05 August 2012
Japanese film "THERMAE ROMAE" meaning Roman Bath in Latin
Japanese actors playing Roman people in Hadrian era of Roman Empire.
One Roman architect of the bath time slipps to modern Japan and experience modern style bath.
All dialogues are done in Japanese except some short Latin dialogues.
Interesting thing was viewers could learn how Roman Empire functioned. How Roman viewed other parts of the world, and how slavery functioned. How important it was for the Emperor Hadrian to be deifeid after retirement.
One of the shocking thing shown was Emperor Hadrian had a boy lover and he was very much saddened by the boy's death. It was very openly depicted in the film maybe because it was Japanese film. In the West, such depicting would be very controversial.
The film was in fact, comedy. But it can be great textbook to learn Roman Empire stuff. Since it is made by Japanese from Japanese perspective, portrayal of Roman people looked very neutral. Not too religious and not too ideological. Hope the film will be released in Italy and other parts of the world.
21:48 Posted in Film, Italy, Japan News | Permalink | Comments (0) | Tags: history, gay