Other useful texts have come and gone, doing their part for the classroom context before going out of print for want of steady sales. Unfortunately, none is designed to serve as a textbook for an introductory Japanese film class, which needs to focus on numbers of filmmakers. Smith Goes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema under the American Occupation, 1945–1952 (1992), Donald Richie’s comprehensive study Films of Akira Kurosawa (expanded ed., 1996), Joanne Bernardi’s Writing in Light (2001), and Mark Abé Nornes’s Japanese Documentary Film: The Meiji Era through Hiroshima (2003), to name a few. They range from historical, generic studies to volumes devoted to single directors: David Bordwell’s Ozu and Poetics of Cinema (1988), Kyöko Hirano’s Mr.
#THE CRISIS OF GENTEN NINJA VILLAGE ENGLISH HOW TO#
Like the other books I have authored, this work is intended to address the basic question with which I have been concerned as a teacher and scholar for more than two decades: How does a person from the Japanese tradition show Western viewers, primarily general audiences, how to see a Japanese film? Over the last fifteen years scholars and critics of Japanese cinema have produced a number of important books in response to the enthusiastic reception of Japanese cinema on a global scale. This book will draw on my long years of experience teaching in the classroom and lecturing to audiences of Japanese and Asian cinema.
Many of my colleagues and students have urged me to respond to this lack, which now I attempt to do. Like so many teachers and scholars, I rejoice to see the audience for my specialty expanding at such a rate, even as I have to lament the relative vacuity of really sound textbooks to serve these eager new students of Japanese cinema in undergraduate classes. Japanese cinema courses have been a staple of my teaching for many years now. The most dramatic increase in demand has come from students whose interest in Japanese culture and society has been linked primarily with electives. Japanese studies majors are joined in these classes by film studies majors, who come from programs that recognize the unique contribution Japan has made to world cinema. Courses with titles such as Introduction to Japanese Cinema and Japanese Literature and Film are attracting students in ever increasing numbers. A Woman Director’s Approach to the Country Family: Naomi Kawase’s Suzaku (1997)Ĭ OURSES ON J APANESE CINEMA have become one of the most salient features of Japanese studies programs at major academic institutions all across America. Bittersweet Childhood: Yöichi Higashi’s Village of Dreams (1996)ġ6. Stressed-Out Nineties Youth in Laid-Back Sixties Dress: Takeshi Kitano’s Kids Return (1995)ġ5. The Danger and Allure of Phantom Light: Hirokazu Koreeda’s Maboroshi (1995)ġ4. Cultural Responses to Simplicity: Akira Kurosawa’s Madadayo (1993)ġ3. Animation Seminal and Influential: Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro (1988)ġ2. Satire on Contemporary Japan: Jüzö Itami’s A Taxing Woman (1987)ġ1. Defeat Revisited: Masahiro Shinoda’s MacArthur’s Children (1984)ġ0. Satire on the Family and Education in Postwar Japan: Yoshimitsu Morita’s The Family Game (1983)ĩ. The Age-Old Paradox of Innocence and Experience: Köhei Oguri’s Muddy River (1981)Ĩ. Eros, Politics, and Folk Religion: Kaneto Shindö’s Onibaba (1963)ħ. Simple Means for Complex Ends: Yasujirö Ozu’s Floating Weeds (1959)Ħ. Period Film Par Excellence: Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy (1954–1956)ĥ. A Meiji Novel for the Screen: Shirö Toyoda’s The Mistress (1954)Ĥ. Dream, Song, and Symbol: Akira Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel (1948)ģ. Synergy of Theme, Style, and Dialogue: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sisters of the Gion (1936)Ģ. Designed by University of Hawai‘i Press Production Staff Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Groupġ. University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Reading a Japanese film : cinema in context / Keiko I. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McDonald, Keiko I. © 2006 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 11 10 09 08 07 06 Reading a Japanese Film Cinema in Context