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On Hollywood Movie Heroism

I had a fascinating conversation with my 14-year-old son this morning over brunch.

He and his younger sister are into these Japanese anime movies. He tells me about the contrasts between Hollywood style and Japanese anime movie plots.

He uses an example of a movie he watched recently, The Mugen Train. The protagonist in this movie, a demon slayer, dies in his battle with the leading antagonist, a demon, running away, but alive.

He says this ending initially upset him.” How can the protagonist die in the final battle while the antagonist lives for another day?” he fumed. Until he realised that the protagonist was actually the winner as he died in battle fighting for what he had stood for all his life, while the antagonist, while he lived, he would live to run away from other demon slayers.

So his analysis is that it is better to die for what you stand for than to live in fear. In his words, this movie ending is not what he wanted, but rather what he needed. He says he now gets what I always tell him: that life is a warfare, particularly for us Africans.

So he contrasts this with the gung-ho style leading protagonists in Hollywood-style movies who always ‘win to get the girl’. Of course, this is massive generalisation, but I get his point. Imagine the patriarchal bile of Hollywood movies where a woman is portrayed as a trophy!

Anyway, he says he is done with these Hollywood-style movies. They dummify him! I think he is on point.

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