Who is the Monster? Signs of Violence in Yasujirō Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” and Hirokazu Koreeda’s “Monster”
Aneta Pierzchała-Suska
aneta.pierzchala@onet.euPolish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1723-7733
Abstract
The article analyses various forms of violence in Japanese culture and cinema, juxtaposing the subtle violence depicted in Yasujirō Ozu’s films, such as Tokyo Story from the 1950s, with the more explicit representations of violence in contemporary cinema, exemplified by Hirokazu Koreeda’s Monster (2023) and Shoplifters (2018). In Ozu’s works, violence is expressed through silence and the pressure stemming from Confucian norms, illustrating the tension between traditional values and Japan’s postwar modernization. Koreeda’s films, on the other hand, focus on overt violence, institutional crises, and social exclusion, showing how the collapse of symbolic structures leads to alienation and chaos. The author also explores the topic of post-traumatic imagination, analysing how contemporary Japanese filmmakers use the language of cinema to process both collective and individual trauma.
Keywords:
Japanese cinema, Yasujirō Ozu, Hirokazu Koreeda, violence, family relations, post-traumatic imaginationReferences
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Authors
Aneta Pierzchała-Suskaaneta.pierzchala@onet.eu
Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology Poland
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1723-7733
PhD in Film Studies, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Japanese Culture at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (PJATK) in Warsaw. Author of the book Obcość przezwyciężona? Film japoński a kultura europejska [Overcoming Otherness? Japanese Cinema and European Culture] (2005) and co-author of publications such as Autorzy kina europejskiego II [European Cinema Authors II] (2005), Szukając von Triera [Searching for von Trier] (2000), and Światowa encyklopedia kina religijnego [The World Encyclopedia of Religious Cinema] (2007). Her articles have been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy, Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa, Kino, Film, Akcent, Dialog, Teatr, Życie Warszawy, Życie, and Gazeta Wyborcza.
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