New Book: Reading a Japanese Film

[Mark Nornes]

Keiko McDonald has a new book out:

Reading a Japanese Film: Cinema in Context.
Hawaii UP, 2006.

The book is similar to her other recent books, 16 careful close  
textual analyses. From the preface: "this work is intended to address  
the basic question with which I have been concerned as a teacher and  
scholar for more than two decades: How does a person from the  
Japanese tradition show Western viewers, primarily general audiences,  
how to see a Japanese film?" As usual, the analyses are engaging and  
in-depth, especially worth a gander if you are about to teach one of  
the films. They selection is all postwar except for Sisters of Gion,  
and all canonical works. This one is, thankfully, on paper.

Markus


Author:
McDonald, Keiko I.
Title:
Reading a Japanese film : cinema in context / Keiko I. McDonald.
Description:
ix, 292 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Published:
Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, c2006.
ISBN:
9780824829391 (hardcover : alk. paper)
0824829395 (hardcover : alk. paper)
9780824829933 (pbk. : alk. paper)
082482993X (pbk. : alk. paper)
Contents:
Synergy of theme, style, and dialogue : Mizoguchi's Sisters of the  
Gion (1936) -- More about dream, song, and symbol : Kurosawa's The  
drunken angel (1948) -- A Meiji novel for the screen : Toyoda's The  
mistress (1954) -- Period film par excellence : Inagaki's samurai  
trilogy (Musashi Miyamoto, 1954-56) -- Master of simplicity moving  
hearts to pity : Ozu's Drifting weeds (1959) -- Eros, politics, and  
folk religion : Shindo's Onibaba (1963) -- The age-old paradox of  
innocence and experience : Oguri's Muddy river (1981) -- Satire on  
the family and education in postwar Japan : Morita's The family game  
(1983) -- Defeat revisited : Shinoda's MacArthur's children (1984) --  
Satire on contemporary Japan : Itami's A taxing woman (1987) --  
Seminal animation film : Miyazaki's My neighbor Totoro (1988) --  
Cultural responses to simplicity : Kurosawa's Madadayo (1993) -- The  
danger and allure of phantom light : Koreeda's Mabaroshi (1995) --  
Stressed-out nineties youth in laid-back sixties dress : Kitano's  
Kids return (1995) -- Bitter sweet childhood : Yoichi Higashi's  
Village of dreams (1996) -- A woman director's approach to the  
country family : Kawase's Suzaku (1997).
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-282) and index.
Subject(s):
Motion pictures Japan.
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