"The Tunnel" and Shinto Ethics

I chose to watch Kurosawa’s segment entitled “The Tunnel” from his film Dreams.  In this section, a gentleman is confronted by a barking dog, ignores it, and then walks through a tunnel.  His footsteps are loud and the tunnel was fairly long.  After leaving the tunnel, he realizes he is followed by what seems to be a ghost soldier who begins to ask questions about his death and describes his last memories of his life.  The gentleman who seems to be a leader of the dead soldier tells him that he is dead and that the memories of home and his family must have been a dream he had before he died.  The soldier pleads that he is alive and the gentleman continues to assure him that he is not and that he needs to go back to where he came from.  After departing, the man hears more noise and sees his whole platoon, dead and in line, emerge from the tunnel.  He cries aloud to them that they are all dead and that it is his fault and he tries his best to express his guilt to them.  They all depart after a command and he falls to his knees in shame.  In the last minute, the dog runs into the scene again, barking as loud as possible.

The dog barking, the footsteps of the man, and the sound of a marching platoon are all very emphasized in this segment of Dreams.  The main gentleman in the segment is obviously an army officer who is alone at the end of a war.  He walks alone with his thoughts and is haunted by the guilt of losing his men in the war.  After reviewing the basic points of Shinto religion, it is clear that honor to a person’s country and community is an important part of the lifestyle.  It is a part of the ethics of a person to devote themselves to a country and leader.  With that said, it is obvious that the dead soldiers that appeared from the tunnel had the Shinto ethic.  Despite dying tragic ways and having a sense of bitterness toward the commander, the platoon continues to follow him even after death. 

It is obvious that the commander feels guilty.  Even with the small exchange of words, it is apparent that the soldiers aren’t mad at them.  They are sad that they are dead and that they will not have a chance to spend time with their families, but that was their decision to go into battle.  After realizing they are dead after hearing the crying words of their leader, they continued to march on into the tunnel and maintain focus on their country and have a sense honor.  As stated in class by Professor Rasnic, “dishonor is worse than death” and Kurosawa’s film clearly displays this.  Maintaining love and loyalty to their leader who lead them astray in the war is important to the dead soldiers.  The barking dog doesn’t hold back much of his anger about what has occurred and barks loudly at the leader.  The gentleman who walked through the tunnel a made a crying plea to his dead soldiers will not be able to be completely at peace because of the dog that outwardly expresses his anger and resentment towards him.

Kurosawa’s film shows prominent views of the Shinto religion.  “The Tunnel” in particular represents loyalty and devotion to a group of people.  The devotion of the ghost soldiers to their surviving leader is a very important code of ethic that Shinto followers live by.