Some questions raised about "The Dancing Girl of Izu"

I wanted to reproduce a few points that Colin brought up while discussing Heinosuke Gosho's "The Dancing Girl of Izu" with me last night because I found them really illuminating:

1. Connected to Akira's wonderful explication of the fallout from the worldwide market crash in 1929 and the correlated rise of an ideology of a pure Japan or perhaps a Japanese exceptionalism as it relates to rural life and traditions, Colin raised an interesting point about the relationship of Japanese nationalism to the kinds of images of rural beauty captured by films such as "The Dancing Girl of Izu." Was Gosho's desire to tell Kawabata's story partially motivated by personal belief in the essence of Japan lying outside of the modern cities? Did the prominence of these images and narratives have any impact on the kinds of ideological movements that we're talking about? I don't have an answer to that question, but I think one of the strongest thematic undercurrents of the film (as I talked about in class), is a desire either to return or to advance depending on your individual position within the traumatic process of Japanese modernization. The student wished for a return; the dancer wished for an advance. The mirroring of urban and rural in "The Dancing Girl of Izu" (sorry to use a word I already repeated ad nauseum in Professor Xu's class this week) complicates any argument about the film as a text negatively comparing urban to rural.
Another question that I think is implied by this discussion: Is Kawabata's story itself really about the pure, innocent premodern nature of the rural or does that setting merely serve as a metaphor for something deeper about growth from adolescence to manhood and the emergence of a mature subject? I think there are elements of both in Kawabata's novella.

2. Colin framed this as possibly inconsequential but I think it is absolutely a valid line of inquiry: What is the reason for the multiple shots of Meiji chocolate bars in the film? Is this early product placement, certainly an option considering the fact that this was a studio film, or does the chocolate bar carry significance as a thematic motif? Here too I find that both are possible explanations.

Worthwhile contemporary films about journeys to the countryside by Tokyo-ites that played on the Japanese rural nostalgia/imaginary:
"Departures" (2008, Yojiro Takata)
"Only Yesterday" (1991, Isao Takahata) -- This is a Ghibli film by the director of "Grave of the Fireflies" about a Tokyo woman remembering her childhood as she travels to the countryside to for a vacation on a family farm. Disney bought the rights along with the entire Ghibli catalog a few years ago but refuses to release it reportedly because of scenes where the boys in the main character's school learn about menstruation and begin making fun of the girls, which I guess doesn't jibe with Disney values. In any case, it's a wonderful movie and I can lend you a copy if you are interested in watching it.