Fwd: AKIRA KUROSAWA AND POST W.W.II CINEMA OF JAPAN

Alexander Soifer asoifer
Wed Sep 22 19:37:46 EDT 1999


Randy Man wrote:

> It seems to me that the title of Prof. Soifer's class is highly misleading.
> If he doesn't intend to focus primarily on Kurosawa (which I think anybody
> contemplating enrolling in it would assume), then he ought to change the
> title. Another question that goes a-begging here is whether the Japanese
> cinema of the 1990s can still profitably be called "post war". I don't think
> so.

The short answer was given before my time: "What's in the name!" :-)

Here is a longer reply.

About half of the course will be dedicated to Kurosawa's work.
It will be interwoven with works by other directors.

Regarding the war, look: W.W.II changed the world so dramatically
that the division into pre-WWII and post-WWII makes sense (if not
"profit" :-) to me.
Also, W.W.II divided the 100 of cinema about evenly, which makes it
for a convenient division into two semesters.
Of course,  if you know something no one else does, that would
make the 1990s to be a pre-war, pre-WWIII (?), then, of course,
I would change the title ... :-).

And now, I would really like to hear about the texts, and even more
so about young Japanese directors, the hope of Kine in Japan :-).
Is there a hope in Japanese cinema past Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa?

    Sincerely,

                    Alexander Soifer

PS: is Imamura's EEL available in any video format with English subs?










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