Theorising Japanese Cinema

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5
• Convenor: Dr Irene González-López
• Assessment: a 1500-word essay (30%), 2500-word essay (60%) and attendance, class participation, pre- and post-sessional activities (10%)

From silent cinema, Kurosawa’s samurai films and Ozu’s family dramas, to New Wave's depictions of youth, cyberpunk animation and Studio Ghibli, in this module we offer a critical introduction to Japanese cinema. In teaching you about key films, directors and genres of Japan, we encourage you to think critically about cinema as art, industry and ideology, while deepening your understanding of Japanese history and society.

In Theorising Japanese Cinema you will watch and discuss at least one Japanese film per week. Working also with academic readings, we introduce you to some key theoretical frameworks through which to analyse films, such as those of authorship and audience studies, representation of gender and ethnicity, genre conventions, transnational cinema, cinematic language and the avant-garde, and minoritised cinemas.

Films selected for this course are subtitled in English. There is no Japanese language requirement.

Indicative syllabus

• The transnational origins of Japanese cinema
• Kurosawa Akira and the trope of the samurai
• Authorship and the auteur: Ozu Yasujirō and the depiction of family
• (Female) Authorship: Tanaka Kinuyo and the depiction of female subjectivity
• Japanese New Wave: youth, politics and cinematic language
• J-horror and global cinema
• Japanese animation: from Akira’s cyberpunk dystopia to Studio Ghibli’s fantasy worlds
• Zainichi cinema and the representation of 'otherness'