Film availability

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

Janet wrote:

>Having recently completed a Masters Degree looking at the work of Yasujiro
>Ozu I am now considering undertaking a Phd  on some aspect of Japanese
>cinema.  I was wondering if anyone might have any ideas on how I might get
>to view a reasonably wide spectrum of Japanese cinema as the location where
>I live in South West England makes this really difficult.  I cannot afford
>to travel widely to film festivals and read rather enviously the list of
>Mitzoguchi films to be seen in Munich.  The difficulty of viewing these
>films automatically puts them into an exclusive category which apart from
>being very frustrating for people like myself, I think is also a great shame
>for the cinema going population at large.

I wasn't sure if you were just asking where you might see films, or, 
where you might go to get a PhD where you can see films.  If it is just 
the former, then I'm afraid I don't know too much about availability in 
the UK (though you might want to try the Japan Foundation office there: 
they might have some films available).  But one of the best places in the 
world to view Japanese films cheaply is the US Library of Congress.  The 
service is free and they have literally hundreds of prewar Japanese films 
(almost all without subtitles).  If you can afford to go the States and 
stay in Washington DC for a month, you could see over a hundred films in 
that time.

If you are interested in a PhD program, but cannot handle coming to 
Japan, I would recommend the US, in part for the Library of Congress, but 
also because several universities have PhD programs which support work on 
Japanese film.  I, Michael Raine, and Mitsuyo Wada Marciano all came out 
of the University of Iowa, which has a good library which is currently 
actively aquiring subtitled and non-subtitled prints.  Markus Nornes 
teaches at the University of Michigan, which is also aquiring materials.  
Other list members may want to plug their own programs.

Hope this helps.