In 1959, UNESCO published a catalogue of Eastern films suitable for Western audiences, titled ‘Orient. A Survey of Films Produced in Countries of Arab and Asian Culture’. The aim of the catalogue was to familiarise Western audiences with Eastern cultures through cinema. The catalogue lists seven general characteristics of Eastern cinema to distinguish it from its Western counterpart and to provide ready-made interpretations of the essential characteristics of the Eastern world. Of the 139 feature films listed in the catalogue, five were directed by Kurosawa Akira – the biggest number of films by a single director. This article provides an analysis of the five Kurosawa films within the frame provided by the characterisations in the catalogue in the political framework of World War II and its aftermath. Reading the cultural differences listed in the catalogue as a means of constructing the East in Western eyes, the article suggests UNESCO’s world was defined neither in terms of the contemporaneous geopolitical polarisation of the Cold War nor the ongoing decolonisation process. Instead, the catalogue served the purpose of proposing a cultural intervention in geopolitics, providing a reimagining of political realities constructed on a cultural basis and given a concrete form through cinema.

中文翻译：

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五个黑泽明和东方的（解）构

1959年，联合国教科文组织出版了适合西方观众的东方电影目录，名为《东方》。阿拉伯和亚洲文化国家制作的电影调查。该目录的目的是通过电影让西方观众熟悉东方文化。该目录列出了东方电影的七个一般特征，以将其与西方电影区分开来，并为东方世界的基本特征提供现成的解释。在目录中列出的 139 部故事片中，有 5 部由黑泽明导演 - 单导演电影数量最多。本文在第二次世界大战及其后果的政治框架中目录中的特征所提供的框架内对五部黑泽明电影进行了分析。将目录中列出的文化差异视为西方眼中构建东方的一种手段，文章认为联合国教科文组织的世界既不是根据冷战同时期的地缘政治两极分化，也不是根据正在进行的非殖民化进程来定义的。相反，该目录旨在提出对地缘政治的文化干预，重新构想建立在文化基础上并通过电影赋予具体形式的政治现实。