Online course: “Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress. An origin for Star Wars’ Japanism?”

The Star Wars universe is so popular that it has been studied from virtually every possible perspective. However, the enormous amount of visual or philosophical references that coexist hidden behind the props, the costumes, or the same script by George Lucas, seems to us a pending issue when it comes to fully understand the depth of the famous galactic saga.

In this case, we will take care of checking to what extent Japanism exists in Star Wars, analyzing the influences or codes coming from the country of the rising sun beyond the obvious case of Darth Vader’s helmet. So, did Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress have such an influence on its conception? Or are the Force and Buddhism more alike than we might a priori believe? These and many other issues will revolve around the classes of this course.

Program:

Session 1: Star Wars and Geek Culture; The Hidden Fortress; Samurai Cinema.

Session 2: Costumes and Makeup; Samurais and Jedi.

Session 3: Buddhism and the Force; Japanism in the series.

Teacher:

Prof. Dr. Antonio Míguez Santa Cruz.  Born in Córdoba (1984) and trained at the university of that same city, his thesis won the Extraordinary Prize for Humanities in 2016. His lines of research are Japanese history and cinema, with special mention of the J-Horror genre. He has given hundreds of lectures, in addition to having more than fifty publications, most of them indexed in impact journals. He is also editor of the award-winning magazine Windumanoth, apart from advising several Spanish film production companies.