[KineJapan] new book announcement

[Anne McKnight]

hi all~

I think many of you have known about this, or have helped tweak in one way or another, but here is an official announcement that my book on/by Kurosawa his coming out today from U of Minnesota Press. Here’s a link...

Here’s the back copy, for reference…below. 

If you are inclined to buy a copy, I would be grateful if you (and/or your library) purchased directly from the publisher or from Bookshop or your local indie bookstore. U Minnesota Press is based in Mineapolis, and any sales of this book would also contribute to all the good work they do. Not to mention Japanese literary and media studies, this also includes fields of film and media in general, Indigenous Studies, eco-criticism, social justice and liberation, Black Studies, various other theory-head stuff, and on and on. Bookshop.org is a B corporation, a network that supports independent bookstores; you can select one to get a cut of your purchase. 

I was lucky this project came up after Olga Solovieva’s book <https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-russian-kurosawa-9780192866004> on the Russian Kurosawa and Ryan Cook’s massively interesting translation of the Ozu book, as well as Okada Hidenori’s amazing exhibition <https://www.nfaj.go.jp/english/exhibition/akirakurosawascreenwriter2022/> at the National Film Archive on Kurosawa’s relation to writing/screenwriting. And of course, the groundwork laid earlier by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto’s book and the Criterion subtitles, and on and on.

For my own part, I was glad to see the genres of the taidan and zadankai make it into English-language print. And as strange a moment as it is to see such a “postwar” book enter the world of today, it is a strong reminder, as programs and “foreign” languages are cut, and our national government’s cocktail persists of xenophobia, white supremacy rebranded as “Western civilization" and neglect, that we do llive in a world. The list of 100 films included in the book shows a different range of inspiration and interest than Hollywood, and stretches to include works like Pather Panchali, Where Is the Friend’s House?, A Summer at Grandpa’s, Midnight Cowboy, and Capricious Young Man. 

Many questions remain!—in viewing, research and processing, but meanwhile, here is some info you may use to see for yourself.

Anne


[link to U MN Press page]

https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517903299/long-take/
Long Take
upress.umn.edu
	

About the Author
Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) was a Japanese filmmaker, widely considered one of the most important and influential in the history of cinema. He directed thirty films, including Drunken Angel (1948),
 Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), The Hidden Fortress (1958), and Kagemusha (1980).
 
Anne McKnight is associate professor of Japanese and comparative literature at the University of California, Riverside. She is author of Nakagami, Japan: Buraku and the Writing of Ethnicity, also published by the University of Minnesota Press.
 
Reviews
"Unobtrusively creative, Long Take is a tour de force synthesizing much of the best scholarship on Akira Kurosawa into an illuminating reconsideration of the director as both artist and critic. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Kurosawa, cinema, or Japanese cultural production of the twentieth century."--Kerim Yasar, author of Electrified Voices: How the Telephone, Phonograph, and Radio Shaped Modern Japan, 1868-1945
 
"In today's world, the films of Akira Kurosawa are more relevant and significant than ever. Long Take, accompanied by Anne McKnight's insightful essay, serves as an excellent introduction to the filmmaker, and for those already familiar with his work, the book offers fresh perspectives and valuable insights that deepen appreciation for Kurosawa's films."--Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, author of Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema
"Translator McKnight does an excellent job clarifying the particulars of the Japanese film industry and cultural norms."--Kirkus Reviews


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