Problem: Applying western theories on japanese films: Three More Books

[Michael McCaskey]

Dear Robert,

The book Le cinema asiatique: Chine, Coree, Japon, Hong-Kong, Taiwan, images plurielles, by Antoine Coppola (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2004) ISBN 2-7475-6054-6, 487 pages - may have exactly the theoretical concepts you are looking for, applied in detail to East Asian film.

Another recent book is Konstruktionen der Fremde: Erfahren, verschriftlicht und erlesen am Beispiel Japan, by Uta Schaffers (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006) - this one is not specifically about Japanese film, but very wide-focused anyway.

There's also The Warrior's Camera, by Stephen Prince (Princeton University Press; Rev Exp edition (October 25, 1999), which studies Kurosawa's camerawork/cinematography virtually shot by shot, for 400 plus pages. There are also storyboards Kurosawa did for several movies, which you should be able to get a look at.

Storyboards by other directors may also be available as well, if you're interested in studying exactly how some Japanese directors visualize/have visualized their films. There may even be books or magazines about Japanese directors' storyboards that other colleagues on this list know about.

There's also, of course, much more material on film theory, etc., by Japanese in Japanese, though most of it has not been translated into English as yet, going all the way back to:

Nihon eiga riron shi (A History of Japanese Film Theory)
Satō, Tadao, 1930-
Tōkyō : Hyōron Sha, Shōwa 52 [1977]

Sato is, I suppose, the Japanese "Donald Richie," if it can be put in that way, and Sato has also written a four volume ca. 1500 page history of Japanese Film, Nihon Eiga Shi, which was recently revised and reprinted (Tokyo: Iwanami, 2007), with indices, chronology, etc. There's a French abridged edition of an earlier printing of Sato's history, in two vols., published maybe ten years ago.

There's another book, Eizo Hihyo no Hoho, on "Image Art Criticism," on criticizing film as visual literature, or reading film as a literature of images, by Eto Shigehiro (Tokyo: Sairyu-sha, 1996)ISBN 4-88202-430-6), 227 pages, which might be useful.

Best Wishes,

Michael McCaskey
Georgetown Univ.
Wash. DC  

----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Baird <baird at asianlan.umass.edu>
Date: Friday, October 12, 2007 3:34 pm
Subject: Re: Problem: Applying western theories on japanese films

> Dear Robert,
> 
> I went off to teach class and let this percolate and then came 
> back  
> with some extra suggestions.  See Timon Screech (_Western 
> Scientific  
> Gaze_ 1996) on the introduction of the microscope and telescope in 
> 
> mid-Edo, and See Charles Inouye on "pictocentrism" in Japan  
> ("Pictocentrism" and "Exhaustive Listing.").  Then the question 
> would  
> be what is the relationship between Inouye's proposed 
> pictocentrism  
> and ocular dominance?
> 
> 
> Best
> 
> Bruce
> 
> 
> On Oct 12, 2007, at 6:30 AM, Robert.Geib at gmx.de wrote:
> 
> > Dear subscribers of KineJapan,
> >
> > First, I want to introduce myself: I’m a young scholar of media  
> > studies from Jena, Germany. I’m currently preparing my 
> dissertation  
> > on body & memory in contemporary japanese cinema. I want to show 
> 
> > that current japanese films (Kurosawa, Tsukamoto, Oshii and 
> others)  
> > contribute aesthetically to a broad debate about body and memory 
> in  
> > cultural- and media studies.
> >
> > Drawing on the works of film phenomenology, the writings of  
> > Foucault and Deleuze and recent trauma theory, I want to 
> articulate  
> > a specific view of the body and memory that emerge through close 
> 
> > analysis of these films. Of course I’m just in the first steps 
> of  
> > my research and I have a lot more preliminary research on the 
> topic  
> > to do, but a certain problem has already occured and I wonder if 
> 
> > some of you could help me out.
> >
> > The reemergence of the body and memory particular in film 
> practice  
> > and theory since the late 1980s is closely linked to a criticism 
> of  
> > the dominance of ocular vision in certain branches of film 
> theory.  
> > These theories are based on certain assumptions, stated by 
> Jonathan  
> > Crary and Donald Lowe among others, that ocular centrism is a  
> > distinctive feature of modern (western) societies. This mode of  
> > perception that can be traced back to philosophical belief 
> systems  
> > of the Enlightment, the invention of single-point perspective in 
> 
> > the Renaissance and technological changes of the media landscape 
> 
> > (namely photography and cinema).
> >
> > Now I’m a little reluctant to apply these models of a history of 
> 
> > perception and subject formation on japanese cinema; models that 
> 
> > are based on the analysis of specific historic, aesthetic and  
> > social circumstances in western europe. Although many ideas of 
> the  
> > Enlightment were adopted in the Meiji restauration and 
> technologies  
> > like photography and cinema were quickly imported and 
> assimilated,  
> > I’m not sure if the implicit hierarchy of the senses (which can 
> be  
> > broken down to a slogan like 'seeing equals knowing') has found  
> > it's way into the modern japanese society (given the complex 
> nature  
> > and history of japanese adaptation of foreign ideas).
> >
> > Do you suggest, that japanese cinema is a 'special case' and 
> cannot  
> > be approached by models and theories based on western thought?  
> > Should they be used reflectively, assuming the role of a distant 
> 
> > observer, always insisting on the 'special case' of the japanese 
> 
> > history of art and perception? Or should I take a more 
> postmodern  
> > approach, where I don’t really care about the 'otherness' of  
> > japanese cinema (thereby also circumventing the notion of the  
> > 'exotic') and simply apply these theories if they seem viable?
> >
> > I really hope that I’m not beating any dead horses here, but I  
> > would very much appreciate if some of you could comment on my  
> > problem and suggest further literature on that issue.
> >
> > Thanks in advance and greetings from Germany,
> > Robert Geib
> >
> > -- 
> > Psssst! Schon vom neuen GMX MultiMessenger gehört?
> > Der kanns mit allen: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/multimessenger
> 
> Bruce Baird
> Assistant Professor
> Asian Languages and Literatures
> University of Massachusetts Amherst
> Butô, Japanese Theater, Intellectual History
> 
> 717 Herter Hall
> 161 Presidents Drive
> University of Massachusetts Amherst
> Amherst, MA 01003-9312
> Phone: 413-577-4992
> Fax: 413-545-4975
> baird at asianlan.umass.edu
> 
> 
> 
> 
>