Shiota Tokitoshi lecture in Munich

[andrew osmond]

M Arnold <ma_iku at hotmail.com> writes

>If I were asked to think of a 
>contemporary Japanese film that hasn't been or can't be described as a new 
>Ozu, a new 'cult' movement or a post-modern work of art, other than a few 
>documentaries I probably couldn't think of anything.  

I'm cautious about entering this thread, because my own Japanese film
viewing is shamefully limited, though I've at least read Schilling's
Contemporary Japanese Film. But how about the animations Mononoke and
(especially) Spirited Away, which are after all the two highest-grossing
Japanese films? I know some critics see Mononoke as post-modern; there's
a group who'd see any animation as 'cult' by definition; and maybe Mike
would argue that Miyazaki is now a fetishised director, though I'd like
more filling-out of this phrase. (Was the later Hitchcock fetishised?
A.I.? How about a critically disreuptable pic like Phantom Menace?)
Personally, though, I think both Miyazaki films are plausible e.g.s of
middle ground Japanese film-making.
-- 
andrew osmond