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

~ (Author), Paul Schrader (Foreword) "Film began in Japan, as in most countries, during the last few years of the nineteenth century..." (more)
Key Phrases: new jidaigeki, yakuza film, dialogue titles, Kurosawa Akira, Mizoguchi Kenji, World War (more...)
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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 the Hardcover edition.


Review

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

"Essential. Detailed. Invaluable. If only there was something like this in every national industry." -- Empire Magazine (UK)

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

"So elegant is the prose, so striking are the insights, . . . it holds one rapt from first page to last." -- David Cozy, Asahi Shimbun

"Superb." -- In These Times

"This is probably the best, extensive 'digest' on all aspects of Japanese cinema ... available today in English." Max Tessier, Cinemaya -- Max Tessier, Cinemaya

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

  • Paperback: 319 pages
  • Publisher: Kodansha International; 2 Rev Upd edition (August 1, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 4770029950
  • ISBN-13: 978-4770029959
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #343,001 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Donald Richie
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Film began in Japan, as in most countries, during the last few years of the nineteenth century. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
new jidaigeki, yakuza film, dialogue titles, debut film, younger director
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Kurosawa Akira, Mizoguchi Kenji, World War, Kinoshita Keisuke, Ichikawa Kon, Mifune Toshiro, Tanaka Kinuyo, Oshima Nagisa, Ozu Yasujiro, Home Vision Entertainment, Ito Daisuke, Kitano Takeshi, Imamura Shohei, Mori Masayuki, Naruse Mikio, Shimizu Hiroshi, Hong Kong, Shindo Kaneto, Yamada Isuzu, Kyo Machiko, New Yorker Films, Hara Setsuko, Hashimoto Shinobu, Imai Tadashi, Kagawa Kyoko
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51 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but..., November 23, 2002
By Oliver Coombes (Hiroshima, Japan) - See all my reviews
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.

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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The single most important book on Japanese film, November 14, 2004
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.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A richly detailed history of great Japanese films, April 11, 2002
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to Videos and DVDs (Hardcover)
Written by Donald Richie (who was cited as "the dean of Japan's art critics" by Time magazine), A Hundred Years Of Japanese Film: A Concise History, With A Selective Guide To Videos And DVDs is a selective yet richly detailed history of great Japanese films, generously illustrated with black-and-white photographs. A Hundred Years of Japanese Film focuses primarily on live-action movies, with only a brief look at Japanese documentaries and animated movies. 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!
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