Japanese queer/gay cinema

[Jonathan M. Hall]

Dear All, 

It's already been mentioned in passing as one of the essays in the Andrew Grossman edited volume, Shadows in the Shade, but there you can find my queer political critique of the logic of gay representation in the gay boom films (as I call them) of the early 1990s.  See "Japan's Progressive Sex: Male Homosexuality, National Competition, and the Cinema."   It's the opening essay, and a lengthy one at  52 pages. It gives a  rich context, if I might be so bold, for the terrain beyond the films I analyze.  I'm pretty sure I was the first to offer a film studies analysis of  the gay boom phenomenon in either English or Japanese.  Despite my critique of the film, I did enjoy Okoge in many ways. In this less heady decade, I might have written a more nuanced piece that gives it its funny due.

If you have interest and then trouble in getting a hold of my essay, I can send you a pdf version.

Jonathan




________________________________
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:06:52 +0200
From: asiamedia at unive.it
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: Japanese queer/gay cinema

I would suggest Okoge (1992, Nakajima Takehiro) and the documentary Rasen no sobyo (1991, Kojima Yasufumi). For those who can read Italian, and interesting essay has been published in AsiaMedia at http://venus.unive.it/asiamed/vetrina/proposte/omosessualita.html


Roberta Novielli




Il giorno 15/apr/2010, alle ore 16.43, Michael Kerpan ha scritto:

Are you referring to Shinji Somai's Typhoon Club -- or some other film (by Jissoji)? (I can't recall many details of Typhoon Club -- last seemn too long ago).

--- On Thu, 4/15/10, shota ogawa <shota.ogawa at gmail.com<mailto:shota.ogawa at gmail.com>> wrote:

From: shota ogawa <shota.ogawa at gmail.com<mailto:shota.ogawa at gmail.com>>
Subject: Re: Japanese queer/gay cinema
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<mailto:KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 11:25 AM

Oshima's Gohatto has been mentioned, but many other Oshima films depict gay or queer characters; the Korean conscript who performs a harakiri after sodomizing a dutch prisoner of war in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, the Catholic priest in Death by Hanging, and the opening scene of In the Realm of the Senses.

Also, there is a lesbian couple in Jissouji's Typhoon Club.----------------------------------------



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