A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to DVDs and Videos [Paperback]

Donald Richie (Author), Paul Schrader (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2005

The authoritative guide to Japanese film, completely revised and updated.

Now available in paperback for the first time, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film by Donald Richie, the foremost Western expert on Japanese film, gives us an incisive, detailed, and fully illustrated history of the country's cinema.

Called "the dean of Japan's arts critics" by Time magazine, Richie takes us from the inception of Japanese cinema at the end of the nineteenth century, through the achievements of Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu, then on to the notable works of contemporary filmmakers. This revised edition includes analyses of the latest trends in Japanese cinema, such as the revival of the horror genre, and introduces today's up-and-coming directors and their works.

As Paul Schrader writes in his perceptive foreword, Richie's accounting of the Japanese film "retains his sensitivity to the actual circumstances of film production (something filmmakers know very well but historians often overlook) . . . and shows the interweave of filmmaking-the contributions of directors, writers, cinematographers, actors, musicians, art directors, as well as financiers."

Of primary interest to those who would like to watch the works introduced in these pages, Richie has provided capsule reviews of the major subtitled Japanese films commercially available in DVD and VHS formats. This guide has been updated to include not only the best new movie releases, but also classic films available in these formats for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Widely considered the leading Western authority on Japan, Richie has a particular affinity for the nation's films, as is evident on every page of this authoritative survey. He emphasizes the collaborative nature of film, which is particularly appropriate since in Japanese culture the collective usually trumps the individual, and shows how Japanese cinema largely eschewed realism and narrative until it fell under Western influence. The section on the silent era, when live narrators, benshi, described films' stories to audiences, is particularly revelatory, since 90 percent of pre-1945 Japanese films haven't survived. Richie comments insightfully on the acknowledged masters-- Mizoguchi, Ozu, and Kurosawa--and also on other notable directors who are virtually unknown to even the most avid American cineasts. He finds less to praise about contemporary filmmakers, whose flashier, Westernized approach seems less to his liking. The impressive amount of information on films renowned and obscure and Richie's enthusiasm and critical acumen make this essential for film studies collections. Brief reviews of about 200 films, with notations on video availability, top things off nicely. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"What Boswell was to Johnson, what Gibbon was to ancient Rome, Donald Richie is to the Japanese cinema." -Premiere Magazine

"[An] essential study."-The New York Times, "Arts and Leisure"

"The guide to DVDs and videos includes the names of the principals and capsule-summaries of the films and it alone worth the price of the book. A Hundred Years of Japanese Film is both illuminating and thought-provoking." -The Bloomsbury Review

"Richie's sense of both future and past remains as sharp as ever." -Film Comment

"Donald Richie is the leading U.S. authority on Japanese film." -American Cinematographer

"Donald Richie, whom we may call the 'Emperor' of Japanese film history, has done it again! This is probably the best, extensive 'digest' on all aspects of Japanese cinema to be available today in English." -Cinemaya

"Superb." -In These Times

"A concise, beautifully realized guide to the expansive history of Japanese film." -A Magazine: Inside Asian America

"Richie's expertise is hard to miss; surely he overlooks no aspect of these films." -Library Journal

"The impressive amount of information ... and Richie's enthusiasm and critical acumen make this essential for film studies and collections." -Booklist

"Richie's awareness of various film theories and criticism and his sensitivity to historical specificity and to new trends in Japanese film make this book an extremely inspiring one." -Persimmon

"A new book by Richie is always a welcome event ... He writes with an insider's view of Japanese culture. ...Both funny and refreshingly critical. He is the perfect guide to little-known styles, directors, and studios of his adopted land... For all collections." -Choice

"Monumental. Tracing the roots of Japanese film while exploring artistic and industrial intricacies of the business, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film is encyclopedic and laced with wonderful insights." -Tucson Weekly

"Richie's journey through a century of Japanese cinema is designed to fascinate. Like a master tour guide, he uses his encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese art, theater and history to show us how and why this national cinema is so fundamentally different from others." -Pacific Reader

"A Hundred Years of Japanese Film is a well-informed, insightful, and accessible (not loaded down with jargon) product of a lifetime devoted to the study and appreciation of his subject." -Hawai'i Herald

"For a scholarly, thoughtful, in-depth analysis on just about every classic Japanese movie, as well as a meaningful overview about the genre as a whole, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film is clearly and justifiably the principle reference to consult!" -Midwest Book Review

"...Through classic works by Akira Kurosawa, Shimizu Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi, and into modern day films by Takeshi Kitano, Hirokazu Kore'eda and Hayao Miyazaki. A selective guide for film aficionados of all ages." -Rafu Shimpo

"A gorgeous book, written out of love by an obsessive film fan, and its only potential drawback is that it's likely to convert readers into equally obsessive fans." -Bookreporter.com

"A fitting coda to a lifetime of work from a writer who, to no small degree, helped to save the Japanese cinema from what might have easily been one hundred years of obscurity." -Japan Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA; 2 Rev Upd edition (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770029950
• ISBN-13: 978-4770029959
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The single most important book on Japanese film, November 14, 2004

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to Videos and DVDs (Hardcover)

More than just a chronological history of Japanese movie making, "A Hundred Years of Japanese Film" tells the tale of Japanese storytelling evolution, how the language of cinema evolved in Japan over the years and what the differences are, both overt and nuanced, between Western and Japanese film making traditions. The motion picture camera in the West was seen as an extension of photography, and thus naturalism was the implied goal. In Japan, the camera was thought of as an extension of theater. The first films were recorded versions of Kabuki plays, with men playing all the roles including the women, a tradition that carried on for a surprisingly long time in Japanese films. In this style, representationalism is considered more important than any attempt at "realism."

These roots can still be seen today, as many Western viewers are confused at the artificial nature of Japanese acting and film making. Richie explores this, as well as other uniquely Japanese film innovations such as the benshi, or silent film narrator, and how this affects modern films with their propensity for voice-over narrations explaining the plot.

But this is only the beginning. Richie takes us on a journey through the Japanese film, intermixed with the vast social upheavals of the Taisho period, the rise and fall of the WWII fervor, the post-war depression of spirit, and the constant battle between Western and Japanese influences on modern cinema, as well as the strange marriage between the two seen in film makers such as Kurosawa Akira, Kitano Takeshi and Miike Takeshi.

While there is an overview of almost every Japanese director, more time is spent exploring the visions of Mizoguchi Ken, Ozu Yasujiro, Kurosawa Akira, Itami Juzo ("Tampopo"), Oshima Nagisa ("In the Realm of the Senses") as well as other directors of note. Although there are not enough pages for a deep exploration, Richie shows how each of these milestone directors changed Japanese film in their own ways, and why they are important overall.

The single flaw in "A Hundred Years of Japanese Film" is that Richie seems to have a blind spot for Japanese animated films, and such powerhouse directors such as Miyazaki Hayao do not get the attention they deserve, but are instead lumped into a final chapter on animation. It seems that such directors should be considered in the overall chronology, rather than as a separate category, but this is not how they are portrayed.

But this is a minor complaint in what is an amazing book. For a text of this type, it is very easy to read and captivating. Richie's writing style keeps your interest over some of the most minor periods of film, and sparks your interest in some directors that you may never have heard of. In fact, the danger of "A Hundred Years of Japanese Film" lies in that soon you will find yourself on a desperate quest to hunt down and view some of the rare and tantalizing films described by Richie that fall out of the what may be at the local video store.

I have been a fan of Japanese films for many years, but until reading "A Hundred Years of Japanese Film" I cannot be said to have been an educated fan. The insights in this book have geometrically increased my appreciation of Japanese film, and revisiting old favorites is like seeing them with new eyes.

54 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but..., November 23, 2002

By 

O. Coombes - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to Videos and DVDs (Hardcover)

Make it past the cover - half a century of cinemagoing to his name, and Richie chooses the second-rate 'Gohatto'! - and most of what follows is highly recommended. But on page 246 Richie turns his attention to anime (Japanese animation), and soon finds space for the reactionary opinions of critic Kenji Sato (who bemoans "the thin, insubstantial reality of animation", dismissing everything from Starewicz to 'The Simpsons' in a half-dozen words) as well as several mistakes: Hayao Miyazaki's 'Princess Mononoke' is set in the Muromachi period (1392-1573), not "pre-history" (p.277); its American release was in 1999, not 2000 (p.251); and the original comic-book version of Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Akira' runs to six volumes, not four (p.250).

(Out of respect, I won't list the book's spelling errors. Suffice to say that they are there, as is a whopping historical blooper: I was in Japan when the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult nerve-gassed the Tokyo subway, and it wasn't in 1994!)

Understand that I'm not a fan of anime - most of it is cheap and/or nasty (though no more insubstantial than the average Hollywood blockbuster) - I'm a fan of Miyazaki, whose films are as superior to 'Pocket Monsters' as '2001: A Space Odyssey' is to 'The Adventures of Pluto Nash'. He is one of the most acclaimed directors in Japan today, not to mention the most popular. Richie does not have to be happy about this; he could at least acknowledge it. (According to the index, Miyazaki's latest masterpiece, the award-winning 'Spirited Away', is mentioned on p.251 - but turn to this page and there's nothing!)

Five out of five for the first 245 pages, minus one star for what's after that (from this point on it's the book that's thin and insubstantial, not animation) and another for shockingly sloppy proofreading.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too superficial, June 22, 2007

By 

wanda73 (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to DVDs and Videos (Paperback)

I've seen this book assigned as the basic text for top college courses on Japanese cinema, and seen it praised by Amazon reviewers. Much as I hate to write about books I didn't like, I must make an exception here for the sake of future buyers. This is not college-level material, and it's way below five stars. It is a 200-page plus list of names and titles put in narrative form, with a batch of overly concise plot summaries at the back. None of the authors, works or topics mentioned ever gets more than a few lines of attention. You will be lucky to find a full paragraph on anything that you find interesting. Surprisingly for a history of cinema, the book gives no in-depth analyses of individual works or filmmakers' styles, makes no mention of the institutional developments in the filmmaking industry, and fails to position works within contemporary aesthetic movements or intellectual debates. In a word, this book is too superficial to be of any use.

As others noted, there are some perceptive observations scattered here and there, but these only serve to show how much better this author could have done, had he conceived this as something a little more substantial. The thing is, as far as I know there isn't a solid history of Japanese cinema in English around, and we have to make do with what is available.

Edit: I stand corrected. There IS a new history of Japanese cinema in English in print: Isolde Standish, A New History of Japanese Cinema.