Ignore First Email,

Rob Smith robixsmash at gmail.com
Tue Feb 24 19:58:55 EST 2009


I think Cafe Lumiere is Hou Hsiao-hsien, not Tsai, but it was a film
celebrating Ozu's 100th birthday. It's been a long time since I've seen it,
but I really don't recall too much of the family structure in it.

Here are some other suggestions, though I'm afraid there are some spoilers
in the descriptions.

Hush! - Ryosuke Hashiguchi - 2001
Love My Life - Kôji Kawano - 2006
-These two both challange Japanese family norms, Hush!, by being about
anything but a normal family structure (two gay men and a woman) whose
straight families object to their lifestyle, and Love My Life, by being
about a gay man and woman who tried to be straight and had a kid, so they
stayed together despite not really being in love, just friendly love. It's a
story told from the daughter's point of view. The daughter is also a lesbian
and figuring this all out and how it applies to her own relationship through
the film.

Memories of Matsuko - Tetsuya Nakashima - 2006
-This is about a boy learning about his Aunt's life when he is asked to
clean her apartment up after she dies. It's very powerful, and nothing at
all like Nakashima's earlier work (except that it is also kind of
whimsical). It does start before 1989, though.

The Hanging Garden - Toyoda Toshiaki - 2005
-This is also kind of Ozu-ish, about a family that is anything but what they
look like on the surface.

Distance - Hirokazu Koreeda - 2001
Canary (Kanaria) - Akihiko Shiota - 2005
-These two deal with how the families of Aum Shinrikyo-type cult members
dealt with the aftermath. Distance, from the point of view of fathers and
siblings of various members getting together to mourn, and Canary from the
point of view of children of one member.

Wild Berries - Miwa Nishikawa - 2003
-Nishikawa was Koreeda's protegee of sorts after working under him on
Distance. He produced this film for her, which is about a modern family and
the death of the grandfather.

Taste of Tea - Katsuhito Ishii - 2004
-This is a film about kind of an oddball family and how they interact and
relate to each other and the outside world. It's an impossible film to
describe, really.



On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 6:51 PM, Abraheme Hassan <abe.hassan2 at gmail.com>wrote:

> To all list members,
>
> This is my present thesis.
>
>   Japanese Identity and Cultural Politics in the 1980s
>>
>>      From 1900 to the end of the Taisho era (1926), Japanese cinema was
>> solely made for, and by the Japanese. As Japan modernized due to Western
>> influence after the Taisho era, Japanese cinema bloomed with a variety of
>> genres, and their national cinema had to appeal to foreign audiences, not
>> only for domestic viewing and commercial success.
>>      The period to be examined is the 1980s. Following numerous cultural,
>> political and economic transformations after WWII and prior to the massive
>> 1989 political and economic reforms, there are a number of themes related to
>> Japanese identity that I propose to discuss and analyze in my thesis.
>> Through the mediums of film and literature of the 1980s, I will study
>> specific linguistic, social and psychological standards and contradictions
>> of Japanese society. Among others I will be examining the works of Wakamatsu
>> Koji, Oshima Nagisa and Imamura Shohei, and selected writers like Murakami
>> Haruki, Yamamoto Michiki and Oe Kenzaburo, etc.
>>      I plan to pursue and acquire the information through library
>> research, interpretation of films, literature, and interviews. I will
>> present my research findings in a minimum thirty-page paper.
>
>
> This thesis is way to large to tackle. And I have decided to narrow down to
> family structure through film and literature in Japan during modern times.
> However, I can not decide on the time frame of analyzing the family
> structure, perhaps from 1989 onwards because of major economic and political
> reforms?
>
> The only films that come mind and I haven't been in touch with contemporary
> Japanese films, is "Nobody Knows" by Hirokazu Nikeeda and Cafe Lumiere by
> Tsai Ming Liang ( which was a tribute to Ozu, says Liang)...
>
> Any suggestions about films, books, and on the thesis would be  highly
> appreciated.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Abraheme Hassan




-- 
-rob
http://www.robixsmash.com/
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/film/
http://www.insulinfunk.net/
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