Introduction to Japanese Film, Media, and Visual Culture (224-0-20)

Topic

Japanese Cinema I

Instructors

Alex Jania

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-425: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

AY26-27. This course offers a history of Japanese cinema from its earliest days through the so-called "Golden Age" of the 1950s. We will consider how film, animation, and other moving image technologies have reflected historical moments and shaped cultural discourses in modern Japan. Focusing on films that raise disciplinary questions related to the cinematic medium, Japan, and history, we will examine, among other topics, the era of silent cinema; the relationship between nationhood and the formation of a "national" cinema; technological transformations and the coming of sound; the wartime period; cinema during the occupation; and 1950s modernism. This overview will engage with several genres, from avant garde, to middle class movies, melodrama, period pieces, kaijū and others. We will also study the place of important individual directors - Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa - within the broader economic and institutional contexts of Japanese cinema and its global circulation. Students will learn how to critically analyze the filmic medium from multiple theoretical perspectives while gaining an understanding of the major figures and movements in the history of Japanese cinema.

Learning Objectives

How to critically analyze the filmic medium from multiple theoretical perspectives
To identify the major figures and movements of Japanese cinema.
How to interpret Japanese films as products of and commentary on particular moments in Japanese and global history.

Teaching Method

Film Screenings, Lectures, and Discussion

Evaluation Method

Class Participation 25%
Looking at Movies Quizzes 15%
3 Short Essays (3-4 pages) 60% (20% each)

Class Materials (Required)

All readings are available on Canvas as individual files.
All films will be screened in class and can be streamed through Canvas

Class Materials (Suggested)

Christopher Goto Jones, Modern Japan: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2009)
Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing About Film (New York: Longman, 8th Ed. 2012).
Thompson, Kristen and David Bordwell. Film Art: An Introduction (any edition)
Yale Film Analysis Website: http://filmanalysis.yctl.org

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
SoC Humanities and Fine Arts Distro
SoC Individual and Social Behavior Distro