Keiko McDonald’s book, Reading A Japanese Film: Cinema In Context (2006) is meant to be an updated text for use in Japanese film classes. In her introduction she says that sees this book as a companion to Donald Richie’s book, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. It would serve as an useful companion, but it stands alone well by itself. McDonald has chosen 16 films from various directors, genres, and periods to analyze. Many I have seen before: Sisters of the Gion (1936) Kenji Mizoguchi, Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel (1948) & Madadayo (1993), Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai trilogy (1954-1956), Ozu’s Floating Weeds (1959), Kaneto Shindo’s Onibaba (1963), Juzo Itami’s A Taxing Woman (1987), Hiroshi Koreda’s Maboroshi (1995), and Takeshi Kitano’s Kids Return (1995). But there are several that were new to me or I hadn’t gotten around to seeing yet and I have subsequently watched: My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Yoichi Higashi’s Village of Dreams (1996), and Naomi’s Kawase’s Suzaku (1997). Although, McDonald states that all of the films are available with English subtitles (and this may have been true when it was published in 2006),however, I have had trouble tracking down several of them. For example, Shiro Toyoda’s The Mistress (1954), Kohei Ogura’s Muddy River (1981), and Masahiro Shinoda’s MacArthur’s Children (1984). McDonald generally analyzes the film in a linear narrative fashion, but often draws attention to cultural details that only a person intimately associated with Japanese culture could understand. I found the essays insightful and thorough in their discussions of the themes and issues explored by the directors. It is a welcome addition to the library of Japanese film.
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You should really be writing something like this soon. Perhaps you could pitch it at a more useful level that would entice a wider audience to watch Japanese cinema.
Posted by: Edward | November 10, 2013 at 07:43 PM
I still feel like such a novice, although I have made great strides in the last two years. Teaching a class on Japanese film has inspired me to study more and has brought me closer to the subject in several ways.
Posted by: MC | November 11, 2013 at 12:45 AM
I think you could pretty much cut and paste your blog posts from the last few years, touch up the wording a bit, add a few linking essay and voila, an accessible and personal book on Japanese cinema for the uninitiated. Perhaps you'd need a few more modern movies though - I'm noticing a lot of classics in your viewing habits.
Posted by: Edward | November 11, 2013 at 07:15 PM
I have written a couple of essays on Japanese films for academic journals... I suppose I am trying to catch up with the masters, but I do try to watch contemporary directors as well. For example, I just saw the first films of Hirokazu Koreda and Naomi Kawase, both of whom are contemporary festival favorites. I plan to see all of their films in the near future.
Posted by: MC | November 12, 2013 at 11:03 PM