Browse Hierarchy JPNS6001: Japanese Cinema and Modern History

The module focuses on the cinema of the long Showa Era (1926-1989), which incorporates the two acknowledged golden ages of the Japanese studio system in the 1930s and 1950s, and the emergence of independent filmmaking in the 1960s and 1970s. The works of acknowledged masters such as Kenji Mizoguchi and Nagisa Oshima, and lesser-known directors such as Hiroshi Shimizu and Shohei Imamura, will be analysed in the context of the turbulent history of Japan during the period in which they worked, including the Pacific war, the Occupation, and the postwar economic boom. The critical reception of Japanese films at home and abroad during this period will also be discussed.