men really seem to understand Cary or make her feel anything. On the other hand, Cary has a very clear and distinct attraction to Ron Kirby, the man who manages her trees.

Ron is unlike the other men in Cary's life though. He doesn't care for the materialistic social circle Cary is a part of - his biggest passion is trees and nature. He introduces Cary to like-minded friends and Cary finds herself enjoying their company.

When Ron proposes, Cary accepts. But when she introduces Ron to her social circle, everyone looks down on him. Even her children are angry with Cary's choice. Unable to deal with the social pressure, Cary calls off the engagement. The movie follows their separate lives but with a clear message that both are missing something. When her children move out, her son buys her a television. It is an apology for ruining his mother's chance at happiness. Her daughter also appologizes and urges her mother to take action and make up with Ron. There is still time, she says.

But it takes an accident to reunite Cary and Ron. True to melodramaic form, only a life-threatening accident makes Cary realize what is important in her life. She rushes to Ron's side and when he wakes, tells him that she has finally come home.

The director uses this love story to voice his criticism of society. There's no doubt that Ron's arboreal passion was chosen to contrast with the society that Cary lives in. The constant emphasis on the television is also a potent criticism in Sirk's hand. He asks the viewers, are our relations just empty talking from a soulless box? Or have we chosen relationships with people like Ron, who can further cultivate us and fulfill us? Sirk's movie is melodramatic in the sense that it deals with a relationship and the characters are under societal pressures. But it is also a criticism of our society - one that would not seem out of place even today. What is more important to us? The beautifully maintained but empty home that Cary has, or the somewhat rugged home that Ron loves? In the end, by forcing Cary to bow to social pressures, Sirk seems to be implicitly critiquing those people who make similar decisions. The melodramatic form allows Sirk to transmit these messages without plastering them to our faces. Because the viewer empathizes with Cary, they truly feel and realize that she has made a mistake in letting Ron go. This empathy acts as the conduit between the story and the director's message.

A Kabuki Actor's Revenge

The classic 1963 Japanese film An Actor’s Revenge directed by Kon Ichikawa follows the journey of a Kabuki actor, Yukinojo, who attempts to avenge his parents’ deaths. In the opening scene, we see him performing in Edo while having a watchful eye on his enemies: the merchants who ruined his father’s business. Throughout the performance, we hear his internal thoughts in a voiceover that clearly sets the dark mood of the film. In that moment, we clearly understand see his feelings of vengeance and hate towards those high status and powerful citizens. The film proceeds to follow Yukinojo as he tracks down the three merchants to ultimately attack and impose on their lives until their destruction. Despite his burning desire for hatred, Yukinojo insists on long term scheming as a method of attack rather than killing at the first opportunity possible. The film also presents a twist of romance to deepen the melodramatic element when one of the merchant’s daughters confesses her love to Yukinoj and he convinces her that he is on board.  By the end of the movie, he retires from the stage and withdraws to living his life in isolation where everyone eventually forgets about him. As expected of an actor, Yukinojo’s performance on and off stage is noticeably flamboyant enough to contribute to the melodrama genre.

            One of the interesting concepts that interested me while watching this film was the idea of a Kabuki actor. Yukinojo, who played a Kabuki actor, was widely known for his acting and talents in the film. Many of the characters praised him for his skills. Apparently, Kabuki theatre is a great tradition and technique among generations for men to showcase their talents. In learning more about the art, all the female roles were played by male actors called “onnagata,” and sometimes fulfilled the role even better than women could have. Yukinojo wore women’s clothes and kept his mannerisms and language very feminine-like that other characters questioned whether he was really a man or a woman. In this film, it was interesting to witness how he carries this traditional kabuki role into his life off stage, fooling everyone with his feminine elegance all the while inflicting damage to his enemies.

            Another thing I found fascinating was the Japanese title of the film: Yukinojo henge. Apparently, “henge” translates to ghost or apparition. The first thought that came to mind was the scene in which Yukinojo disguises himself as a ghost of his deceased father to haunt one of the merchants. Evidently, he succeeds in accomplishing his goal in that moment by terrifying the merchant to death. In a theatrical perspective “henge” could also be interpreted as a change in disguise. In such a case, this title can attribute to the way Yukinojo undergoes a number of disguises on stage and off stage to accomplish his goal, whether it was faking a courtship or acting on and offstage stage as a convincing female. His changes in mannerisms and disguises that so easily fooled others perfectly justifies the title. Nevertheless, voiceovers that expressed Yukinojo’s personal thoughts maintained the dark and vengeful theme of the film to remind viewers of the melodramatic element that he has not lost track of his goal.

Hana Yori Dango

           Boys over Flowers (Hana yori Dango) is a famous Japanese TV series based on a shoujo manga. It has two seasons. The first season was broadcast on TBS in 2005, and two years later, the second season came out. In this TV series, there are a lot of typical themes that often appear in melodramas. For example, money V.S. love; the difference in status; violence; conflict between family and love...
           I have watched the Taiwanese version (Meteor Garden) when I was in primary school. I couldn't remember the plots clearly, but I feel that the Japanese version is definitely more "dramatic". 
           First of all, in the Japanese version, after Tsukushi received the red tag, her friend Sanjo Sakurako abandoned her. When Sanjo Sakurako spilled juice on Domyouji's shirt, Tsukushi defended her and helped get out of the troubles. But Sanjo Sakurako did not do the same thing for Tsukushi. However, in the Taiwanese version, Shancai (Tsukushi) has a childhood friend, Qinghe, who always stands on her side. So, as an audience, I feel that the Japanese version produce a strong feeling of isolation and betraying, and this made Tsukushi more like a "victimized hero" (Mercer 10).
           Second, the plots were more condensed in the Japanese version. The Japanese version only has 20 episodes in total (two seasons). So everything happened really fast and the dramatic conflicts seemed to be more concentrated. For example, the love between Tsukushi and Tsukasa merged much quicker in the Japanese version. So the conflict between money/family and love also appeared much earlier.
           In my opinion, the Japanese version of Boys over Flowers has a more dramatic feeling. It enhanced some of the melodramatic characteristics of this work.

氷菓 (Hyoka)

氷菓 (Hyoka)

      Hyoka is a Japanese animation TV series directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto (武本康弘) and produced by my favorite animation company Kyoto Animation (京都アニメーション) on April, 2012. This series was adapted by a novel named “Classic Literature Club” (〈古典部〉シリーズ) written by Honobu Yonezawa (米澤穂信). Because of the success of the animation in 2012, this novel has also been adapted to Manga and movie recently.

      

        Hyoka literally means “frozen dessert” or “ice-cream” in English. However, this title actually doesn’t have much relationship with this animation. In fact, the title means “I scream” and it sounds like “ice-cream”. The author obliquely showed its actual meaning in this title. However, why Yonezawa wants to scream? In the first story of this series, we can know its meaning and background.

       In 1960s and 1970s, there were many student movements broke out at that time in Japan. A lot of students who were enthusiastic about reform launched movements everywhere in Japan. However, most of them were suppressed by order generations and governments. Jun Sekitan (関谷 純) as a leader of one of student movements finally dead at that time. He was a tragic hero because in the end, all of students he ever led chose to betray him. When his student movement was defeated, all of others showed their apathy to the leader Sekitani. In the end, he took on all of burden and became a scapegoat. At that time, Sekitani wanted to scream. We can see hopelessness and indignation in his heart.

      In the following years, people who happily live in Heisei Period would forget the history. However, we can also find the feeling of indifference on most of young people in today. Young people’s blood will not boil any more. Therefore, Yonezawa wanted to scream and aroused young people in new time. In this series, he created a protagonist named Hotaro Oreki (折木 奉太郎). As a common high school student, he has no enthusiasm and vigor in the beginning. However, he meets a girl named Eru Chitanda (千反田 える) in classical literature club. She is niece of Jun Sekitani; and she wanted to know the fact of that student movement. Therefore, she requests Oreki to inquiry this event.

      

      On the surface, this series actually is a detective series, and Hyoka is the first story in this series. In the following stories, Oreki gradually changed himself because of his experience on various detective events. He is growing up during this period. Yonezawa wanted to arouse young people by history. In today, we can’t lose in modern cities and do nothing in our whole life.

       I can also find many features of melodrama in Hyoka. Firstly, In Schatz’s description, “victimized hero” is a major theme. In Hyoka, we can see Jun Sekitani is a typical victimized hero. In his experience, we can also see Yonezawa’s social criticism. His criticism was not much clear and direct. However, if we can understand this story and its meaning, we can see Yonezawa exposed his satire for today’s Japanese young people and the conservative party in last century. And the obscured social criticism is also a theme of melodrama.

      In addition, Hyoka also tells us a love story. Although this love story is extremely implicit, audience can feel the relationship between Oreki and Chitanta is gradually changed. In the last episode, they have an ambiguous talk under a cherry tree in early spring. So, their ending is open. We can guess whether they become a couple finally. From my prospective, Yonezawa also doesn’t decide their ending. In this series, we can see Oreki is not brave enough. He is afraid of the difference of position between himself and Chitanda because Chitanda comes from a rich nobleman in Kyoto. So, he is also hesitating and confusing about their love. In melodrama, the conflict between different classes is also a common theme.

        As a leading anime produced by Kyoto Animation in 2012, it owns exquisite painting, perfect storyboard and charming stories. With classical light music as the background music, I believe all of you can enjoy in this anime.

Princess Tutu

From beloved shonen anime such as Full Metal Alchemist to the recent success of Attack on Titan, from still-popular series Death Note to dark deconstruction projects like Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Japanese anime has benefitted greatly through the utilization of melodrama tropes and themes. However, it can be argued that few anime feel so at home in the melodrama genre as the 2002 sleeper hit, Princess Tutu. First aired as a magical girl series, the popular story also produced spin-off manga series while continuing to receive praise-saturated reviews throughout the decade following its release. Much of Princess Tutu's success may be accredited to the heavy influence of a vast array of classical ballets on the plot, such as The Nutcracker, La Sylphide, Coppelia, and most notably, Swan Lake, making the anime a visual treasure trove for ballet dancers and scholars alike, accompanied by a soundtrack that serves as a love letter to Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Like the ballets that inspired it, this anime explores a nearly exhaustive amount of melodrama tropes in its 26 episodes, including the pitting of good versus evil, constant display of heightened emotion, and tragic plot non-resolution

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To begin, we can look at the melodramatic use of good versus evil. The forces of "good" in this show, the Prince Mythos and Princess Tutu, can be seen in the upper image. Each of the characters in the story represent characters from the fairytale The Prince and The Raven, in which a prince (Mythos) seals away an evil and powerful Raven through shattering his own heart into shards. Princess Tutu, a mere duckling, is transformed into a human girl, and later into her magical alter-ego, in order to continue the story by searching for the lost shards of the Prince's heart. Both Mythos and Tutu are stereotypically kindhearted, with Tutu being especially self-sacrificing. These qualities are reflected in both the clothes they wear and the scenes they appear in; Princess Tutu and Mythos' outfits are always all or mostly white, both have light hair and eyes, and are shown in scenes that use light backgrounds with a soft glow and harmonic music. On the other side of the spectrum are Princess Kraehe and Drosselmeyer, the antagonists of our story. Princess Kraehe was kidnapped by the same Raven as in the Prince's story, and now chases after him, desparate to win his affection by any means. Therefore, she interferes when Tutu tries to heal Mythos' heart, fearing he will not love her if his heart is restored. While Kraehe begins to interfere less with Tutu's mission by the finale, Drosselmeyer stays an antagonist until the end. As he possesses the power to make stories come to life, he brought his characters from The Prince and The Raven into reality so that the tragic story would continue, with the intention that the conclusion would be heartbreaking for all. Mythos and Tutu's positive qualities can be seen in how they are portrayed, which is the same way Kraehe and Drosselmeyer's insidious tendencies are represented. As can be seen above, Kraehe's tutu could not be more starkly different from Tutu's, and the scenes she appears in are stereotypically dark and use tumultuous scores of music. The same is true on an even larger scale for the most evil villain, Drosselmeyer, who is made to look deformed and wretched.

Next, we can analyze the use of heightened emotion in Princess Tutu. The image above comes from one of the scenes from the episode in which Princess Tutu obtains her first heart shard to give to the Prince. During this episode, one of the ballet students in Tutu's class, Anteaterina, becomes obsessed with getting Mythos' affection after being slighted by his rumored girlfriend, Rue. She challenges Rue to a competition of Pas de Deux, but loses even with Mythos as a partner. She becomes consumed by the heart shard of Bitterness, running from the studio in tears, later slapping Mythos across the face, sobbing as the becomes more and more despairing, and  lastly battling with Princess Tutu until her heart is cleansed. These scenes depict heightened emotion common in melodrama, including waves of tears, outbursts involving physical violence, and crying out in despairing wails, that is utilized in almost all episodes by the characters who are consumed by the heart shards.

Lastly, the finale to Princess Tutu's story contains the most melodrama of all. First, Princess Kraehe has finally resolved to fight against her father, the Raven, and is thus kidnapped by him, kept helplessly in her original human form, a girl named Rue, and forced to continue dancing until she will die. Princess Tutu learns that the last heart shard is in fact the pendant allowing her to be human, but when she tries to remove it in order to give to Mythos, the pendant is stuck. She is given until dawn to restore Mythos' heart, and in the time remaining, Fakir, Mythos' best friend, will be forced by Drosselmeyer to write a tragic ending to the story in which Mythos will once again shatter his own heart to seal away the Raven. As he is forced to keep writing, Fakir commits sensationalized acts of violence against himself, repeatedly trying to cut off his own hands. He breaks free from Drosselmeyer's curse and rushes to Princess Tutu, explaining to her that the pendant is stuck because she herself does not want the story to end so she may not be separated from her beloved Prince. After a tear-filled Pas de Deux, Fakir and Tutu promise to return to their "true selves", and Tutu resigns herself to transforming permanently into a duck in order to save Mythos.
With Mythos' heart restored, he enters the final battle against the Raven. However, as the battle rages on, Mythos loses his will to fight, deciding once again to seal the Raven by shattering his own heart. Seeing this, the heartbroken Tutu begins to dance while crying for her Prince, continuing even while the Raven's minions attack her. Her dancing lifts his spirits, and Mythos manages to save Rue from the Raven, resulting in the two defeating the Raven while Tutu finally collapses, exhausted. At the conclusion, Drosselmeyer loses his power thanks to the positive resolution of the story, and Mythos confesses his love for Rue and takes her back to his kingdom. Princess Tutu remains a mere duck, the most tragic character of the story, with her love to be forever unrequited.

In accordance with countless great ballets, our heroine is fated to play the role of the most tragic character in the story. Having fallen in love with a man who is star-crossed to be with another, she sacrifices her own happiness completely in ways that harken back to tragic love stories such as Giselle. To paint her as such a tragic character, the story uses melodramatic tropes common in many famus ballets, including being forced to live in the body of an animal, being doomed to a cruel fate if she is to reveal her feelings for her beloved, and continuing to dance until death (or in this case, exhaustion). At the end of the story, the anguished Tutu uses the last of her power as a Princess to ensure that her Prince may live happily ever after, even if it means she will be miserable. Coupled with the other themes used in this anime, Princess Tutu secures a spot as one of the most melodramatic anime of all time.

Hana Yori Dango -- Contemporary Cinderella Fantasy

Boys Over Flowers

            As one of the best seller and most popular work in the Shoujo Manga genre (comic for girls), Boys Over Flowers had serialized 12 years (1992~2004). After it had finished its serialization, this manga won the 41^st Shogakukan Manga Award, which is Japan’s major manga award.

The main story of the Boys Over Flowers is about a poor girl enters a private high school which is full of rich children, and after a series of misunderstanding and troubles, she finally falls in love a handsome boy, who is also one of the richest students in her school. The summary of this masterpiece of contemporary Shoujo Manga is more like a normal girl’s fantasy of being a princess and marry a prince like Cinderella’s fairy tale. However, this impractical story attracts a huge amount of audience all around the world and has sold 61 million copies in 2015 and reaches the best-selling position of Shoujo Manga genre. Except the outstanding performance on selling, the story also brings its author, Yoko Kamio, a lot of chances to be famous worldwide. Since 1996 the animation version is on stage, the story of Boys Over Flowers was produced in various formats and languages, including animation, film, and also Television drama, in Japanese, Chinese and also Korean.

Its classic plot could be considered as the representative of contemporary melodrama for several elements: opposite position (poor girl vs. rich boy; ordinary student vs. private school); dilemma (two best friends fall in love with the same girl; family members do not accept a poor girl); unexpected plot, especially with sudden transition (being framed by the other jealous girls; being understood by the person she loved).

During the beginning of 21^st century, women are the major audience of Television due to the Asian cultural background that most women stay in homes and work in home as housewives. As a work which are majorly targeting those female audience, these elements enable the Boys Over Flowers to attract those audience who are considered as more sensitive by setting the story from the poor girl’s point of view to give them sense of substitution.

On the other hand, it also has the attractiveness of serialized work. No matter the original manga itself or its animation and Television dramas, as a serialized work, the most charming point is that the story would cut off at the climax of one part, which is the most exciting or tense timing. This set up is for triggering and attracting audience to think about the plot and the later plot during the waiting weekdays. Since this circumstance is built up, people who want to know the plot in next episode would discuss and recommend it to their friends. So that, the work could be spread to everywhere.