Japanese Cinema: An Introduction (Images of Asia) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "THE latter half of the nineteenth century was, in Japan even more than elsewhere, an era of expansion..." (more)
Key Phrases: national policy films, period films, film style, Ozu Yasujiro, Ito Daisuke, Bando Tsumasaburo (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This brief and lively book covers the whole of Japanese film history, from the silent period to the present day. In it, Ritchie teaches as much about Japanese cultural obsessions as he does the cinema, showing how significantly the former influenced the unique power of the latter. Here is a candid and revealing view of the medium, written by the Japanese cinema's most important Western critic.

Review

"Richie...here provides in this intelligent and concisely written little hardback just the sort of useful information about Japanese cultural conventions and filmmaking theories that should, with a bit of reflection, help Western audiences begin to "see" Japanese films almost as clearly as the Japanese themselves."--Emipire
"Japanese Cinema fits perfectly into an undergraduate class syllabus."--Linda Ehrlich, Univ. of Tennessee

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 116 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 19, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195849507
• ISBN-13: 978-0195849509
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,532,939 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Brief, though very academic, December 23, 1999

By A Customer

A very cursorary introduction to Japanese cinema, this focusses more on its origins. Most of the films featured are pre-1950, and very little is written about the Nikkatsu studios, or the Godzilla movies or less respectable 'genre films'. Instead this is useful as an introduction to serious film students , but it is hampered by its academic bias towards 'culturally important' film makers such as Ozu and Mizugochi, and is a little dry. For its size.