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Alexander Jacoby

Donald Richie

A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day Paperback – Illustrated, October 1, 2008

by Alexander Jacoby (Author), Donald Richie (Foreword)

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This important work fills the need for a reasonably priced yet comprehensive volume on major directors in the history of Japanese film. With clear insight and without academic jargon, Jacoby examines the works of over 150 filmmakers to uncover what makes their films worth watching.

Included are artistic profiles of everyone from Yutaka Abe to Isao Yukisada, including masters like Kinji Fukasaku, Juzo Itami, Akira Kurosawa, Takashi Miike, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, and Yoji Yamada. Each entry includes a critical summary and filmography, making this book an essential reference and guide.

UK-based Alexander Jacoby is a writer and researcher on Japanese film.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Stone Bridge Press
Publication date

October 1, 2008
Dimensions

6.1 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches
ISBN-10

9781933330532
ISBN-13

978-1933330532
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Freelance writer and film critic. Graduate of Cambridge U (2000) with M.Phil. in Renaissance Lit. Employed at BBC Broadcast (Red Bee Media, Ltd). In Japan 2002-2005. Continues to publish essays and reviews on Japanese film in magazines and film journals. Donald Richie has been writing about Japan for over 50 years from his base in Tokyo and is the author of over 40 books and hundreds of essays and reviews. He is widely admired for his incisive film studies on Ozu and Kurosawa, and for his stylish and incisive observations on Japanese culture.

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1933330538
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Stone Bridge Press; Illustrated edition (October 1, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781933330532
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1933330532
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,228,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,413 in Catalogs & Directories (Books)
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- #2,871 in Movie Direction & Production

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William Flanigan

Definitive (Or Pretty Darn Close)!

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2014

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If you are a Japanese film enthusiast (or just have a casual interest in films from Japan), you will want to have this hard-copy guide close on-hand. To make sense of the Japanese cinema past and present (circa 2008 - the date of publication). The text is written in plain language for the general reader. It is a far cry from the essentially unintelligible volumes out there written by academic film scholars. Contents also include a substantial glossary of terminology, a historical overview of releasing studios, and a description of each Japanese cultural period addressed by currently-known Japanese films (starting with the Nara period, circa year 700). There are, however, some issues to be raised, one minor and a few more than minor. The index is substantial, but does not list films by generally-accepted translated titles in English. More irritating, films listed in the text for each director are cited first by their Japanese title (in romaji, thankfully) and then by their English translated title. This makes sense, since English title translations can vary. However and on balance, it does not make sense, since the readers of this handbook are likely to have English as their primary language. Further, film titles (in either Japanese romaji or English) are not listed alphabetically across years or within years. This makes the reader work harder than necessary to get at information of interest. Bottom line: Consolidated, comprehensive, invaluable, and in print. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

3 people found this helpful

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Jessica Amanda SalmonsonTop Contributor: Cooking

Nicely Done

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2014

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Now that quite a good selection Japanese silent films are actually available on dvd, it's nice to have a book about them that doesn't just make me think "Damn, I wish I could see that one!" -- because I can!

One person found this helpful

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Little Roy Blue

A very useful book; comprehensive and cool

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2011

This is an excellent reference work for anyone who has even a passing interest in Japanese cinema. Jacoby structures the book well, proceeding through all of the major Japanese directors (and many minor ones) in alphabetical order. For each director's entry, he provides a broad career overview - offering his own opinions of the major films - then includes a filmography. While I don't agree with absolutely all of his statements, his opinions are always interesting to read and well-informed, and it's nice to get a fresh (to me) perspective on such classic Japanese filmmakers as Kobayashi, Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi...

Another striking thing about this book is that Jacoby isn't snobby about which directors he includes. So he has "classical" directors like Mizoguchi in here, and also genre directors like Ishiro Honda of "Godzilla" fame and Takashi Miike. His willingness to cover drama, horror, science fiction, and gangster films in a single volume makes him more open-minded than most other aficionados of Japanese cinema, who tend to limit themselves to one or two genres. (Indeed, rare is the critic who enjoys both Tokyo Story and The Mysterians, as I do.) Another highlight is that Jacoby includes some useful appendices, such as an overview of the major Japanese film studios and a list of historical eras in Japan (handy for figuring out when all these samurai movies are supposed to take place).

Of course, since the book covers a lot of ground, Jacoby doesn't delve too deeply into any one director's work. Even "big guns" like Ozu and Kurosawa have short entries; and while Jacoby has room to challenge some common theories about Ozu, he doesn't have quite enough room to properly develop his counter-theories. Also, like most handbooks, this can get a little dry if you try to read it all in one go; I prefer to sample individual entries whenever I feel like it.

Overall, this is good stuff, and I look forward to using this book to track down the more obscure classics of Japanese cinema. As a pointless aside, many of the movies covered in this book have very amusing titles (in translation), on the order of: "Ninja Mountain Attack Saga: Duel by Autumn Moonlight!" Just thought I'd mention that, because it gave me a few chuckles.

13 people found this helpful

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Johan Nordstrom

Jacoby brilliantly introduces both the canonical and famous as well as ...

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2018

Absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in Japanese cinema.
Jacoby brilliantly introduces both the canonical and famous as well as lesser-known directors, with complete filmographies.
This is a book you will return to time and again.

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Top reviews from other countries

GVC

Crucial- if you love Japanese Cinema!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2015

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Apart from Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Akira Kurosawa, all of whom have had nearly their entire film canon released outside of Japan, there are all those other masterful directors like Naruse who have had only a handful of their films released or publicised for us to know about . Quite often too, someone will be know for a great film or two (think Oshima or Ichikawa) but we remain in ignorance of what else in their work is worth seeking out. Granted a quick search on the web will tell us a lot, but really what was needed was to have that sort of information at hand's reach in book form. Alexander Jacoby's book is exactly the sort of book I had hope existed. Not sure, given it's 2008 copyright, how I remained ignorant of it for so long! It is comprehensive and yet remains a compact paperback. About a 100 directors are included, with an essay on their career followed by an extensive filmography. This latter feature is a godsend. And the essays while necessarily brief are thorough.

For example, everything one needed to know about the criminally overlooked Hiroshi Shimizu (Ozu's friend and contemporary) is contained in 2 and 1/2 pages followed by 3 full pages of his extensive list of films from 1924 to 1959, all with their year of make, Japanese title and it's English title. Naruse has a 3 page essay followed by a page and half of his filmography but even here you realise how little of it is made available to us on DVD or Blu Ray. And best of all, this book introduces you to the work of great directors you were in complete ignorance of. For example, just from the introduction I was alerted to the work of Kozabura Yoshimura (a contemporary of Mizoguchi's) and work of newer directors now working like Tomoyuki Furumaya and Hashiguchi Ryosuke. This is altogether a
marvellous modest- sized brilliant primer. Japanese film fans- don't hesitate for a second!

2 people found this helpful

Bob Quaif

An exemplary overview!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2009

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Japanese cinema, from the silent era to the present day, is one of the world's richest film cultures, largely because it can boast a remarkable number of directors each of whom has produced a body of work that is distinctive both in its personal concerns/recurring themes and in displaying a unique visual style. One can debate which of these artists deserve to be recognised as "creators of genius" or "minor but talented" or "ambitious but problematic" etc.; the important thing is to establish that they are all worthy of attention. After an opening chapter that outlines with laudable clarity the effects of socio-cultural and economic trends in Japanese history upon its film industry, Alexander Jacoby profiles the work of no less than 156 directors, offering succinct, vivid accounts of their careers. He has clearly viewed thousands of Japanese films, but where prints of potentially key works are lost or inaccessible, he provides intelligent, cogent assessments based on contemporary or more recent crtitical sources. Whether your interest in Japanese cinema is deep-rooted or passing, this book is essential reading.

6 people found this helpful

Mark Pack

A great comprehensive guide

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2015

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A great comprehensive guide, with plenty of information, clearly laid out and in enough detail to provide even an existing film buff with plenty of information.

One person found this helpful

RK, Germany

Good entry for anyone interested in Japanese cinema

Reviewed in Germany on October 27, 2020

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Though not comprehensive, this is a good entry for anyone interested in Japanese cinema. After a brief introduction to national film history (a bit too short in parts as it e.g. doesn't mention that, way before the "New Wave", already the late 1940's/early 1950's saw the formation of new and independent studios and production companies as a result of political turmoil of the era), Jacoby introduces a variety of directors, both household and lesser known names, on 1–4 pages each with a short essay highlighting important works plus complete filmographies. While I couldn't follow Jacoby's decision to omit directors like Hideo Sekigawa (Hiroshima, Listen to the Voices of the Sea) or Sion Sono, who by 2008 (the date of 1st publication) had already directed a handful of important films, yet include a commercial director like Ryuhei Kitamura, I'd still recommend this as a guide for beginners and starting point of a library on the subject. Addendum: an index of film titles would have come handy, as not everyone (including me) always remembers the director's name of a film you want to look up.

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