Films from Japan: A Cultural Inquiry
Graduate Film Course
BY:
Objective: The objective of this course is to develop a comparative base consisting of at least three Japanese films screened during the quarter. A total of 11 films will be screened. Students will be asked to work alone and in groups in order to effectively cover different films from various points of view.
This course is open to all graduate students and to undergraduates with prior experience in film research and critiquing. Class participation in the way of discussions, presentations, and additional research is required. Therefore, attendance at all screenings and lectures is mandatory. (See Course Screening List below).
The course will focus on several primary issues about Japan and Japanese film. However, students are encouraged to think independently of other aspects as well. These primary issues are:
The professor will provide Readings for the class in the form of Xeroxed course packets. However, an Annotated Bibliography (see attached) contains a list of major readings that students might find helpful. In particular, Audie Bock's Japanese Film Directors, Donald Richie's Japanese Cinema: film style and national character, G.B. Sanson's Japan: A Short Cultural history, and Sato Tadao's Currents in Japanese Cinema are recommended readings. Additional readings relevant to students' projects will come from the students themselves during the course of the quarter work.
Course requirements:
In regards to the paper policy the class has two options two choose from.
Option 1: one or more students do research one week before their assigned screening focusing on the primary issues listed above. These students will make a short presentation at the beginning of that class as an introduction for the film. Students will be responsible for making a short write-up for the film as well as a list of sources they used. This manuscript will be copied and distributed to the class to help facilitate their own research.
Option 2: students will be placed into larger groups and assigned the same task as listed above. However, since more students are involved, the presentation will be given more weight. Students will be expected to conduct an entire class lecture between screenings. In addition, a combined paper write-up of the group will be due after their class presentation is made.
Pros and Cons of Options 1 and 2
Option 1: Students write two papers in addition to the short write up for their films. (Total no. of papers = 3.) Students can use the write ups to effectively research films they are interested in.
Option 2: Students write one paper as a group and a final paper on their own. (Total no. of papers = 2.) Students have less freedom in the group in researching their interests.
Final Grades and Course Evaluation:
Final grades will be based on class attendance and participation in discussions, group and/or individual research and paper work, mid-term exam grades. There is no final exam given in the class, however, final papers will be given more weight. (30% for Option 1 or 2; 25% Midterm; 45% Final Paper)
Course Screenings for Films from Japan: A Cultural Inquiry
Course by J. Cuasay
Note: Programme and catalog descriptions are included here to help students identify and recall each film. However, students may eventually find these descriptions inadequate and are encouraged to develop their own. The descriptions provide an ideal and easy way to begin discussions for each film.
This list does not reflect the order in which these films will be screened. Keep in mind that required work for this course is based on comparative studies of at least three films.
Autumn Moon/Quiyue
Dir. Clara Law
Hong Kong/ Japan, 1992. 108 mins.
A teenage Hong Kong girl confronting the first stirrings of love and a jaded young sexual adventurer become unlikely soul mates in Clara Law's delicate, deeply felt comedy. Austere yet warm, Law's contemplative film bridges the gap between the classical humanism of Ozu and the cool postmodernism of Jarmusch.(from The 30th New York Film Festival, 1992 programme.)
Ugetsu
Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Japan, 1953. 96 mins.
One of the most beautiful films of Kenji Mizoguchi, Ugetsu is the ghostly legend of two peasant neighbors who leave their families - one to become wealthy in the city, the other to become a samurai warrior. The film achieves a delicate balance between the mystical and the humanistic.(from Facet's Video Catalog #12)
Mother/Okasan
Dir. Mikio Naruse
Japan, 1953. 98 mins
Mikio Naruse's portrait of silent sacrifice and secret strength, the moving story of the Fukuhara family whose business is in ruins, and whose lives are filled with tragedy. But Naruse focuses on the resilience and determination, the inner moral strength of the Japanese during the post-war era, "a gripping image of a nation rising from the ashes."(from Facet's Video Catalog #12)
Himatsuri
Dir. Mitsuo Yanagimachi
Japan, 1984. 120 mins.
A sensual mysterious and harsh presentation of a small Japanese village's resistance to the encroachment of industrialization and Western ideas, Mitsuo Yanagimachi's film centers on one devoted, true believer's efforts to prevent construction of a kitschy theme park.(from Facet's Video Catalog #12)
Island
Dir. Kaneto Shindo
Japan, 1961. 96 mins.
Cinematic haiku. The entire story is told without dialog, but rather through visuals, sounds, and music. The camera follows a family living in one of Japan's small islands, recording their struggle to survive.(from Facet's Video Catalog #12)
Double Suicide
Dir. Masahiro Shinoda
Japan, 1969. 100 mins.
Faithful to bunraku puppet theatre tradition for which it was originally written. Shinoda's surrealist, overtly sexual and erotic film concerns Jihei, a merchant of paper products, who has neglected his business because of his relentless pursuit of Koharu, a prostitute. Despite efforts of both his wife and brother to help him, the business is failing, and a business rival wants to buy out his contract. Based on the play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon.(from Facet's Video Catalog #12)
Beijing Watermelon
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi
Japan, 1990. 135 mins.
A sharp-witted comedy about a Tokyo Grocer who becomes involved with a group of penniless Chinese Students with potentially disastrous results. Particularly sensitive to the special relationship between China and Japan, Obayashi demonstrates a keen sense of social satire that characterizes the best of recent Japanese cinema.(from New Yorker Films Catalog, 1995)
Family Game
Dir. Yoshimutsu Morita
Japan, 1983. 107 mins
Irreverent, surreal, unpredictable, Morita's film pokes fun at contemporary Japanese ideals - educational achievement, high technology, urban gentility, in the story of a Japanese teenager who has everything money can buy - except grades. Family hires Yoshimoto, a poor but cantankerous college student, whose influence on the family is a combination of Godzilla, Karl Marx and marine sergeant, waging class war on his natural enemies for the best possible incentive: profit.(from Facet's Video Catalog #12)
Muddy River
Dir. Kohei Oguri
Japan, 1981. 105 mins.
This finely drawn, poignant drama about childhood friendship and premature awakening to adult realities details the experiences of a boy growing up in an Osaka backwater in 1956. Oguri revives the great, and largely lost, art of shomin-geki (ordinary life) film with a compassion that recalls such masters of the form as Naruse and Ozu.(from New Yorker Films Catalog, 1995)
Kwaidan
Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
Japan, 1964. 161 mins
Four terrifying tales of the supernatural filmed with visual sensitivity. This is no Japanese monster movie. Rather it creeps up on you by appealing to human emotions and fears. An Academy Award nominee, this distinctive work is filled with graceful camera movements, unusual colors, haunting sound effects and music. (from Facet's Video Catalog #12)
Dreams
Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Japan, 1990. 120 mins.
From master director Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon, Kagemusha, Ran) comes perhaps his most personal film. Eight fascinating episodes dealing with war, childhood fears, the nuclear power question and man's never-ending need to harmonize with nature. Featuring breathtaking visual sequences and Martin Scorsese as Vincent Van Gogh.(from Facet's Video Catalog #12)