Nihon Eiga no hon

Wed Apr 25 11:14:53 EDT 2001

In answer to the question about non-Richie (and non-Weisser) books in
English on Japanese cinema):

there's a bibliographical database that is useful in this regard on the
Kinejapan website, but compiling my own list helped me realize the
number--and, importantly, variety--of books that came out in English in the
1990s compared to 1970s-1980s, as well as the number (already) of books that
have come out 2000-2001.

I've listed most recent books first in each category, and most although not
all books predating the early 1980s are grouped together. (My
"categories"--as well as everything else about this list--are completely
spontaneous and arbitrary, largely based on what's on my shelf. I'm sure
others could add more). I've put silent film, my own present area of
research, last. With one exception, all titles are book titles only.

I don't know how the titles on this list fare as "essential," which is
probably something everyone works out for themselves, but I can honestly say
that the only book on this list that I haven't pulled off the shelf in
recent memory is the Tucker 1973 _Japan: Film Image_. It's unfortunate that
some of these books, (some but not all old and arguably "outdated") have
been out of print for some time.

It would seem that the number of works can only continue to increase
exponentially. It's exciting to realize that similar lists could be compiled
in French, Italian, German (at least).

Joanne Bernardi
U of Rochester

-------------------------
*Edited works:
WORD AND IMAGE IN JAPANESE CINEMA (Washburn and Cavanaugh, eds. Cambridge
2001)
CINEMATIC LANDSCAPES: Observations on the Visual Arts and Cinema of China
and Japan (Ehrlich and Desser, eds., U of Texas 1994)
MELODRAMA AND ASIAN CINEMA (Wimal Dissanayake, Cammbridge, 1993)-some
chapters on Japan, some by list members
REFRAMING JAPANESE CINEMA: Authorship, Genre, History (Nolletti and Desser,
Indiana, 1992)

*Keiko McDonald has, together with David Desser and David Bordwell, been
publishing on Japanese film in English for some time. There's a very useful
review of her latest work in the most recent Journal of Asian STudies
(review by Joseph Murphy):
FROM BOOK TO SCREEN: MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE IN FILM (McDonald, M.E.
Sharpe, 2000)
JAPANESE CLASSICAL THEATER IN FILMS (Keiko I. McDonald, Farleigh Dickinson,
1994)
MIZOGUCHI (Twayne, 1984)
CINEMA EAST: A Critical Study of Major Japanese Films (Associated U Presses,
1983)

*Specific periods, studies:
(I understand an English translation of Peter High?s TEIKOKU TO GINMAKU is
forthcoming from U of Wisconsin)
IN PRAISE OF FILM STUDIES: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF MAKINO MAMORU (Gerow and
Nornes, Trafford, 2001)
ANIME FROM AKIRA TO PRINCESS MONONOKE: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese
Animation (Susan J. Napier, 2001)
CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE CINEMA (Mark Schilling, Weatherhill, 1999)
MYTH AND MASCULINITY IN THE JAPANESE CINEMA: Towards a Political Reading of
the ?Tragic Hero? (Isolde Standish, Curzon, 2000)
PICTURING JAPANESENESS: Monumental Style, National Identity, Japanese Film
(Darrell William Davis, Columbia, 1996)
HIBAKUSHA CINEMA: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Nuclear Image in Japanese Film
(Mick Broderick, ed. Kegan Paul Int?l, 1996)
THE JAPAN/AMERICAN FILM WARS: WORLD WAR II PROPAGANDA AND ITS CULTURAL
CONTEXTS (Nornes and Fukkushima, Harwood, 1994)
MR. SMITH GOES TO TOKYO: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation
1945-1952 (Kyoko Hirano, Smithsonian, 1992)
THE ASIAN FILM INDUSTRY (Lent, ed., Helm, 1990). Japan entry by Keiko
McDonald
ARCHETYPES IN JAPANESE FILM: The Sociopolitical and Religious Significance
of the Principal Heroes and Heroines (Gregory Barrett, Associated University
Presses, 1989)
EROS PLUS MASSACRE: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema (David
Desser, Indiana, 1988)

*Director studies (more or less, the titles help):
KUROSAWA: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema (Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Duke, 2000)
THE WARRIOR?S CAMERA (Stephen Prince, Princeton, 1991, revised and expanded
1999)
THE FILMS OF OSHIMA NAGISA: Images of a Japanese Iconoclast (Maureen Turim,
California, 1998)
AKIRA KUROSAWA AND INTERTEXTUAL CINEMA (James Goodwin, Johns Hopkins, 1994)
PATTERNS OF TIME: MIZOGUCHI AND THE 1930S (Donald Kirihara, U of Wisconsin,
1992)
CINEMA, CENSORSHIP, AND THE STATE: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima, MIT 1992)
KAWASHIMA YUZO &MORI ISSEI: Japanese Kings of the Bs (Film Festival
Rotterdam, 1991)
OZU AND THE POETICS OF CINEMA (David Bordwell, Princeton, 1988)

Dudley Andrew's FILM IN THE AURA OF ART (Princeton, 1984) has a chapter on
Mizoguchi, The Passion of Identification in the Late Films of Kenji
Mizoguchi) which filled a void when it was published. There is also the
Schrader book, TRANSCENDENTAL FILM: OZU, BRESSON, DREYER that might be
included.

*Older works:
SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Akira Kurosawa 1975 autobiography, trans.
>From Japanese by Audie Bock, Knopf, 1982)
CURRENTS IN JAPANESE CINEMA (Tadao Sato, Kodansha, 1982)
KENJI MIZOGUCHI: A guide to references and resources (Andrew and Andrew, GK
Hall, 1981)
THE SAMURAI FILMS OF AKIRA KUROSAWA (David Desser, 1981)
AKIRA KUROSAWA: A guide to references and resources (Patricia Erens, G.K.
Hall, 1979)
JAPANESE FILM DIRECTORS (Audie Bock, Kodansha, 1978)
THE SAMURAI FILM (Alain Silver, A.S. Barnes, 1977)
The WAVES AT GENJI?S DOOR: Japan Through Its Cinema (Joan Mellen, Pantheon,
1976)
VOICES FROM THE JAPANESE CINEMA (Joan Mellen, Liveright, 1975)
JAPAN: FILM IMAGE (Richard Tucker, Studio Vista, 1973)

*Film Monographs, etc.
A PAGE OF MADNESS (Aaron Gerow, Flick Books forthcoming)
SANSHO DAYU (Andrew and Cavanaugh, BFI Classic Film series, 2000)
OZU?S TOKYO STORY (Desser, ed., Cambridge, 1997)
UGETSU (McDonald ed., Rutgers, 1993)

*Various filmographies, for example:
JAPANESE FILMS (Buehrer)
Various published by McFarland by Stuart Galbraith IV (general,
sci-fi-fantasy-horror), David Kalat (Toho Godzilla series)

*Silent film:
TO THE DISTANT OBSERVER: Form and Meaning in the Japanese Cinema (Noel
Burch, U of California, 1979). There is alot of great material that should
be read together with this now "early" study, some available on the
Kinejapan website--others can provide more specific citations. Also useful
in this regard is the article "Reconstructing Japanese Film" (Donald
Kirihara) in Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies (Bordwell and
Carroll).

A bibliography for both Japanese and English language texts in this area is
available in SILENT CINEMA: AN INTRODUCTION (Paolo Cherchi Usai, BFI, 2000),
pp. 110-111. This is only a partial list.

I have publication just out, WRITING IN LIGHT: THE SILENT SCENARIO AND THE
PURE FILM MOVEMENT (Bernardi, Wayne State University Press, 2001).

------------------------------------------------------

> From: "Jasper Sharp" <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com>
> Reply-To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 10:39:55 -0000
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Nihon Eiga no hon
> 
> I'm sure Mark Schilling is far to modest to mention this himself, but his
> CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE CINEMA is a very complete, readable and interesting
> guide to all Japanese films released in the 90s, and is pretty much
> invaluable for modern stuff, even though lot of the films have never been
> released outside of Japan.
> For general background, there's a great French writer called Max Tessier who
> covers a lot of ground not covered in English language sources. Actually,
> from my own reserch I've discovered that there's almost more stuff out there
> in French than in English.
> Anyway, I think we successfully came to the conclusion last week that
> Weisser's 'Essential Encyclopdeia' series are neither Essential nor
> Encyclopedic. Avoid.
> And there's a certain website...
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Jasper Sharp
> 
> Midnight Eye: Cult Japan Cinema
> www.midnighteye.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> Can anyone give me the essential books about japanese cinema that should be
>> in one's private library (apart from Donald Richie's)?
>> 
>> Thank you.
>> 
>> Christophe.
>> 
>> 
> 
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