Yakuza 3 - A Brief Look At America's Image Abroad

Yakuza 3 (PS3, 2009)

Developed and Published by Sega

This post contains spoilers for Yakuza 3.

There's so much I could say about the Yakuza franchise, and by the end of March when I've played the newest game in the series, "Yakuza 6: The Song of Life", I hope to say a lot more about the story through the life of Kiryu Kazuma. I watch a lot of anime and play a lot of video games made in Japan, and something that I'm always interested in is seeing whenever an American character shows up. Foreign media allow us to experience life through the lens of another culture, and whenever that lens focuses on our own culture we get to see ourselves in a new light. This is why one of the characters introduced late in Yakuza 3's story caught my interest.

Yakuza 3 introduces us to Kazama Joji, the younger brother of Kiryu's foster father Kazama Shintaro. Shintaro was a high-ranking yakuza member in the fictional Kamurocho, a district of Tokyo. Though he appears only in the series' first game (and its prequel Yakuza 0), the actions and ideals of Shintaro have lasting effects on both of the later games in the franchise that I've played so far.

This includes the life of his younger brother Joji, introduced to us as an agent of the American CIA. Where Shintaro devoted his life to the criminal underworld, Joji elected to pursue a career as a police officer - a choice that would permanently sour the relationship between the two brothers. Ultimately Joji was shunned out of the Japanese police force for having a criminal brother, leading to his expatriation to the United States.

Joji's place in the story allows us to explore both the good and bad of America's culture. The good is stated clearly in dialogue: In America, no one cares about your family or your background, they only care that you're good at what you do. The American Dream allows Joji to succeed not only as an officer of the law, but as an agent of the CIA. He is afforded opportunities in the US that he's not given in his home country.

But there is a darker side to it as well, hidden in the subtext of one of the game's later scenes. Joji is tasked by his superiors at the CIA with killing someone who could jeopardize the operation they're running. Kiryu, as the protagonist of the series and avatar for the player, must stop Joji as his allies believe that the man doesn't deserve to die. When Kiryu confronts Joji, Joji reveals that he doesn't really think his target deserves death either, and he takes no joy in killing. But he has to fulfill his mission, because, as he says, "the CIA only cares about results."

Even though the Yakuza franchise takes place in Japan and is created by Japanese developers, this is a plot point that strikes me as familiar in the American world. There's no shortage of essays and journalistic thinkpieces online about the value of productivity in western society, but I prefer to let Alec Baldwin's character in Glengarry Glen Ross do the talking for that. 

That watch cost more than your car. I made $970,000 last year. How much you make? You see, pal, that's who I am. And you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you, go home and play with your kids! You wanna work here? Close!

Baldwin's monologue is abrasive, antagonistic, and - most surprising of all - inspiring and motivational. This monologue speaks to the harsh realities of American work culture: You're only as good as what you've succeeded at. Who you are doesn't matter if you're not producing results.

Joji found success in America because of his skills, but found that this sometimes comes at the cost of his conscious. He later tells Kiryu that he regrets that his duties prevent him from personally giving his regards to another character who has been injured over the course of the mission. Shintaro Joji's status in the CIA allows Yakuza 3 to showcase a Japanese perspective on American work culture, coming to the conclusion that America is a land where you can succeed at anything, but you're not worth anything if you can't succeed.

Iron Man - How Marvel's Films Make Us Feel At Home

Iron Man (2008)

Dir. Jon Favreau

With Avengers: Infinity War on the horizon, some friends and I made an observation: If you watch one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films every week this year, there are exactly enough weeks to watch all of them in time for the premiere of the new team-up movie in May (not counting Black Panther, which is unlikely to have a home media release by then). Many of us haven't re-watched a lot of these movies, and I in fact haven't seen most of them since their original theatrical release. So today begins our journey through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The "Infinity Road" as I call it. I hope that we don't spend too much time on this blog talking about the Marvel films since that could be exhausting, but I think the one that started it all is itching to get talked about. 

Iron Man was not Marvel Comics' first venture into the world of film. That would be 1944's Captain America serial, which had a warm reception back in the day but doesn't quite match up to our expectations of a movie in the 21st century. Later Marvel would have their first feature length release in 1986 with Howard the Duck, which had a reception that was....less warm. A handful of other moderately successful movies would come throughout the years such as Blade and X-Men, but things really changed in 2002 with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.

Before Spider-Man, the most successful superhero movie was Tim Burton's Batman (1989) with a worldwide gross of $411 million. Spider-Man not only doubled that pulling in $821 million worldwide, but it was also nominated for two academy awards for sound and visual effects. A comic book character was a box office blockbuster for the first time ever, and Marvel now had an interesting problem on their hands. They had sold off the film rights to their characters to different studios (Spider-Man being the work of Sony Pictures), and a lot of them weren't bringing in the big bucks that we now knew they could. As early as 2004, Marvel Studios shifted gears from simply licensing characters to producing their own movies. Realizing they had the rights to all the core members of The Avengers, Marvel Studios began planning out their vast cinematic universe under the direction of producer Kevin Feige.

Iron Man was the MCU's first film, and it does a lot right off the bat to establish its setting and characters. There's a small detail in the opening exposition narrating the story of Tony Stark's life so far that I've always liked very much: we see Stark (along with the other supporting characters of his life) featured on the covers of real-world magazines like Forbes and Rolling Stone. Later in the film CNBC's Jim Cramer makes a cameo playing himself talking about Stark Industries on his show Mad Money. 

These cameos from real media help to reinforce to the audience that this story is taking place in our own world. Movies based on comic books - especially those about superheroes - had a reputation for being a bit fantastical and silly back in the day. Even Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy still didn't take itself too seriously and indulged in some over-the-top elements and actors chewing the scenery around them. With Iron Man, director Jon Favreau set out to make a story that's more grounded and realistic, adding in these hooks to make viewers feel at home in the Marvel Universe.

This, I think, is part of the key to the MCU's success. In a 2015 interview, legendary Marvel Comics writer Stan Lee commented on how he strives to make his characters feel more human.

“I think it’s because I tried to give them private lives and problems,” Lee says–something that heroes like Superman and Batman didn’t have in the early ’60s. “Everything isn’t good with them, they don’t just have a super power that means they can do anything. I’m hoping that the readers and the moviegoers find their lives and their careers somewhat interesting and complex.”

Iron Man is about a weapons developer realizing the impact his war profiteering has on the world. Tony Stark sees firsthand the destruction his actions have caused, and he decides to no longer be a part of it. In the mid-to-late 2000s as the Iraq War raged on, this is a story that would speak to audiences hearing about the war-torn middle east every day and make them understand Stark's character on a more personal level.

This is especially driven home by the superb acting of Robert Downey Jr., who at the time had just been through a disastrous low point in his life struggling with alcoholism, drug abuse, and mental illness. Downey, just like the character of Tony Stark, had to turn his life around and set a new course for himself. In many ways he has lived Stark's character arc for himself, allowing him to bring the character to life in an incredibly personal way. As a fun nod to this, the first thing Stark wants after escaping his three month imprisonment at the turning point of his life is a meal from Burger King - the restaurant Downy himself has credited for helping him to realize how low he had sunk in his life as he ate what he called "such a disgusting burger" that he knew something was wrong.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe films get criticized a lot for being mediocre big-budget block busters. Out of 14 films (not counting the 2017 releases as we don't know the nominations yet), zero of them have won an academy award. When it comes down to it, it's hard to argue that any of these movies will be studied in a film class as they don't do anything particularly groundbreaking or high brow. But what they do succeed at is capturing the core appeal of the Marvel universe's characters and settings. Marvel's films, starting with their very first outing with Iron Man, take place in a world that feels familiar and relatable so that every time we step into the theater, we feel right at home.

Prologue

I love consuming media.

Film, television, movies, you name it. There's something about entertainment media that's really special to me. It's something that I was best able to put to words a few years ago on a trip to Disney World after seeing their live show Fantasmic. People call Disney World the most magical place on Earth, and I started to understand it that night as I really felt like there was something magical about that show.

I felt that magic, in a way, was real. I felt that the way we share our thoughts, ideas, and emotions was the most incredible thing in the world, and seeing the artistry and creativity that went into the show was an unforgettable experience. The incredible special effects (all executed live on stage) combined with creative practical ideas and swelling, emotional story beats that helped to share the emotions and thoughts of the people who made it with me and the hundreds of people in the audience that night. There was a connection between all of us created by that show. That, I felt, was magic.

I went to school for media production, and while I don't think I'm clever or creative enough to actually be a talented filmmaker I still learned a lot about and gained a lot of love for the craft of telling stories. When watching a film or playing a video game, I think a lot about how it was made, both practically (the camera setups and special effects in a movie, the programming and playtesting in a game) and creatively (the story structure, the narrative focus, the aesthetic design). I spend a lot of time watching video essays from people like Lindsay Ellis, Dan Olson (Folding Ideas), and Mark Brown (Game Maker's Toolkit) that talk about media in both broad strokes and fine details to understand more about what makes them work or not work. I like to experience media through this kind of lens.

As a consequence, some friends have told me I'm not very fun to watch movies with anymore.

But thinking about media on a critical level is probably what I love to do the most. I've spent so much time through the years listening to other people talk, and I think it's finally time I try to say some things of my own. I want to develop my own ability to think about stories and critically look at media so that I can have more to say of my own rather than just repeating what other people have said.

On this blog, I'm going to be writing about the movies I see, the television I watch, the books I read, and the video games I play. I probably won't have the most insightful things to say about all of them, and sometimes I may just talk about my own personal experience with them, but I hope that by writing about these things I'll understand them better (and hopefully help other people to learn a few things as well).

Stories, experiences, and media are things of magic. Think of this as your Hogwarts acceptance letter.