Customer Reviews

Currents in Japanese Cinema

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There is a great deal of discussion these days about the inadequacy of Western critics treating non-Western materials, but it is deucedly difficult to find indigenous criticism in translation. The essays of Tadao Sato, one of Japan's important film critics, are thus extremely valuable for students and teachers of the subject. Sato's work is provocative, readable, and full of insight. He gives us a sense about how Japanese cinema speaks to the extraordinary crises and transitions that have affected the nation's people and culture during the past century. He treats not only art films but also talks about currents in popular cinema. He is not as exhaustive as Richie, but his overview is, perhaps for this reason, more coherent. He analyzes technical aspects of cinema and discusses the importance of actors and actresses as well as explores thematic aspects of Japanese film. He is, as translator and editor Barrett points out, "anti-feudalistic," so he gives less attention to the period films of Kurosawa than Western critics do. To compensate, however, he provides extremely valuable insight into the more "Japanese" domestic dramas of Ozu and Naruse. An essay on the impact of Western cinema on Japanese cinema gives a concise picture of cross-cultural influences. His essays on "Developments in the 60s" and "Developments in the 70s" demonstrate connections between "art" cinema and popular cinema. He does not consider anime, sci-fi genres, or more recent cinema in this collection. The book includes a useful chronology of developments in Japanese cinema through 1981. Barrett's essay on Sato creates important context for Sato's work.

If you want to learn about Japanese cinema, I'd suggest one of two books: Donald Richie's "A Hundred Years of Japanese Film" and Tadao Sato's "Currents In Japanese Cinema". The difference: although Richie's work is actually very complete, compared to Satos's book, Richie's is almost "for dummies". I explain: Sato's "Currents" is not just an inventory of Japanese directors, films, synopsis and opinions, but also a first hand approach to the historic and cultural context and implications of those directors and films. Both are useful maps, but Sato's resembles more the territory.

Now, it doesn't cover the last 20 or 25 years, because, strangely enough, it hasn't been reprinted since the 80s. So, I actually bought a second hand copy from a very good seller, and although he said it had some minor wear, the book is in incredible shape after more than two decades: No underlines, no marks, no missing pages. More than enough for my 10 bucks.

It's a pity that this book is now out-of-print and only available from booksellers specializing in used books, because this is one of the essential works of criticism about the Japanese cinema. Sato is one of the finest critics to come from Japan; his very incisive comments are always thought-provoking and illuminating. As with all fine critics, he has his own perspective, and this can account for some very idiosyncratic views on certain films, but he's also powerful about the social contexts from which these films come. In this translation, the book is quite easy to read; in all, an excellent book for anyone interested in Japanese film.

First published in the 1980s, Tadao Sato's CURRENTS IN JAPANESE CINEMA was always an indespensible rarity - a comprehensive collection of writing on Japanese film NOT written by a Westerner. This was one of my first guides to Japanese film, and it definitely stoked my interest; this book has gotten rather hard to come by, which is very unfortunate, as Japanese film seems to have gone through an enthusiastic rediscovery in recent years.

Like any great critic, Sato balances opinionated writing with accessibility; his own background - a working-class fan-turned-journalist who ultimately became one of the foremost scholars on Japanese film - gives his writing a directness that is refreshing. Certain of his opinions and assessments can be debated; in that the man is doing his job engagingly well.

This collection is presented as an introductory work for non-Japanese readers; a bit of early Japanese cinematic history is related, but the bulk of the book focuses on major figures (Ozu, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Naruse, Oshima, Suzuki and Kobayashi all get some examination), with a few thematically oriented chapters as well (yakuza, period films, war films, etc), and a brief look at developments in the 1970s.

Any fan of Japanese film would do well to look for this.

-David Alston