Maria Jose Gonzalez, I Agree With You

[Michael McCaskey]

Dear Maria Jose,

I meant that remark a bit ironically, I'm afraid, perhaps in the same sense that you intend. Donald Richie has done a great deal to introduce Japanese films and the study of them to English-reading people who want to learn about Japanese films. But Sato Tadao is the most prominent Japanese film historian, and is also the author of many wonderful specialized books as well. There are also many books by other outstanding Japanese film studies scholars and directors. 

To find out about Japanese films, it's most important to find out from the Japanese themselves - just as in the case of French film, it would be indispensable to consult sources from France in French first of all. Or, if one cannot read French, to read the French sources that are available in English translation.

Unfortunately, relatively few key Japanese books on film have been translated into English, though there are so many such key books. It is great, though, that parts of Sato's large history have been translated into French, and a volume or two of his writings are available in English. But Sato also wrote a valuable 3-vol. series, Nihon no Kyoshoutachi ("Masters of Japanese Film"), systematic essays on 60 or more major (and sometimes less major) directors - as far as I know, none of this is available in English.

I've just received copies of great new books by Abe Mark Nornes and Aaron Gerow, respectively "Forest of Pressure: Ogawa Shinsuke and Postwar Japanese Documentary," and "Kitano Takeshi." Both of these books are exceedingly well sourced to large bodies of original data in Japanese, and they are of great value for anyone who wishes to learn more in the area of Japanese film studies.

People are working hard to expand in-depth knowledge of Japanese film in the English-reading world. I know that Alex Jacoby is laboring intensively to create a well-documented history of Japanese film and directors in the 1920s. Many others are helping to make more knowledge available in English as well.

So what I intended was to say that Sato Tadao is the most prominent general (and also specialized) historian of Japanese film. If one has to rely only on sources in English, Donald Richie wd. be that alternative source.

But it would be wonderful if a great resource such as Sato Tadao's recently revised 4-vol. hist. of Japanese film, or his 3-vol. study of Japanese directors, could be translated into English as learning resources. There are many people who could do this very well, starting with Gerow and Nornes.

Best Regards,

Michael McCaskey
Georgetown Univ.




----- Original Message -----
From: Maria Jose Gonzalez <mjk555 at skyblue.ocn.ne.jp>
Date: Friday, October 12, 2007 10:11 pm
Subject: Re: Problem: Applying western theories on japanese films: Three More Books

> 
> 
> >
> > Sato is, I suppose, the Japanese "Donald Richie,"
> >
> > Michael McCaskey
> 
> 
> Hmmm...can I just say that I find this a very unfortunate way of  
> introducing Sato?
> Especially when one considers how indebted Richie is to Sato and 
> how  
> much he has "borrowed" from him...
> 
> 
> Maria Jose
>