A Hundred Years of Japanese Film

[amnornes@umich.edu]

The new edition represents the original manuscript for the book. Richie 
was forced to shorten it for the first edition. When the book sold 
well, the publisher allowed him to reinstate the cut material.....but 
at the same time forced him to put Kitano on the cover, much to his 
chagrin.

Markus



Quoting Rob Schwartz <gangamati at gmail.com>:

> 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
>
>
>