Download or read book Directory of World Cinema Japan written by John Berra and published by Intellect Books. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the revered classics of Akira Kurosawa to the modern marvels of Takeshi Kitano, the films that have emerged from Japan represent a national cinema that has gained worldwide admiration and appreciation. Directory of World Cinema: Japan provides an insight into the cinema of Japan through reviews of significant titles and case studies of leading directors, alongside explorations of the cultural and industrial origins of key genres. As the inaugural volume of an ambitious series from Intellect documenting world cinema, the directory aims to play a part in moving intelligent, scholarly criticism beyond the academy by building a forum for the study of film that relies on a disciplined theoretical base. It takes the form of an A–Z collection of reviews, longer essays and research resources, accompanied by fifty full-colour film stills highlighting significant films and players. The cinematic lineage of samurai warriors, yakuza enforcers and atomic monsters take their place alongside the politically charged works of the Japanese New Wave, making this a truly comprehensive volume.
Download or read book Directory of World Cinema American Independent written by John Berra and published by Intellect Books. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With high-profile Academy Award nominations and an increasing number of big-name actors eager to sign on to promising projects, independent films have been at the forefront in recent years like never before. But the roots of such critical and commercial successes as The Hurt Locker and Precious can be traced to the first boom of independent cinema in the 1960s, when a raft of talented filmmakers emergedto capture the attention of a rapidly growing audience of young viewers. A thorough overview of a thriving area of cultural life, Directory of World Cinema: American Independent chronicles the rise of the independent sector as an outlet for directors who challenge the status quo, yet still produce accessible feature films that not only find wide audiences but enjoy considerable box office appeal—without sacrificing critical legitimacy. Key directors are interviewed and profiled, and a sizeable selection of films are referenced and reviewed. More than a dozen sub-genres—including African American cinema, queer cinema, documentary, familial dysfunction, and exploitation—are individually considered, with an emphasis on their ability to engage with tensions inherent in American society. Copious illustrations and a range of research resources round out the volume, making this a truly comprehensive guide. At a time when independent films are enjoying considerable cultural cachet, this easy-to-use yet authoritative guide will find an eager audience in media historians, film studies scholars, and movie buffs alike.
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films written by Salvador Jiménez Murguía and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-07-29 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the horror genre has been embraced by filmmakers around the world, Japan has been one of the most prolific and successful purveyors of such films. From science fiction terrors of the 1950s like Godzilla toviolentfilms like Suicide Circle and Ichi the Killer, Japanese horror film has a diverse history. While the quality of some of these films has varied, others have been major hits in Japan and beyond, frightening moviegoers around the globe. Many of these films—such as the Ringu movies—have influenced other horror productions in both Asia and the United States. The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films covers virtually every horror film made in Japan from the past century to date. In addition to major and modest productions, this encyclopedia also features entries on notable directors, producers, and actors. Each film entry includes comprehensive details, situates the film in the context and history of Japanese horror cinema, and provides brief suggestions for further reading. Although emphasizing horror as a general theme, this encyclopedia also encompasses other genres that are associated with this theme, including Comedy Horror, Science Fiction Horror, Cyber-punk Horror, Ero Guru (Erotic Grotesque), and Anime Horror. The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films is a comprehensive reference volume that will appeal to both cinema scholars as well as to the many fans of this popular genre.
Download or read book Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies written by Abé Markus Nornes and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies provides a snapshot of all the archival and bibliographic resources available to students and scholars of Japanese cinema. Among the nations of the world, Japan has enjoyed an impressively lively print culture related to cinema. The first film books and periodicals appeared shortly after the birth of cinema, proliferating wildly in the 1910s with only the slightest pause in the dark days of World War II. The numbers of publications match the enormous scale of film production, but with the lack of support for film studies in Japan, much of it remains as uncharted territory, with few maps to negotiate the maze of material. This book is the first comprehensive guide ever published for approaching the complex archive for Japanese cinema. It lists all the libraries and film archives in the world with significant collections of film prints, still photographs, archival records, books, and periodicals. It provides a full annotated bibliography of the core books and magazines for the field. And it supplies hints for how to find and access materials for any research project. Above and beyond that, Nornes and Gerow’s Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies constitutes a comprehensive overview of the impressive dimensions and depth of the print culture surrounding Japanese film, and a guideline for future research in the field. This is an essential book for anyone seriously thinking about Japan and its cinema.
Download or read book The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov written by Jeremi Szaniawski and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the last representatives of a brand of serious, high-art cinema, Alexander Sokurov has produced a massive oeuvre exploring issues such as history, power, memory, kinship, death, the human soul, and the responsibility of the artist. Through contextualization and close readings of each of his feature fiction films (broaching many of his documentaries in the process), this volume unearths a vision of Sokurov's films as equally mournful and passionate, intellectual, and sensual, and also identifies in them a powerful, if discursively repressed, queer sensitivity, alongside a pattern of tensions and paradoxes. This book thus offers new keys to understand the lasting and ever-renewed appeal of the Russian director's Janus-like and surprisingly dynamic cinema – a deeply original and complex body of work in dialogue with the past, the present and the future.
Download or read book The Atomic Bomb in Japanese Cinema written by Matthew Edwards and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-07-03 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventy years after the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan is still dealing with the effects of the bombings on the national psyche. From the Occupation Period to the present, Japanese cinema had offered a means of coming to terms with one of the most controversial events of the 20th century. From the monster movies Gojira (1954) and Mothra (1961) to experimental works like Go Shibata's NN-891102 (1999), atomic bomb imagery features in all genres of Japanese film. This collection of new essays explores the cultural aftermath of the bombings and its expression in Japanese cinema. The contributors take on a number of complex issues, including the suffering of the survivors (hibakusha), the fear of future holocausts and the danger of nuclear warfare. Exclusive interviews with Go Shibata and critically acclaimed directors Roger Spottiswoode (Hiroshima) and Steven Okazaki (White Light/Black Rain) are included.
Download or read book My Life as a Filmmaker written by Satsuo Yamamoto and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2017-01-03 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting autobiography of Yamamoto Satsuo (1910-83), one of the most important and critically acclaimed postwar Japanese film directors
Download or read book The Complete Anime Guide written by Trish Ledoux and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The one-stop reference to Japanese animation. Everything you ever wanted to know about anime in America: More than 1,200 home video titles (an alphabetical listing of ever domestic anime home video available during 1996, including video sleeve reproduction, program synopsis, production credits, technical notes and content advisory; Television series (a review of most of the Japanese animated TV series broadcast in the U.S., including synopsis, cast of characters and production credits; Anime suppliers; Fan Resources; Anime genres:
Download or read book The Oxford History of World Cinema written by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 847 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring nearly three thousand film stills, production shots, and other illustrations, an authoritative history of the cinema traces the development of the medium, its filmmakers and stars, and the evolution of national cinemas around the world.
Download or read book Japanese Mythology in Film written by Yoshiko Okuyama and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-04-09 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cyborg detective hunts for a malfunctioning sex doll that turns itself into a killing machine. A Heian-era Taoist slays evil spirits with magic spells from yin-yang philosophy. A young mortician carefully prepares bodies for their journey to the afterlife. A teenage girl drinks a cup of life-giving sake, not knowing its irreversible transformative power. These are scenes from the visually enticing, spiritually eclectic media of Japanese movies and anime. The narratives of courageous heroes and heroines and the myths and legends of deities and their abodes are not just recurring motifs of the cinematic fantasy world. They are pop culture’s representations of sacred subtexts in Japan. Japanese Mythology in Film takes a semiotic approach to uncovering such religious and folkloric tropes and subtexts embedded in popular Japanese movies and anime. Part I introduces film semiotics with plain definitions of terminology. Through familiar cinematic examples, it emphasizes the myth-making nature of modern-day film and argues that semiotics can be used as a theoretical tool for reading film. Part II presents case studies of eight popular Japanese films as models of semiotic analysis. While discussing each film’s use of common mythological motifs such as death and rebirth, its case study also unveils more covert cultural signifiers and folktale motifs, including jizo (a savior of sentient beings) and kori (bewitching foxes and raccoon dogs), hidden in the Japanese filmic text.
Download or read book MR SMITH GOES TO TOKYO written by Kyōko Hirano and published by Smithsonian Books (DC). This book was released on 1992-09-17 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Japan s Green Monsters written by Sean Rhoads and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1954, a massive irradiated dinosaur emerged from Tokyo Bay and rained death and destruction on the Japanese capital. Since then Godzilla and other monsters, such as Mothra and Gamera, have gained cult status around the world. This book provides a new interpretation of these monsters, or kaiju-ū, and their respective movies. Analyzing Japanese history, society and film, the authors show the ways in which this monster cinema take on environmental and ecological issues--from nuclear power and industrial pollution to biodiversity and climate change.
Download or read book Directory of World Cinema Japan 3 written by John Berra and published by Intellect Books. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like its predecessors, Directory of World Cinema: Japan 3 endeavours to move scholarly criticism of Japanese film out of the academy and into the hands of cinephiles the world over. This volume will be warmly welcomed by those with an interest in Japanese cinema that extends beyond its established names to equally remarkable filmmakers who have yet to receive such rigorous attention.
Download or read book Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood s Merry Band of Pranksters Fabulists and Dreamers written by Derek Hill and published by Oldcastle Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late 1990s, a subversive element has been at work within the staid confines of the Hollywood dream factory. This new breed of American film captures the angst of its characters and the times in which we live. This title analyses and traces the origins of the pivotal films and directors in this war on the mundane.
Download or read book Imagination without Borders written by Laura Hein and published by U of M Center For Japanese Studies. This book was released on 2010-01-08 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tomiyama Taeko, a Japanese visual artist born in 1921, is changing the way World War II is remembered in Japan, Asia, and the world. Her work deals with complicated moral and emotional issues of empire and war responsibility that cannot be summed up in simple slogans, which makes it compelling for more than just its considerable beauty. Japanese today are still grappling with the effects of World War II, and, largely because of the inconsistent and ambivalent actions of the government, they are widely seen as resistant to accepting responsibility for their nation’s violent actions against others during the decades of colonialism and war. Yet some individuals, such as Tomiyama, have produced nuanced and reflective commentaries on those experiences, and on the difficulty of disentangling herself from the priorities of the nation despite her lifelong political dissent. Tomiyama’s sophisticated visual commentary on Japan’s history—and on the global history in which Asia is embedded—provides a compelling guide through the difficult terrain of modern historical remembrance, in a distinctively Japanese voice.
Download or read book Brushed in Light written by Abé Markus Nornes and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2021-02-22 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a millennia of calligraphy theory and history, Brushed in Light examines how the brushed word appears in films and in film cultures of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and PRC cinemas. This includes silent era intertitles, subtitles, title frames, letters, graffiti, end titles, and props. Markus Nornes also looks at the role of calligraphy in film culture at large, from gifts to correspondence to advertising. The book begins with a historical dimension, tracking how calligraphy is initially used in early cinema and how it is continually rearticulated by transforming conventions and the integration of new technologies. These chapters ask how calligraphy creates new meaning in cinema and demonstrate how calligraphy, cinematography, and acting work together in a single film. The last part of the book moves to other regions of theory. Nornes explores the cinematization of the handwritten word and explores how calligraphers understand their own work.
Download or read book The Art and Science of Computer Animation written by Stuart Mealing and published by Intellect (UK). This book was released on 1992 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing an overview of computer animation, from basic principles to more esoteric developments such as virtual reality and parametric modelling, this book is intentionally broad in scope and illuminated by many diagrams and illustrations. This book communicates teh excitement shared by those who work in this field to those who seek a comprehensive introduction.
