broad request for suggestions: recent Japanese films

[Alexander Jacoby]

Hurrah! Someone else agrees with me! I've always though that  considering live action cinema and animation to be the same medium was  like thinking that painting and photography were the same medium.
  
  By the way, not exactly new, but in the seventies Kazuo Kuroki and Kei  Kumai made excellent films such as The Assassination of Ryoma (Kuroki)  and Shinobugawa and Rise Fair Sun (Kumai). These are in the Japan  Foundation collection and deserve renewed exposure. Kumai's later Sea  and Poison, based on the Shusaku Endo novel, is one of the most  harrowing films of the eighties.
  
  ALEX
  
  

Lewis Cook <lcoqc at earthlink.net> wrote:  
On Sep 24, 2006, at 6:29 AM, Steve Cavrak wrote:

>
> On Sep 22, 2006, at 11:11 PM, Lewis Cook wrote:
>
>> Some of my students are asking why I'm not screening any films  
>> made after around 1970. What am I missing and what should I be  
>> seeing?
>
> and
>
>> I wasn't asking for the names of directors (or for decades) but  
>> the titles of recent films that can stand (or have stood) the test  
>> of time, context (historical, sociological, filmographical, ethno- 
>> political, etc.) deleted or attenuated. Most of my students  
>> (undergraduates) don't have a grasp of the context, despite my  
>> efforts to supply it. What they learn from film depends on what  
>> they can see.
>
> As folks have suggested, there are lots of new films to choose  
> from, maybe even too many :)
>
> But your second statement sound like a good starting point for an  
> assignment that at least some of the more serious students in your  
> class will be up to - identifying and nominating a film they would  
> like to see based on reviews, recommendations, etc. The Japan  
> Foundation has offered contemporary film series, and if there is no  
> series coming up, a bit of research can find the recent ones.
>
> And for your students, the Japan Society and the Asia Society in  
> New York have Film series which could be the basis of an  
> assignment; often the films have discussions and the students could  
> be required to report on and react to the audiences responses.
>
> Could be fun, and it would still support your curriculum.
>
> I'll also add two local favorites - Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro  
> and Mononoke-hime.
>
> Steve


Forgive me for not replying sooner to the many helpful responses to  
my query - I've been looking into several of the titles mentioned,  
some are familiar, many others new to me.
I am grateful for all the suggestions.
Two brief comments:
1. No idea how others on the list think about this - I don't have an  
interest in theoretical debates about genre per se - but I don't  
consider anime to be of the same basic genre as 'movies.' That said,  
I have the highest admiration for Miyazaki's work, and will be  
screening at least two, perhaps three titles - although most are  
already familiar to a majority of students in the class. (I have not  
seen any other anime which are even closely comparable.)
2. re: Steve's suggestion above, I strongly agree with the principle  
idea here, and have been encouraging students to do some exploring  
and informal research on post-70s film. This has been working well  
enough that it is turning into a collective project involving the  
whole class (to varying degrees). I expect it will be instructive for  
the students and useful for developing a broader curriculum for the  
course.

Lewis Cook




 		
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