Forum Topic
Sawa
MemberNoobOct-17-2013 6:50 AM[center][/center]Throughout BR, and in the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ17UsZ0DEQ]Billboard[/url]/Blimp scenes, you hear clip-selections of a Japanese biwa song called [url=http://www.komuso.com/pieces/pieces.pl?piece=2435]Ogi No Mato[/url]. In English, this is translated to: "The Folding Fan as a Target". The music is produced by plucking on what is called a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biwa]biwa[/url] (a traditional Japanese instrument). A song cycle/epic somewhat reminiscent of Shakespeare's [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet]Romeo and Juliet[/url], and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tell#The_legend]The Legend of William Tell[/url]. Presented here, is the bit of Japanese history it is based on:
[center][b]Lit. The Fan Target[/b][/center]
A famous incident from the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yashima]Battle of Yashima[/url], and according to the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Heike]Tale of the Heike[/url]. On the evening of February 18th, 1185, from among the clan [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taira_clan]Taira[/url] ships, which had earlier fled the beach, a small boat rowed toward shore. An elegant young woman wearing red n' white emerged, and held aloft a red fan decorated with gold sun mounted on a pole.
The rival clan [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_clan]Minamoto[/url], and it's General [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamoto_no_Yo****sune]Yo****sune[/url], accepting the challenge, summoned his best archer [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasu_no_Yoichi]Nasu Yoichi[/url] to shoot at the fan target. Riding into the surf, and with both Taira and Minamoto armies watching, Yoichi let fly an arrow that knocked the fan from it's perch. :O
[center][img]http://s17.postimg.org/ovfivxfnz/NA051320.jpg[/img]
In detail (pg. 114-117): [url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gyqN0PRuoeUC&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114#v=onepage&q&f=true]A Brief History of the Samurai[/url] by Jonathan Clements
[img]http://s12.postimg.org/g1629vdhp/target.gif[/img][/center]
Bonus links:
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVXUk1zoUJw]The Battle of Yashima: Animated[/url] and [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqfPL8AS8nU](2)[/url]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7aO1Q0UIMs]Ogi No Mato (The Folding Fan as a Target) FULL[/url]
[url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/60012948#fullscreen]The Battle of Yashima @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art[/url]
[url=http://www.komuso.com/albums/albums.pl?album=662]Ensemble Nipponia: Japan Traditional Vocal and Instrumental Music (1976)[/url]
[url=http://www.amazon.com/The-Tale-Heike-Helen-McCullough/dp/0804718032]The prayer translation of "Ogi No Mato" on pg. 368 in "The Tale of Hieke" (1988)[/url]
[center][b]Geisha #2[/b][/center]
Geisha woman #2 is listed as [url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2bb07b892d]Horiko Kimuri[/url] (some sites as Horilo). If I were to guess at what it should be (in Japanese): Hiroko Kimura. Although, before I believed that this person would be a Japanese-American actress (since a US production), maybe not after-all. The woman I suspect is somewhat well-known, for doing ads on Japanese TV, and was active until the late 1970s:
[center]
[img]http://s2.postimg.org/g0avtexuh/blimpgeisha_2.jpg[/img]
[url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/580195|0/Horilo-Kimuri-Horilo-Kimuri-/]Horilo Kimuri[/url] = Hiroko Kimura = Chikage Oogi "??"
[img]http://s8.postimg.org/l13z71wmd/Chikage_Ogi_early_70s.jpg[/img]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikage_Oogi]Chikage Oogi[/url] (born: Hiroko Kimura)
Ref. links:
[url=http://promide.com/page.php?s=1326]Photos 1[/url]
[url=http://face5.blog.fc2.com/?mode=m&no=550&photo=true]Photos 2[/url]
[url=http://film.club.ne.jp/topics/ogi.html]Photos 3[/url][/center]
It is my thinking there are three Geisha women in the B-roll. Alexis (aka Susan) Rhee, then both seen in the final blimp [url=http://s15.postimg.org/ez820f8wb/finalblimpcap.jpg]appearance[/url]: Horiko Kimura, and the one upside-down (or pouring beer in the B-roll) is completely unknown. It is also very possible that I've over-examined this, and am totally wrong. And who I believe is Horiko is actually Alexis (again), and the beer Geisha is Horiko. However, the Geisha in question really doesn't look enough like Alexis to me.
Whatever the answer may really be is something I would like to know. And if I am correct, then I would like to know who played the beer pouring Geisha, someday. Anyway, this is simply an estimate, but still an observation for careful consideration. And of course, thanks to [url=http://www.bladerunner2-movie.com/community/forums/topic/327]Jason Eaton[/url] for making this footage available on YT. :)
[center]
[img]http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/115/d/d/bladerunner_pinup_1st_draft_by_jewbee-d3eu5r4.jpg[/img]
Geisha "Blade Runner Pin-up" by [url=http://jewbee.deviantart.com/gallery/]Jewbee[/url][/center]
Bonus links 2:
[url=http://nonstop80s.blogspot.com/2011/11/where-are-they-now-billboard-geisha.html]Alexis Rhee (Geisha #1)[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF9M3eiazKs]Alexis Rhee interviewed on CNN[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFF292zjDQk]The B-roll preview for Jason's replica[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxHmIYLNjig]Off World/Geisha B-roll from Jason's replica[/url]
[url=http://www.icollector.com/Original-animation-artwork-for-Spinners-other-vehicles-used-in-backgrounds-in-Blade-Runner_i10030674]Original animation artwork listing (Jason purchased?)[/url]
[url=http://vimeo.com/61945095]Koshoku Ichidai Otoko remixed (ft. The Same Old Scene)[/url]
S:) [img]http://s9.postimg.org/dbjz6fuvv/blushinggeisha.gif[/img]
5 Replies
Svanya
Admin2KOct-17-2013 7:38 AMThanks Sawa, I actually always wondered what the name of the song was, it's not listed on the soundtrack. :D
djrees56
MemberNoobOct-17-2013 10:02 PMAwesome post Sawa :)
I didn't know the blimp add song had so much history behind it. I thought it might have been written for the film because it fit so well in the scenes it was used in.
Nice bonus links too. Especially the iCollector site. Gonna visit that one a few times for sure :)
Lone
Member2KOct-21-2013 5:46 AMThanks for this wonderful & interesting post Sawa!
I've always loved the Geisha blimp and billboard images, combined with that haunting song!
"Let The Cosmic Incubation Begin" ~ H.R. Giger
djrees56
MemberNoobOct-21-2013 9:29 PMWhen a character achieves "Lego" fame then there doing something right ;)
[IMG]http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z292/djrees_2007/bladerunnerlego8.jpg[/IMG]
Sawa
MemberNoobOct-24-2013 4:41 PM[center][img]http://s18.postimg.org/baadfdx0p/BRBonsai.jpg[/img][/center]
[b][Excerpt][/b]: If there is no rivalry over a common female figure, what then serves as the homo-social bonding agent for the two heroes? The answer lies, in part, in the sky. In contrast to the shot of the white dove winging up towards a clear blue sky, the film's other shots of what occupies the vertical spaces of the city indicate what the mediating third term might be. For example, when Deckard enters Sebastian's abandoned apartment building, the site of the fight scene between himself and Roy, he looks-up through skylight.
The camera gives us a medium long shot of the underside of a blimp with two large video panels facing the street. Each screen runs a commercial featuring a "traditional geisha girl" (Sammon 240). One of the geisha's entices the viewer with a glass of beer. The other looks as if she is peering right into the building, like a peeping Tom. Her eyes look directly at the camera and meet the viewer's eye, as if she were a live person looking back at the viewer. The soundtrack is quiet except for an eerie kabuki chant.
According to Jordan Cronenweth, the film's cinematographer, the airships were created to float "through the night with enormously powerful beams emerging from their undersides," bathing "the city in constantly swinging lights." The idea was to impart the sense that the lights were "used for both advertising and crime control, much the way a prison is monitored by moving searchlights" representing the "invasion of privacy by a supervising force, a form of control" (Lightman and Patterson 723).
In an earlier scene, the same advertising blimp blasts a tape recorded message on a loop: the same kabuki chant followed by "this announcement was made possible by the Shimato-Dominguez Corporation - helping America into the new world." A similar geisha video image dominates the film's numerous panoramic shots of the city's skyline.
In a bridging shot repeated several times during the film, the camera shows a tall skyscraper with an enormous multi-paneled video screen that occupies the entirety of one of its facades. The screen features a close-up image of yet another geisha, whose giant powder-white face with bright red lipstick dominates the landscape. In the action of die commercial, the geisha holds up a red pill, puts it in her mouth, swallows, and then smiles.
According to one of the special effects supervisors, David Dryer, Scott wanted to "continue with the oppressive feeling throughout the landscape" by showing "a bunch of phony oriental commercials where geisha girls are doing unhealthy things. Smoking, taking drugs or whatever" (Sammon 241-43). In another shot the same huge screen shows commercials for various well-known corporations such as "Coca-Cola," thus linking the elements of an "oppressive feeling," corporate rule, and the Asian body.
The face of the corporate ruling class in Blade Runner's diegesis is an Asian one. :O
[b]Source[/b]: [url=https://intranet.stjohns.sa.edu.au/curriculum/eng/12engstudies/Text%20Response/Texts/Blade%20Runner/Metaphor%20and%20Blade%20Runner's%20Racial%20Politics.docx]White & "Black" versus Yellow: Metaphor & BR's Racial Politics[/url]
Even though I disagree with many of the opinions within the above essay, the link is posted for anyone that does want to read it in full (MS Word docx). I believe Ridley Scott is a man that most certainly [url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/ridley-scotts-japan-a-day-381461]has a love for Japan[/url], and Asian culture in general. I find even the writer's opinion about the Deckard's paper-reading opening, is right-off ...it actually might be a bit of tribute to a opening of a Japanese film, from the mid-1970s. Not that the author would have a reason, to know anything about that possibility.
Although, the quotations about the Geisha screens from crew members, is what I'm mainly interested in sharing here. And one could also consider, there may have been an additional influence on Ridley's thinking then:
[center][img]http://s14.postimg.org/gch39eq0x/Dick_The_Man_In_The_High_Castle.jpg[/img]
[url=http://www.scified.com/news/581]Ridley aims to develop a new series[/url]
Bonus pics:
[img]http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-700/h--/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/6/1/1338506441104/Prometheus-premiere-006.jpg
[/img]
Ridley and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giannina_Facio]Partner[/url] (Wife :) ) @ the"Prometheus" premiere in London
[img]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5254/5534440771_3f374c3076_z.jpg[/img]
"Geisha Screen" by [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/artpoly/]polywen[/url]
[/center]
Thanks djrees56, and you're all welcome. ^_^
S:)
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