Were they any more specific on exactly what those influences were? It's kind of hard to make a comparison to an entire nation's cinematic output. Shin Godzilla is a very different movie to Ichi the Killer.
Nope. Tbh if they lifted anything from Shin Godzilla, I did not catch it. Or Minus One for that matter.
I know, but I was told that the influence is from a bunch of Japanese movies beyond samurai movies, and that my watching a dozen or so samurai movies wasn't enough to qualify me to comment on its aesthetics. So... what is this Japanese aesthetic which is absent from samurai movies (and I guess also the animation from Japan which I've watched) but which pervades and defines the look of Ahsoka?
This is less in terms of what's onscreen and more how it's shot (though that's true). Which is where I was stumped, because to me, it just looks and feels the same as Mando.
I mean, it was made using The Volume, so the ways that it could be shot were limited. Which doesn't feel especially like my experiences with Japanese cinema, unless they're thinking of The Volume as the modern equivalent of those model cities and landscapes that kaiju fight on.
I'm trying to extend the benefit of the doubt (they did tell me I hadn't seen any Japanese cinema so I could talk) but yeah, lacking specifics isn't all that handy.
I mean, the Kurosawa samurai film influences are obvious (and present in Star Wars right from its inception: ANH copied the shot of the severed arm from the cantina straight from Kurosawa's Yojimbo), but other than that, I'm not sure if there's something that's specific to Japanese cinema. Japan tells stories in many of the same genres that we do, like space opera. The little turtle dudes and the space whales feel like creatures that we might see in a Miyazaki film, I suppose. Baylan Skoll's role as an old warrior without purpose who now loyally serves an evil master is kind of reminiscent of a common archetype from a lot of samurai stories or anime, but it's not an uncommon character type in Western works either.
Have now been told "Filoni hasn't specified any but the influence is definitely apparent", so... right.
So, I'm not a cinematographer and it's also been a year and a half since I saw the show, so I didn't notice or don't remember anything particularly distinctive about how it was shot. Don't recall any "Oh, that's such a great shot!" moments like in Andor. If this person wants to argue that, then they should make that argument themselves and not expect you to make it for them. Maybe actually name some shots that they think are particularly interesting or impressive or show a Japanese influence?
They've come back and said it's about what's onscreen (so Ghibli-looking critters, the Purgill being like Kaiju. So not actually any formal differences.
That would be the second time SW has homaged it, I think
There is some of that Ghibli whimsy, at least with the little dudes. I could certainly call it an influence, even though they're not similar in tone overall. Maybe Season 2 will end with Baylan angering a nature deity and getting destroyed for his hubris like Princess Mononoke? Filoni previously worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender which had quite a bit of influence from anime in general and Ghibli in particular and basically ended their first season the same way, so I'm sure he's familiar with it.
In so far as they're both bike slides, I suppose. They're not shot from the same angle, and Kaneda kept his bike upright and came to a stop while Sabine put hers on the ground to get under an obstacle and keep going. It definitely could have inspired it. That's not an uncommon reference to make, either. It's one of the most famous images from the film.
I suppose, but even then those are story elements if they're anything, not really visual and certainly not an aspect of how they shot it. If they did infuse the camerawork with a specifically very Japanese sensibility which makes it distinct from how The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett were shot (but also you wouldn't recognise that aspect if you'd only seen samurai films and animation), then I can only assume I'm too dim to recognise it.
Could be referring to something that happens in Season 2. I could see the show ending in some nature spirit magic stuff.
