Conclusion Thinking with Films

Abstract

In my thinking with the films of Kurosawa and the remakes and permutations they have generated, I have taken as a starting point the perception of audiences, critics, and filmmakers themselves that there exist relationships amongst all the films used, and I have described the films themselves as if they were my ethnographic data. It is the perception of relatedness, which had to be supported by discussing the films, that is the true core of my argument about global imaginings. To make my argument I have referred not only to the abundant theory on narrative and translation, but have used the concepts of desire lines and knowledge capital, albeit, not in the manner that they might be used by geographers or businessmen respectively. I have used desire lines to describe the desire of human beings to see connectedness by assuming a similarity of meaning that cuts across any problems in translating from one language, as well as cultural and historical contexts, to another. Translations and perceptions of relat-edness become conceptual bridges leading to something new, while retaining the old.

“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away …”

—Opening titles to Star Wars IV