Natsukashisa: Nostalgia, Nationalism, and a Soft Power Project of ‘Healing’ – A Discursive Analysis of the ALWAYS Sunset on Third Street Film Trilogy, and the Socio-Political Agenda Which Might Lie Behind

Abstract

In recent years, the perception of Japan’s state of affairs both nationally and internationally has been defined by a sense of diverse crises on the one hand and an allegedly growing nationalist assertiveness on the other. Those trends of perception are being reflected and represented, and perhaps also shaped and reinforced, by popular culture, such as film (cf. Ko 2010: 2-3). Japan being a country with a rich legacy of film production and a resurging domestic film industry, examining recent Japanese films might prove worthwhile in order to enhance academic understanding of cultural reactions and socio-political agendas which attempt to deal with real or perceived crises and changed regional, national and global circumstances.

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Bruhin (2016): Discursive Analysis of the ALWAYS Sunset on Third Street Film Trilogy, and the Socio-Political Agenda Which Might Lie Behind. University of Zurich (Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, Department of Japanese Studies). Proseminar “Nationalismus in Japan”, FS 16, Lecturer: Fynn Holm.

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