LibGuides: Japanese Cinema: Home

Highlights of Japanese Cinema

Seven Samurai by Kurosawa, Akira
Call Number: SEVE

Publication Date: 1954

Named as one of the favourite films of both Martin Scorsese and Andrei Tarkovsky
Tokyo Story by Ozu, Yasujiro
Call Number: TOKY

Publication Date: 1953

""Tokyo Story" (1953) lacks sentimental triggers and contrived emotion; it looks away from moments a lesser movie would have exploited. It doesn't want to force our emotions, but to share its understanding. It does this so well that I am near tears in the last 30 minutes. It ennobles the cinema. It says, yes, a movie can help us make small steps against our imperfections." - Roger Ebert
Godzilla by Hondo, Ishiro
Call Number: GODZ/1954

Publication Date: 1954

One of Akira Kurosawa's favourite films and the pioneering film of the kaiju genre
Ghost in the Shell by Oshii, Mamoru
Call Number: GHOS/1995

Publication Date: 1995

"[A] stunning work of speculative fiction . . . the first to reach a level of literary excellence." - James Cameron
Ugetsu by Mizoguchi, Kenji
Call Number: UGET

Publication Date: 1953

Won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, 1953
Akira by Otomo, Katsuhiro
Call Number: AKIR

Publication Date: 1988

"Akira" is not a long cartoon, but an ambitious animated feature that can be seen as a parable of scientific responsibility and cosmic rebirth, or just an action-packed serial. Or it can be seen as a visceral example of the future of animation." - Richard Harrington, The Washington Post
Shoplifters by Kore-eda, Hirokazu
Call Number: SHOP

Publication Date: 2018

Winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, 2018
Spirited Away by Miyazaki, Hayao
Call Number: SPIR

Publication Date: 2001

Winner of Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards
Perfect Blue by Kon, Satoshi
Call Number: PERF

Publication Date: 1997

""Perfect Blue" manages, through animation, to take the thriller, media fascination, psychological insight and pop culture and stand them all on their heads." - Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle
Battle Royale by Fukasaku, Kinji
Call Number: BATT

Publication Date: 2000

Nominated for nine awards at the Japanese Academy Awards, 2001
Lady Snowblood by Fujita, Toshiya
Call Number: LADY/Vol. 1

Publication Date: 1973

Inspired Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films
Departures by Takita, Yojiro
Call Number: DEPA

Publication Date: 2008

Winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the 81st Academy Awards

Book Spotlight

Shohei Imamura by James Quandt (Editor)
Call Number: 791.430233/IMAM/2

ISBN: 0968296904

Publication Date: 1999

Shohei Imamura is among the most important artists of postwar Japanese cinema. Best known in the west for his award-winning ""The Ballad of Narayama,"" Imamura has produced a body of work that is unequalled for its tumultuous energy and formal daring. A dozen essays by such eminent authorities of Japanese cinema as Donald Richie, Max Tessier and Audie Bock are supplemented by interviews with and articles by Imamura, which explore his influences, themes and working methods. Published by Cinematheque Ontario. Distributed in Canada by Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Distributed outside Canada by Indiana University Press.
The Emperor and the Wolf by Stuart Galbraith IV
Call Number: 791.430233/KURO/9

Publication Date: 2002

Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune made sixteen feature films together, including Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo -- all undisputed masterworks of world cinema. The Emperor and the Wolf is an in-depth look at these two great artists and their legacy that brims with behind-the-scenes details, many never before known, about their tumultuous lives and stormy relationships with the studios and with one another. More than just a biography, though, The Emperor and the Wolf is also an impromptu history of Japanese cinema -- its development, filmmakers, and performers -- and a provocative look at postwar American and Japanese culture and the different lenses through which two great societies viewed each other.
Cinematic Landscapes by Linda C. Ehrlich (Editor); David Desser (Editor)
Call Number: 791.430951/10

ISBN: 0292720866

Publication Date: 2000

"China and Japan both have traditional art forms that have been highly developed and long studied. In these pioneering essays, noted film and art scholars explore how the spatial consciousness, compositional techniques, and construction of images in these traditional and modern art forms also inform filmmaking in these two countries, so that film and art share the same culturally defined "methods of seeing."" "This major first study of the relationship between Chinese and Japanese art and film will be of wide interest to historians and film scholars, with applications beyond the Far Eastern context. It demonstrates that while mainstream Hollywood cinema has influenced filmmaking everywhere, other national cinemas cannot be completely understood without considering their indigenous traditions."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Japanese Cinema: An Introduction by Donald Richie
Call Number: 791.430952/6

Publication Date: 1990

Donald Richie, whose earlier works have done so much to introduce Japanese cinema to the West, has here written the first introduction to Japanese film. Written in a highly accessible style, this up-to-date history offers a study of those qualities which make a film distinctly Japanese. It will be an invaluable resource to students of film appreciation, as well as to readers with an interest in Japan.
Japanese Cinema: The Essential Handbook by Thomas Weisser (Foreword by); Yuko Mihara Weisser
Call Number: 791.430952/35

ISBN: 1889288500

Publication Date: 1998

The largest, most complete English language listing of contemporary Japanese films. Every major theatrical film released in Japan between 1965-1998 is listed along with capsule reviews, background information, director and cast credits, and alternate titles.