The distinctly cinematic nature of Oshii's poetics comes out most strongly in the elaborate montage sequences that occur at least once in each of his films from Patlabor onwards. These dialogue-free sequences are filled with shots of spaces and characters that, while only tangentially related to the main narrative, encapsulate the overall thematic and aesthetic concerns of the given film, recasting them in an abstract, symbolic key. Ironically, the most interesting point of comparison here is with the famous "pillow shots" in the films of Yasujiro Ozu, the most "classical" of Japanese directors (5). Unlike Ozu's, Oshii's transitional sequences can sometimes advance the narrative (as in the march through a Tokyo slum in Patlabor or the arrival of JSDF forces in Patlabor 2), but the method is indirect, and they have the effect of recasting the narrative concerns in a more abstract register, what Noël Burch calls "another plane of 'reality'"
19 сен 2024
