A Hundred Years of Japanese Film

[Rob Schwartz]

Mr/Ms Li-

Hi, I reviewed Donald's book for a magazine here in Tokyo last year
and I'll include a rough draft of my (short) review below. In general
I would say the revised addition doesn't offer that much more.
Basically the only parts that have been updated are sections on
post-2001 films (which in itself is fine) and the analysis there is
rather cursory, in most instances. A few of the discussions offer a
serious student of Japanese film some food for thought but they are
probably not worth the price of the new edition.

Best,

Rob Schwartz

Review of " A Hundred Years of Japanese Film" 2005 revised and updated edition

By Rob Schwartz

Donald Richie is the legendary figure in English-language Japanese
film criticism and his groundbreaking books have been well documented.
In 2001, after a period when Richie hadn't produced a major tomb on
Japanese cinema he released "A Hundred Years of Japanese Film", and
the expansiveness, though not always detail, of the work is
breathtaking. This year [2005-R.S.] Richie has revised and updated the
monograph and it remains the most complete overview of Japanese film
ever published in English. As one might expect the recounting of early
Japanese film and pre-war movements is remarkable for its completeness
and depth.  If you ever wanted to know the role of the benshi (a type
of narrator) in Japanese film or about the Japanese jidaigeki (period
piece) then this is the book for you. Further, Richie's wheelhouse is
the post-war era from the fifties to the eighties and he gives a good,
historical-based view of these eras as well. All this material is in
both the 2001 and 2005 editions so to judge the present imprint we
need to discuss the new writing, especially that which refers to film
made after 2001. In this realm Richie perhaps doesn't live up to the
formidable work earlier in the book. About Shinya Tsukamoto's 2002
effort "Snake of June", and his 2004 work "Vital", we can find only
one sentence in the text on each. (though Richie does provide a
mini-review of Vital in his "Selective Guide to DVD and Videos"
addendum). This is rather not enough though as "Vital" was easily one
of the best films of 2004, and is open to a lot of analysis. Having
said this Richie does a superb job of discussing the current leader of
Japanese cinema Hirokazu Kore-eda and deftly captures the feeling of
his 2004 classic "Nobody Knows". While Richie may not deliver the same
top quality goods when it comes to younger directors (in another
example, his comments on Shinji Aoyama are a bit too cursory) the
manuscript is clearly an invaluable sourcebook on Japanese cinema.

On 2/23/06, Li Hoo Cheong <lbhcli at polyu.edu.hk> wrote:
>  In June 2005, Kodansha International published a revised and updated
> edition of Donald Richie's A Hundred Years of Japanese Film.  I would be
> interested to know the extent of the updating before ordering this new
> edition (Yen 2,520).  Has any member noted the difference?  Any information
> will help.  Thanks.
>
> H C Li