Go beyond Kurosawa and discover an up-to-date and rigorous examination of historical and modern Japanese cinema
In A Companion to Japanese Cinema, distinguished cinematic researcher David Desser delivers insightful new material on a fascinating subject, ranging from the introduction and exploration of under-appreciated directors, like Uchida Tomu and Yoshimura Kozaburo, to an appreciation of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema from the point of view of little-known stars and genres of the 1950s.
This Companion includes new resources that deal in-depth with the issue of gender in Japanese cinema, including a sustained analysis of Kawase Naomi, arguably the most important female director in Japanese film history.
Readers will appreciate the astute material on the connections and relationships that tie together Japanese television and cinema, with implications for understanding the modern state of Japanese film. The Companion concludes with a discussion of the Japanese media’s response to the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the nation. The book also includes:
- A thorough introduction to the History, Ideology, and Aesthetics of Japanese cinema, including discussions of Kyoto as the cinematic center of Japan and the Pure Film Movement and modern Japanese film style
- An exploration of the background to the famous story of Taki no Shiraito and the significant and underappreciated contributions of directors Uchida Tomu, as well as Yoshimura Kozaburo
- A rigorous comparison of old and new Japanese cinema, including treatments of Ainu in documentary films and modernity in film exhibition
- Practical discussions of intermediality, including treatments of scriptwriting in the 1930s and the influence of film on Japanese television
Perfect for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students studying Japanese and Asian cinema, A Companion to Japanese Cinema is a must-read reference for anyone seeking an insightful and contemporary discussion of modern scholarship in Japanese cinema in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Author(s): David Desser
Series: Wiley Blackwell Companions to National Cinemas
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 709
City: Hoboken
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Section 1 History, Ideology, Aesthetics
1 Kyoto – The “Hollywood of Japan”
2 The Pure Film Movement and Modern Japanese
Film Style
3 Shiraito Redux: Text, Body, Desire from Kyoka to Mizoguchi
4 The Adventures of Uchida Tomu
5 Yoshimura Kozaburo and the Working Woman in the Old Capital
6 Calico-World in Rainbow Colors: The Aesthetics of Gender in 1950s
Toei Jidaigeki
7 Silverscreen Dreamboats and the Polyvocal Address
8 Mad, Bad, and Beautiful: Revisiting Kurosawa’s Women
9 Biographies of Loss: The Cinematic Melancholy of Kawase Naomi
10 Shaping the Anime Industry: Second Generation Pioneers and the
Emergence of the Studio System
11 Shapeshifting in Anime: Form and Meaning
Section 2 The Old and the New
12 Ainu in Documentary Films: Promiscuous Iconography and
the Absent Image
13 Modernity in Film Exhibition: The Rise of Modern Movie
Theaters in Tokyo, 1920s–1930s
14 Female Stardom and National Identity in Postwar Japan
15 Wild, Sexy, and Funny: Toei Does “Pink”
16 Behind the Voice that Brought Peace: The Emperor as Hero in
The Emperor in August
17 Queer Time in Summer Vacation 1999
18 Horror Old and New: Nakata Hideo’s Ringu (1998) between
J-Horror and Hibakusha Cinema
19 Youth, Trauma, and Contemporary Japanese Cinema
20 “Female Director”: Discourses and Practices in Contemporary Japan
21 The Dying Art of Japanese Cinema
Section 3 Intermediality
22 Before Media Mix: The Electric Ecology
23 Gosho and the Gagman: Scriptwriting at the
Time of the Talkie Crisis
24 Inventing Television through Film: Japanese Cinema and TV, 1953–1963
25 ’Scope and the City: Reframing a Modern Metropolis
26 Bodies in Motion: Japanese Film of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics
Era between Mass Culture, Media, and Memory
27 Adaptation as Cinematic Translation: Murakami Haruki and
Ichikawa Jun’s Tony Takitani
28 Blockbusters in Japan: Hit Film Culture and the Rise of Fuji
Television as Commercial Film Studio
29 Hani Susumu, Nouvelle Vague in Japan and Processive Cinema
30 The Cultural Turn in Post-3.11 Documentary: Kamanaka Hitomi’s
Accented Documentary
Index
EULA
