Analysis of The Westworld Movie

The Western World’s Depiction of East Asia

The Western world depicts the East Asia history and culture in a variety of their media including video games, graphic novels, TV shows and comic conventions among others. The paper shall deal with the Westworld movie as written by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy and directed by Craig Zobel. These authors introduced the Shogun world due to their universal love for the Japanese films, and their aspirations to explore the similarities among the American Westerns and the classic samurai movies. Some of the depictions from these films are negative and do not match the truth of these societies, but others have a perfect representation. For instance, in the movie Akane No Mai, the western world has some descriptions that show the otherization of Japanese culture, although it does not fit in their defining parameters.

The Impact of Depictions on East Asian Cultures

The impact of such illustration is retrogressive since the more normalized and pervasive the otherization, the quicker it becomes for people to see the affected cultures as inferior. For instance, in season two of episode five in the Westworld, Dolores wants to know how she can handle Teddy, and she decides that although he was a decent person, his decency trait makes him a liability, and to solve this problem, Dolores decided to program Teddy against his desires (Saran, 2018). Such a decision is an indication that the teddy had rights that would protect him from such acts; therefore, he could easily be treated non-humanly, and this supports the otherization idea of showing others as inferior. The portrayal is a wrong indication against the Japanese culture, as many people see it as a process of spreading racism (Moore, 2018).

The Treatment of Shogun World Visitors

Again, the issue of how the Westworld treats people who visit the Shogun world runs in the entire series. For instance, Maeve and her followers went to visit the feudal Japan where Karl notices something unusual about the host. Moreover, the story depicts East Asia as different from the Westworld, seen when Lee warns Maeve that shogun world was made to be extreme as compared to the Westworld. The difference is portrayed more when these people visit the nearby village, where Hector and Maeve notice that many Shoguns were double of a living person or ghostly, but they were fulfilling responsibilities similar to themselves. The ghost-like portrayal is adverse as many societies consider such cases as bad luck or evil look that individuals should not associate with human beings. However, this is a wrong portrayal of the feudal Japanese as there exist no people with ghost-like appearance, and it is possible that the scenario emanated from the retrogressive racism. However, Hector and Maeve also realized that these hosts were fulfilling roles comparable to them, and this indicates similarities between human whether from East Asia or the western world; therefore, this is a correct description.

Racial Realms in Shogun World

The sub-plot of the shogun world shows that the thoughts of the western world fumes with racism. The entire series has many bright ideas that people can enjoy; however, in this film, the shogun world is a park designed to feel and look like feudal Japan, but its concept is rife and filled with problematic and racial realms. For instance, when Maeve and allies visit the Shogun world, they realize that many people were ghostly, and these were disguised tales of the western world (DerWerff and Romano, 2018), indicating that many people had negative stereotypes against Feudal Japan. However, in the modern societies, many people have acquired insights that discourage racism, and therefore this cannot represent the entire world society.

References

DerWerff, T.V and Romano, A. 2018. Westworld pauses its other action for a mostly thrilling           trip to Shogun World. Retrieved from:             https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/5/20/17368370/westworld-season-2-episode-5-recap-          akane-no-mai-maeve

Moore, C.P. 2018. Westworld Has to Acknowledge the Racist Appeal of Shōgun World.             Retrieved from: https://io9.gizmodo.com/westworld-has-to-acknowledge-the-racist-         appeal-of-shogu-1825507485

Saran, A.J. 2018. Analysis: Westworld Season 2 Episode 5 Recap, “Akane No Mai.” Retrieved        from: http://westworldwatchers.com/2018/05/21/analysis-westworld-season-2-episode-5-   recap-akane-no-mai/