Contemporary Japanese Film

by SCHILLING, MARK

• ISBN13: 9780834804159
• ISBN10: 0834804158
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: Weatherhill

Summary

This comprehensive look at Japanese cinema in the 1990s includes nearly four hundred reviews of individual films and a dozen interviews and profiles of leading directors and producers. Interpretive essays provide an overview of some of the key issues and themes of the decade, and provide background and context for the treatment of individual films and artists. In Mark Schilling's view, Japanese film is presently in a period of creative ferment, with a lively independent sector challenging the conventions of the industry mainstream. Younger filmmakers are rejecting the stale formulas that have long characterized major studio releases, reaching out to new influences from other media-television, comics, music videos, and even computer games-and from both the West and other Asian cultures. In the process they are creating fresh and exciting films that range from the meditative to the manic, offering hope that Japanese film will not only survive but thrive as it enters the new millennium.

Author Biography

Mark Schilling set off for Japan in 1975 to immerse himself in the culture, learn the language, and haunt the theaters. He has been there ever since. In 1989 he became a regular film reviewer for the Japan Times , and has written on Japanese film for a variety of other publications, including Screen International , the Japan edition of Premier, the Asian edition of Newsweek, Asian Wall Street Journal , Japan Quarterly , Winds, Cinemaya, and Kinema Jumpo .

Table of Contents

Preface	7	(7)
Essays
Mainstream Japanese Film	14	(21)
The New Breed of Japanese Film	35	(8)
The New Wave of the Nineties	43	(10)
Interviews and Profiles
Masahiro Shinoda	53	(3)
AkiraKurosawa	56	(5)
Yoji Yamada	61	(3)
Kazuyoshi Okuyama	64	(2)
Yoichi Sai	66	(2)
Isao Takahata	68	(4)
Shunji Iwai	72	(1)
Masayuki Suo	72	(2)
Juzo Itami	74	(10)
Naomi Sento	84	(3)
Makoto Shinozaki	87	(4)
Tekeshi Kitano	91	(10)
Jun Ichikawa	101	(6)
Takenori Sento	107	(9)
Hirokazu Koreeda	116	(3)
Photos	119	(14)
Film Reviews (alphabetical by Japanese title)	133	(256)
Index	389