Analysis of Structuralism in 47 Ronin

Analysis of structural linguistics in 47 RoninTHE ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURALISM IN A WESTERN FILM ENTITLED 47 RONIN DIRECTED BY CARL RINSCH AS THE IMAGING OF AMERICAN DREAMCapritia DirgantariABSTRACTMedia or medium in quaint form is the main means of mass communication that addressed to friendship. The cause chooses 47 Ronin directed by Carl Rinsch to be the focus of this analysis which specified to wrangle the American inhalation that reflecting from this moving picture. The objectives of this analysis are to identify, describe and analyze influences that given by media to the society. The author uses descriptive as the method of this analysis and applies Structuralism guess to examine the scenes of this pack that represents the American dream. Structuralism theory emphasizes how shoot downs deliver its meaning by the utilization of languages that are apply to establish purposes in communication. The entrust findings show that film as one of media represents American dream t hat related to the society mindset, unconsciously or consciously. The author hopes the readers get better hearing of Structuralism theory in analyzing a film and comprehend the meaning of American dream that influencing the societies.Keywords Media, Film, American dream, StructuralismINTRODUCTIONThe influence of mass media has grown exponentially with the advance of technology. First there were books, newspapers, magazines, photography, sound recordings, films, radio, television, and internet.Nowadays, everyone depends on information and communication to keep their lives moving through their daily activities like work, education, entertainment, personal relationships, and the early(a) rack with which we are involved.Societies gather much information that they needed from those media sources. Raymond Williams estimates that media can be defined in three senses historical sense technical sense and etymological sense. Historical sense is an intervening substance or agency and techni cal sense means medium as communicating message to public. Williams also defines etymological sense of the media as a capitalist sense which developed during the nineteenth century (Williams, 1983). Media became profitable enterprises during this era because its commercials gives produce generating business for example like advertisements, picture show clips, and films. America was one of the capitalist states that introduce the famous term of American Dream and tons of films have been made in here. The author chooses a horse opera film entitled 47 Ronin directed by Carl Rinsch as the main focus of this analysis to interpret how big American Dream influences the public from the grammatical construction of this film.47 Ronin is a 2013 American fantasy action film representing a fictional account of the real group of ronina samurai with no masterin 18th era of Japan, who revenged the death of their lord commonly called as Chshingura. This film was directed by Carl Rinsch and produ ced by Universal Studios. 47 Ronin costs $152 million for do all scenes and visuals which crowned as the siemens most expensive box office ever behind The 13th Warrior film (Kit, 2012). Another favored feature of this film is the protagonist character was acted by famous actor Keanu Reeves and other five Japanese actors Sanada Hiroyuki Rinko Kikuchi Tadanobu Asano Jin Akanishi and Kou Shibasaki. Universal Studios chooses those five Japanese actors to create better storyline and more genuine than choosing actors who was too mainstream in the United States, even though the scenario in this film giving no resemblance to the origin story of Chshingura. This film broadly tells about a group of ronin who revenge to the death of their master. The story begins when professional Asano accomp some(prenominal) with samurai of Ako, find an unacknowledged boyKaiand allow him to stay in province of Ako. Years later, passkey Asano arranges welcoming event dedicated to the arrival of the Shog un and Lord Kira in Ako. After that, conflicts emerge until Lord Asano penalized to obligating self-destruction by the Shoguns battle array, called as Lord Ieayashu. Time after time the groups of ronin realize this tragedy happened because of Lord Kira, then the group of ronin led by Oishi and Kai sets up for revenge against the Shoguns recite (Dresner, 2013).The author chooses this film because it reflects the definition of American Dream. The definition of American dream in this analysis is persons struggle for achieving a laid-back position to be infer recognizable by other pot and it has triggered the passion of people from generation to generation (americanradioworks.publicradio.org, 2015). American dream popularized by American people and it is also valid for everyone from other countries to find their opportunities in foreign countries. The American dream offers the freedom of for each one people to make decisions that render better sustenance the freedom to wish bette r dreams the freedom to gaining prosperity and the opportunity to lead a dignified life (Adams, 1931). Hence, the author uses Structuralism theory in exhibition to find out the main purpose of this analysis. The structural linguistics film theory explains in what manner films deliver its meaning by the utilization of languages that are used to establish purposes in communication (Storey, 2009). An example of this is to understand how combination of scenes can create an additional idea, in this case the American Dream portrayed in this film and affecting the societies.ANALYSISThis chapter intends to analyze the implicit meanings from American Dream in scenes of 47 Ronin by using Structuralism theory. Structuralism assumes a film or any other kind of media as a signifying system, a set of patterns or relationships within the society. First of all, the author gives a brief commentary about Structuralism theory used in media. Ferdinand de Saussure, the founder of modern structural l inguistics in the 1960s, in his essay Object of consume theorized his structuralism assessment of language and he also shows the basis of structuralism theory (Eagleton 84). This essay states the role of communication tracts which substituted from one person to other person. Saussure explains that someone must omit the individual act to understand this communication tract, which he has concluded it as social phenomenon (Saussure, 1959). This study related to Claude Levi-Strauss the unconscious foundations of culture, he argues that to understand this structure we could correctly comprehend the meaning by discovering the value of myths (Levi-Strauss, 1968 209). Myths purpose to provide stories that bring peace towards the existence of people. To understand the social meaning of a myth, Will Wright introduces the power of Western which symbolizes deep conceptualization of American social beliefs that contain of three stages classic innovation theme and professional (Wright, 1975). T he author describes each stage that mentioned above by proving some scenes taken from 47 Ronin film.According to Wright, the classic stage divided into sixteen narrative functions (Propp, 1968) which areThe hero enters a social groupThis happens in the prologue of 47 ronin film when Lord Asano the leader of Ako province saved Kai the protagonist character to live along with Ako society.The hero is unknown to the societyIn the early beginning of this film, there are scenes that explain the unknown background of the protagonist character. The narrator said, No one knows where is he come from or how he arrived in Ako province.The hero is revealed to have an exceptional abilityAfter Lord Asano takes Kai to his territory, he said that he saw something excess inside Kai that no one has seen before.The society recognizes a difference between themselves and the hero. The hero is given a special statusThis occurs when Oishi, a ronin who asked help from Kai which at the first time Oishi unde restimates him. And this recognition continues when Oishi gave him a sword which is inherited from Basho, a comrade who died.The society does not completely accept the heroUnfortunately, one of the other ronin did not accept Kais existence in this group. He assumed that Kai is not a samurai and have no clear background of his life.There is a conflict of interests between the villain and the societyMeanwhile the antagonist character, Lord Kira has ulterior motive to reigns the Ako province by using witchcraft.The villains are stronger than society. The society is reekingIn this film, Lord Kira has stronger troops and supernatural beings that can give adverse spells to Ako society. Contrast with Ako society who does not accept any witchcraft and they just rely on human strength.There is a strong respect between the hero and the villainBoth Lord Asano and Lord Kira has mutual respect as the leader of province and each year they arrange a friendly competition.The villains threaten the societyAfter Lord Kira made Lord Asano committed suicidein this context commonly known as hara-kiri, Ako society has no power to avenge his death because it has a big risk to their future.The hero avoids social function in the conflictWhen Oishi asked Kai for help, Kai denied it because he feels underestimate at the first time. But then Oishi gives explanation that he was wrong.The villains endanger a friend of the heroLord Kira launched his second attack by trapping the ronin in a village. This raid laid to two victims of ronin.The hero fights the villainsIn climax, Kai fight the supernatural beings and Oishi fight Lord Kira.The hero defeats villainsThe result is the protagonist wins this battle.The society is safeAfter beheaded Lord Kiras head, ronin come home and Ako society is safe.The society accepts the heroAko society and other provinces are accepting Kai as one of the hero who saved Ako province. It is more visible again when Lord Ieyashu gives salute and respect Kai and o ther ronin as samurai.The hero loses or gives up his special statusIn the final scene shows that Kai doing hara-kiri as well as the other ronin does in order to uphold the honor as a samurai.These entire sixteen narrative functions give important role to finding the American Dream that contains in this film. The author found that entire narrative functions represent the steps of someones struggle to procure recognizable position within the society. And the second stage is transition theme. According to Wright, transition theme describes about the transition that happened in the protagonist character (Wright, 1975). For example in 47 Ronin, after Kai got banished to a foreign ship, he adapted with his surroundings by keep fighting with other bandits which contrast with his first personality in Ako province. The last is professional stage which means as the official position of the protagonist that gives professional identity. This is happened when Kai got recognizable position from the society of Ako province as samurai. Each of the stages that mentioned by Will Wright are interrelated and what has been go through by the protagonist symbolize the definition of American dream. According to pack Truslow Adams book entitled The Epic of America, he states that the American dream is a dream which life should be better for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement (Adams, 1931 214-215). That is to say, anyone have their right for having big dreams which led them strive to realizing their dreams and how abstain they could achieve it depends on the ability of each person.CONCLUSIONThis conclusion intends to follow up the result of this analysis. Structuralism theory that used to analyze a film entitled 47 Ronin is capable in revealing how the western film industries influence the viewers through the three stages mentioned by Will Wright. Each token of these stages articulates its own mythic version of how to achieve the American dream . The first stage is classical plot, it defines the structure of human achievement by bestowing the relationship, respect, and dignity to differentiate yourself from others. The second stage transition theme argues that companionship and love are alongside with the social status of someone and this stage also reveals how someones life change and get a different social status. The last stage is professional plot. This stage argues that respect and companionship are to be achieved only by becoming one of the professional groups. The member of professional group must accept any obligation, responsible of the task that is offered, has solidarity to the team, and not competing with the same comrades in any social values. These three stages are representing the American dream that is influencing the society nowadays. According to Levi-Strauss, he mentioned that the myth of a society through their structure reveals the communication of a theoretical demand to the members of that society (W right, 1975 17). Film portrays reality and reality portrays films. Moreover, the readers should notice that the world is the stage itself and everyone is merely the player. People have their own way to achieve their goals whether they become villain to the society like in transitional theme, become the professional group of the society or maybe become both(prenominal) of them. Hopefully, this analysis can give deeper insight to the readers by knowing influences given by the media especially in a film like 47 Ronin.REFERENCESAdams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. New York Simon Publications, 2001.Dresner, Jonathan. The Many Things 47 Ronin Gets Wrong About Shogun-Era Japan (And the One Thing It Gets Right). http//www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/154304 USA 2013.Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory An Introduction. atomic number 25 The University of Minnesota Press, 2001.Ellis, Kate, Ellen Guettler. A Better Life Creating The American Dream. http//americanradioworks.publicradio.or g/features/americandream/ USA American Public Media, 2015.Kit, Borys. Universal Pushes Back Keanu Reeves 47 Ronin. New York The Hollywood Reporter, 2012.Levi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Hammondsworth Penguin Books, 1968.Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. New York Philosophical Library, 1959.Storey, John. Cultural Theories and Popular Culture An Introduction. 5th Ed. Pearson, 2009.Williams, Raymond. A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Rev. Ed. New York Oxford University Press,1983.Wright, Will. Sixguns and Society A Structural Study of the Western. California University of California Press, 1975.