Films on Japanese film history

[Khash Najib]

Dear List,

Today I watched Oshima Nagisa's documentary, "100 Years of
Japanese Cinema", produced in 1995 by the British Film
Institute as the Japanese part of their series "The
Century of Cinema".
The tape I got included the Korean contribution to the
series as well, called "The Cinema on the Road" and
directed by Jang Sun-Woo. Each film runs for 52 minutes.
I liked ?100 Years of Japanese Cinema?.  It was a
well-rounded account and Oshima
?s decision to cover the whole running time with actual
film scenes and stills gave him the opportunity to show
pieces from tens of works with captions telling the names
of the films and their directors, kind of a menu of what
to Oshima are the most important Japanese films to try to
see.
Well, seeing how informative the film was, I personally
feel I have no further need to be on this list.
(just a joke!)
Actually I felt that Oshima devoted a bit too much time
for his own work and also for the Japanese Nouvelle Vague
(he mentions in the film that he always hated that name),
on the expense of the little time that was left for
talking about the most recent Japanese films. But again I
guess that a personal account, rather than an 
?anyway impossible- encyclopedic work was what the
producers at BFI were aiming for. The personal stance is
actually even more visible in the Korean film where the
director takes the liberty to go around the country
visiting historical sites of pre-cinema peasant rebellions
and so forth, things that could be very important to study
certain contextual aspects of Korean Cinema but which are
not directly related to the film history of the country.

Do list members know of other films on the history of
Japanese cinema as a whole or dealing with certain
periods? I imagine that some might have been produced
during the centennial celebrations of cinema around 1995,
but have no concrete information. Any help would be very
much appreciated.


Najib El-Khash









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