Tokyo Olympic Games Opening Ceremony: Subdued but Beautiful

So it was the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday and the reviews are in. Most of them express disappointment that the ceremony did not do more. They say that it didn't do enough to either convey contemporary Japan, or retrieve the best of Tokyo 1964. For instance here in the Washington Post.

They understand that it needed to be scaled down both in order to respect social distancing guidelines and the muted tone of a games without spectators. They admit that it didn't the right tone appropriate for the circumstances. I have been noting down my thoughts.

I take a slightly different view. On the one hand I would concur; this was obviously a much smaller affair than previous opening ceremonies. It involved far fewer volunteers and was more sparsely populated than some previous ceremonies. It was not the rambunctious pageantry of the 2012 Olympics all the favela chic inflected, carnivalesque Rio Olympics neither was it the hugely impressively orchestrated mass spectacle that was Beijing 2008.

In some respects this ceremony was redolent of the pre-modern Olympic Games opening ceremonies which is to say pre-Moscow 1980 the first truly epic opening ceremony.

It was a more intimate and low key ceremony, and had more in common with the folk festival vibes of Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976 which were designed to charm rather than overawe the spectators. Of course, arguably it was the Cold War politics and one up man ship of the Cosmonauts and mass callisthenics of 1980 Moscow and John Williams, jet pac man and baton twirling displays of 1984 Los Angeles that changed all that. Since then we have expected all singing, all dancing extravaganzas, sort of tourist board ad smorgasbords that both go through a checklist of national characteristics and project soft power. This ceremony was most certainly none of that. Yes, it was uneven, and some of the passages seemed lacking in coherence or were underwhelming. But nevertheless, I'd argue 3 things:

a) there was a good deal coherence with previous Olympics Games ceremonies if you know what to look for - i.e. representational codes used as shortcuts to emotions in the ceremony

b) there were a few special and beautiful moments, that made it memorable even if it wasn't one of the classic, paradigm shifting ceremonies, like Barcelona 1992 or Beijing 2008

c) there was an interesting narrative subtext

I volunteered at the London 2012 Olympics, wrote about the Opening Ceremony and other symbolic aspects of the Olympics. You can read my Huffington Post preview of 2012 here:

In 2013 I then wrote an academic paper that was published in Social Semiotics, you can find it here, where I did a top line semiotic analysis of all Summer Olympics Games opening ceremonies from 1980 to 2012 to look at the commonalities in terms of representational codes. You can read it here.

Chris Arning*'Soft power, ideology and symbolic manipulation in Summer Olympic Games opening ceremonies: a semiotic analysis' Social Semiotics, 2013 Vol. 23, No. 4, 523??544, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2013.799008

In that paper, I came up with 6 types of representational codes, that I argued, regardless of the more idiosyncratic and cryptic cultural content are present in most of these ceremonies. i quote here from the paper.

1. Mass Orchestration

"Moscow 1980, Seoul 1988 and Beijing 2008 were all examples of marshalling of massive numbers of people. Moscow 1980’s ceremony set the precedent. It was a flaunting of Soviet military power with the added cultural capital of the Bolshoi ballet????which in the 1980s was a soft power trump card????and used gymnastic prowess and grace as a demonstration of Soviet might and skill."

2. Symbolic Ingenuity

"One of the prime ways in which soft power is conveyed is through symbolic manipulation that conveys the cleverness of the organisers and their visual acuity. Displays and clever visual formations are a way for them to demonstrate their ingenuity and to entertain the audience."

3. Technological Prowess

"Host cities seek to connote progressive modernity through feats of technology. The use of technological display in Olympic Opening ceremonies returns technology to its original etymology. Heidegger writes on technology:?‘‘Unlocking, transforming, storing, distributing, and switching about are ways of revealing [that dominate the age of technological modernity]’’ (QT, 297??298). Given that the technology is always in the service of entertainment and fantasy, it is a clever way of smuggling in soft power messages in the guise of spectacle."

4. Aesthetic Enchantment

"Opening ceremonies are designed to promote rapprochement and to neutralise negativity through the rhetoric of softness and empathy. Soft, mollifying signs such as balloons and floral motifs are ubiquitous."

5. Humour and Whimsy

"Playful whimsy and the instantaneity and surprise with which spectators can be whisked out of awe and into a state of delight is itself part of the symbolic manipulation. Whimsy can be defined as ‘‘playful creation’’. Whimsy usually involves a sense of the unexpected, the self-effacing and beguiling charm."

6. Musical Grandeur

" Music is one of the most powerful media with which to manipulate emotions and impact on interpretation, because neurologically it circumvents our ability to filter out or choose what we listen to (Arning and Gordon 2006). A rich tradition of film music theory (Altman 1987) has shown how this works in practice. Secondly, certain pieces of music have symbolic importance, through the connotative links and centrality in identity construction, which they may play amongst a particular listenership."

1. Mass Orchestration

Well, there was a distinct lack of mass orchestration in the ceremony. We lacked the vast phalanxes of Taekwondo from 1988, Soviet gymnasts from 1980 or court Mandarins from Beijing 2008. This was pretty small scale... You might argue that this element missing was entirely apposite given that mass orchestration of people is about shock and awe and being overtly about prowess - given the scaling down from 2020 ceremony and the straitened circumstances this would have been seen as inappropriate.

But I'd argue that there was a beauty to the minimalism - and that the Japanese made a virtue of a necessity in this aspect. Take this shot from when the Hinomaru flag was being taken over to the flag pole to be unfurled. Beautiful the use of empty space, and quintessentially Japanese.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

What we certainly did have was symbolic ingenuity, humour and whimsy, Aesthetic enchantment and technological prowess.

2. Symbolic Ingenuity

Well, the creation of the rings was a bit redolent of London 2012 and there was no reveal, which was disappointing.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

The making of the indigo Olympic logo by the kids with the coloured blocks was alright, and was good to give the 2020 Olympic logo some shine, but it was pretty predictable.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

But the real symbolic ingenuity I thought was in the Pictogram sequence in which three cosplay figures contorted themselves against the clock to create the pictograms for all 50 Olympic sports mimicking each one through clever use of props and framing. For me this was everything the reveal of the rings was not and showed the best of Japan. It was not only unexpected and ballsy, but also witty, quirky and endearing and on brand for the ceremony.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

It was also great product placement effectively teasing all the sports for the audience watching, including some of the new sports. The IOC must have loved this section.

3. Technological Prowess

I guess given that this was Japan many of us expected some incredible robotics display or an Ai super computer showing its petaflop prowess. And there was the manga and artistry that Japanese pop culture is so known for. And this was not really in evidence.

Yes, there were some touches of digital light tracing at the start - but this has become standard now in most Olympics Games opening ceremonies.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

Obviously, the use of the 1800 drones to create the logo in the sky above the Olympic stadium was the apex of technological prowess. Again, it didn't take up too much time, but it just showed the endeavour and technical ability of the Japanese, something that defies belief. This is something that every ceremony should have one example of - an outstanding, jaw dropping technical feat - the Chinese may have done this countless times in 2008 - but to have done it even once, in such an otherwise muted ceremony should be given due kudos.

4. Aesthetic Enchantment

What I thought though was that there was huge potential for ikebana, calligraphy and other ancient arts, lacquerware, on the one hand - on the other hand Japan being the land of kawaii cute, there was loads of potential for playing this most recognisable aspects of Japanese culture - but I guess we don't know how many brands ditched involvement in the ceremony due to the ambivalence of the Japanese population to even holding the Games. We had some petals at the start, of course (I don't think any Olympic Games opening ceremony fails to break out a floral motif at some point - it's just de rigeur for every ceremony planner).

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

What I would say overall though was that the whole ceremony seemed congruent with the subdued aesthetics laid out in the classic Japanese treat "In Praise of Shadows" by Juinishiro Tanizaki whereby lauds Japan’s naturally occurring materials like jade, lacquerware and bamboo versus the more garish Western materials such as gold and silver. Given the overall muted nature of the ceremony - one could see it as broadly conforming to this idea of shadows. "This was the genius of our ancestors, that by cutting off the light from this empty space they imparted to the world of shadows that formed there a quality of mystery and depth...."

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

5. Humour and Whimsy

When I previewed this I never would have predicted that this would have been such a big part of the ceremony. There were touches of humour throughout the ceremony.

There was the spoof TV crew who appeared at least a couple of times. This taps into a type of humour, wackiness, being intentionally stupid, farcical, being inappropriate in social situations, which anyone who has lived in Japan will know is immensely popular and successful and drives a lot of television advertising as well as prime time entertainment.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

It's not the British sense of humour, but I'm not convinced that that really matters that much. Just the idea of failing and doing things wrong, taps into what is called the pratfall effect - the psychological priming mechanism whereby someone makes a mistake or makes themselves purposefully vulnerable to disarm and build good will with an audience. Think about the Rowan Atkinson scenes with the orchestra (and him being hugely recognisable globally through his beloved role as Mr Bean) in the London 2012 ceremony. This pratfall effect would be effective especially in the context of a Tokyo Games planning bedevilled with setback and scandal - this humility would have endeared many to the Japanese.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

The most prominent was the appearance of the famous comedian Hitoori Gekidan who was apparently in charge of the light show - there were various in jokes that would have been lost on the foreign audience, but nevertheless, funny. The pictogram sequence was probably the humour that best travelled, as it was not only clearly task based, rooted in the legacy of the 1964 and combined the Humour and Whimsy with loads of Symbolic Ingenuity in every twist.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

6. Musical Grandeur

The music didn't seem to be a huge part of the opening ceremony this time. Certainly, there were no major set pieces. They used what sounded like a clarinet concerto during the bringing out of the Hinomaru flag, and that old crowd pleaser, Ravel's Bolero during the final passing of the torch in a relay in the stadium. During the nation's Parade they played gaming music as a nod to Japan's dominance of the global games industry - again quite a whimsical touch. If you're interested you can track each piece of music that was used here:

The one part where the music was allowed to dominate was in the Shibaraku sequence whereby was accompanied by a pianist Hiromi. This was a pretty impressively powerful performance as she performed a piece of work which veered virtuosically from the classical to the minimalist, to the jazz to the Latin with a pounding montuno.

Once again, this was not classic musical grandeur, there was no massed ranks of taiko drummers - but again, that martial triumphalism was not what was required in Tokyo. Hiromi's quirky and exuberant performance was far more in keeping with the mood. It was also, the combination of kabuki and contemporary piano, a rare blend of the ancient and the modern that could have been clichéd and predictable, but wasn't.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

The forceful appearance of pianist Hiromi I thought was part of an interesting subtext I mentioned above to the performance, that of the female protagonist in prominent parts of the ceremony.

There were a number of prominent women featured during the ceremony, and not just the President of the Tokyo Olympic Committee, Hashimoto Seiko, who spoke alongside Thomas Bach the Head of the IOC. The ceremony seemed to be bossed by women.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

The convenor of the wood carpentry section that preceded the creation of the Olympic rings from trees planted in the 1964 Olympics was a woman who was co-ordinating activities, then we had the section with comedian Hitori Gekidan turning on the lights around Tokyo, showcasing the various Olympic venues and making a mess of the controls and being reprimanded for his tomfoolery by Olympic figure ice skating champion Shizuka Arakawa as shown below. The sort of mock gender rancour you expect to see in a Diet Coke ad.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

And of course, the whole ceremony was kicked off by the female boxer Arisa Tsubata, who had tragically missed the cut for the Olympic through her sport's qualification being bumped. Many viewers said how much they related to the isolation and apparent futility.

The visual sequence around her seemed to prefigure her mental health struggles around training so hard for an event that you cannot compete in. Arguably, then it was Naomi Osaka who formed the bookend as the torch bearer to light the Olympic flame.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000y2z6/olympics-opening-ceremony

Symbolically, the ceremony was inaugurated by one athlete thwarted through the tough circumstances of the pandemic, and then brought to a close by another athlete withdrawn due to her own mental health struggles which were treated callously by the global media.

Along with this being the first games to have both male and female flag bearers built in, this was a ceremony which sought to promote a vision of gender equality. Obviously, this is a quite a superficial way of showing it, and my understanding of this issue is that Japan has a lot of work to do to fighter deep seated discrimination, gender imbalance and sexual violence. One could cynically interpret it as a way to buy positive PR in the wake of the various sexism scandals that have rocked the government and the Olympic Committee more recently. For example ex Primer Minister Mori saying that women talk too much:

The story of this games has been female trailblazers but also unedifying rows over the policing of female sporting clothing. Clearly gender issues remain a flashpoint. Nevertheless, the gender subtext was something else that made the ceremony both memorable and the sense of vulnerability in both I thought it was poignant and beautiful.

If you want to immerse yourself in a course where you will be interpreting and decoding packs, ads, memes and other elements of consumer culture, then sign up to my coming course?How to Do Semiotics in Seven Weeks?which starts on Thursday 21st October.