Japanese Cinema after World War Two
Professor David Martin-Jones, University of Glasgow
Overview
Description
This playlist collates Japanese films, emphasising the post-World War Two era. Japanese cinema has an incredibly rich heritage. Often known for its great auteurs whose names travel internationally (Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Nagisa Oshima), Japanese cinema also includes the incredibly popular anime (e.g. the movies of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, such as Princess Mononoke), and numerous popular genres (samurai, yakuza, or monster movies, comedies, horror films, etc.). To watch Japanese cinema is to learn about the social and historical changes in Japan, often at the convergence of national and international (geo)politics: including the post-war reconstruction (a different phase in Japanese modernity under US occupancy), through to the economic crisis at the end of the 1980s, and onwards to the present day. The standout films of many decades explore such changes through a focus on the family, a microcosm which illuminates wider changes – from Late Spring (1949) to Tokyo Sonata (2008).
Subjects:
- Film studies
- History
- Japanese Studies
- East Asian Studies
Keywords:
Japan, auteur, genre, anime, yakuza, samurai, Studio Ghibli, family