Portrayal of the Asian warrior mindset in The Last Samurai and Fist of Legend

Portrait of the Warrior in Two Films

Film is a good medium for cultural and political representation. Images and dialogue shape the audience's viewpoint concerning who they are. Without question, film is a signifying system that one can analyze for patterns of meaning and representation. One perspective analyzes film as an Orientalizing "system of signification that represents non-Western cultures to Western recipients in the course of Western imperialism" (Chow 2009, 169). Here the idea is to analyze how the film manipulates its images ideologically to portray a culture. In a different example, Jenny Kwok Wah Loh has concluded that Chinese films tend to represent the domination of insiders over outsiders (Loh 1991, 173). She writes, "The Chinese notion of human relationships is dramatized in the Hong Kong films by the acute distinction between the 'insiders' and the 'outsider'" (Loh 1991, 171). She draws a distinction, further, between Chinese films and Hong Kong films where the latter perpetuate such ideologies less by an appeal to the heart and more by the survival of the physical body. The stress on the physical body makes sense in light of the postcolonial realization that the body is both a site of oppression and a site of resistance to and self-articulation against oppression (Gateward 2009, 63). For the present analysis, the notions of "orientalizing" portraits of the Asian, the insider/outsider dynamics, and the focus on the body as a site of resistance are important analytical categories.

This essay will contrast Fist of Legend (1984) and The Last Samurai (2003) with respect to their representations of the Asian warrior. In Fist of Legend, the category of insider/outsider is crucial since the film deals with the Chinese warrior's response to Japanese colonial occupation. The principle tension is one of ethnicity related to Japanese imperial conquest. In The Last Samurai, the principal issue is the classic warrior system against a modernist perspective driven by Western values. Here the category of Orientalism becomes more important, since it is a Hollywood film with a Western portrayal of Asian culture. While there are many complexities that cannot be addressed, this paper wants to show how cultural and political representations are presented in the image of the warrior.

Fist of Legend falls into the genre of the wuxia or Kung Fu movie. However, it is primarily about the conflict between Japanese and Chinese during the period of Japanese imperialist expansion. Rather than present a monolithic view of culture, its narrative highlights the tension between Japanese and Chinese identity. This conflict is felt most deeply in the main character of Chen Zhen (Jet Li), who is a martial arts warrior from the Jing Wu Men. At the outset, he learns that his master has been killed in combat with someone from the rival Japanese band, the Black Dragon Clan. He abandons his love in Japan to return to China with thoughts of revenge. It is this which fuels his intense anger toward the Japanese, symbolized by his destruction of a "tolerance" sign in the Jing Wu Men precinct. The ethnic impact of this act is stressed when Ting'en, the new master, says, "The foreigners have been domineering and tyrannical in China because we Chinese have tolerated them for so long." Only a few key moments can be shown to illustrate how the insider/outsider and ethnic dynamics play out in Chen Zhen's response.

He is intentionally aggressive toward the Japanese. While as a warrior he respects his dead master, he does not respect his enemies. He barges illegally into their space and whips the rival gang with his shoes on, showing complete disrespect. He says, "This is the land of China and Chinese can go anywhere they want." His warrior ethic is tainted by angry ethnic passion. After solidly defeating the man who allegedly killed his master, he says, "I see now you could never win a match against my master." The implied idea is that no Japanese could defeat a Chinese. In other words, the hero has adopted the racist attitude to begin with, but it is not his real belief.

At the same time, martial arts are not the real war. The film uses them symbolically to represent the nationalistic conflict. In one scene, the Japanese master Funakoshi tells Chen Zhen that "the best way to conquer an opponent is to use a gun." His point is that martial arts are not the real problem. The war is driven by the modern military which has abandoned its warrior ethic and now fights with guns -- a theme repeated in The Last Samurai. Again Funakoshi represents this position. He tells the Japanese military captain, "Who I challenge to Kung Fu and what I do is no business of the military. . . . I am not a politician." The distinction between colonial imperialism and true warrior ethic is pronounced. The military captain is disappointed in Akutagawa's failure to destroy the rival sect, and kills him, although he has the true spirit of the Samurai about honest fights and honor. The military leader can only say, "To best serve the Japanese emperor, you'd better forget what is right or wrong." This highlights the contrast between new imperialist might, technology, and economic power and the old warrior system.

The symbolic struggle between national identities is epitomized in the division within the Jing Wu Men in two ways. The first breach is in the search for whoever poisoned the master. Chen Zhen breaks with filial piety and respect when he disinters the master and performs an autopsy on him. They find evidence that he was poisoned, and they come to think it was an inside job. This is unsettling for the group. The cook is under suspicion. Chen Zhen shows his influence by telling the cook, "If your food killed Master, we would all be dead by now." He further takes it upon himself to instruct the others without permission, teaching them the Japanese side-kick under the glare of Ting'en. Thus, Chen Zhen becomes a rival to Ting-en for the group's leadership. This is an important rift. It comes to represent two ways to approach the dilemma -- conflict or reconciliation. It is not until Chen Zhen's lover is found to be Japanese that tensions escalate. It casts suspicion on Chen Zhen's group and ethnic loyalties. Ting'en demands that he leave her or leave the group. This shows an obvious bias against the Japanese, the outsiders, who refuse to accept her. They wage battle and the victor, Chen Zhen, leaves anyway, showing his preference for ethnic reconciliation. Chen Zhen is labeled a traitor after this. People in a hotel throw things at him. He loses group support and is forced to make a different life despite his dedication to the group. This scenario shows how the pervasive tension between Japanese and Chinese came to disrupt even the in-group. It fractured their solidarity.