Bachelor 2020/2021

Visual Culture of Japan

Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'

Type: Compulsory course (Japanese Language and Literature)

Area of studies: Asian and African Studies

Delivered by: Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies

Where: Faculty of Humanities

When: 2 year, 3, 4 module

Mode of studies: distance learning

Open to: students of all HSE University campuses

Instructors: Anastasia Fedorova

Language: English

ECTS credits: 4

Contact hours: 90

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Groundbreaking artists such as Kurosawa Akira, Mizoguchi Kenji, and Kinugasa Teinosuke were recognized with prestigious awards in the 1950s, helping Japanese cinema gain status as the most influential and talked about cinema outside of the Western world. Scholarship on Japanese cinema began to evolve, making an important contribution to a number of academic disciplines. Major theoretical currents in Film Studies, including “neoformalism” and “auteur theory,” have their roots in the study of individual Japanese filmmakers and their artistic styles. This course is designed as an introduction to the basic concepts in Japanese Film Studies. We will examine the historical development of Japanese cinema, its narrative and stylistic conventions, its relationship with the audiences and the state, as well as its attempts for international recognition. We will also consider the economic basis of Japanese film production and distribution. The course aims to provide the students with a set of basic skills for critically examining and analysing Japanese film texts and film related materials.

Learning Objectives

• Acquisition of knowledge on the historical development of Japanese cinema, its artistic tendencies, distribution and reception patterns.
• Developing the skills for critically engaging with Japanese film and media.
• Acquisition of analytical tools and language skills necessary for conducting research in the field of Japanese film and media.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Can contextualise early Japanese cinema within a larger history of its performing arts.
• Understands the artistic and ideological motifs behind the efforts to modernize Japanese cinema in 1917-1923.
• Can identify the major technical, economic and political factors that accompanied Japan's transition to sound.
• Understands the political, cultural, and economic effects of film censorship undertaken by the state during the WWII and Allied Occupation.
• Knows the differences between the artistic styles of Ozu Yasujiro, Mizoguchi Kenji, Kurosawa Akira, and other major Japanese film directors.
• Is cognizant of genre conventions that characterize commercial fillmmaking in Japan. Can define: jidaigeki, kaiju-eiga, shomingeki, hahamono, taiyozoku-eiga, etc.
• Knows how to conduct the research on film distribution and reception in prewar and postwar Japan.
• Can identify the differences between the Japanese "New Wave" and similar film movements outside Japan. Is cognizant of the artistic and ideological beliefs that motivated young Japanese filmmakers to experiment with the medium.
• Understands the ways in which documentary cinema and television have influenced Japanese commercial cinema, its distribution and reception patterns.
• Knows the history behind the international advances of Japanese film and media.

Course Contents

• Kabuki Cinema
• The Pure Film Movement
• Transition to sound: modernism and social criticism during the 1930s
• Film propaganda: The Fifteen Years’ War (1931-1945) and American Occupation (1945-1952)
• Japanese Auteurs: Ozu, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi
• Genre and gender during the “golden age” of cinema
• Film distribution and spectatorship
• Japanese “New Wave”
• Documentary and television
• Global Japanese Cinema

Assessment Elements

• Class participation
• Midterm paper
• Final paper
• Presentation
• Test

Interim Assessment

• Промежуточная аттестация (3 модуль)
  0.7 * Class participation + 0.3 * Test
• Промежуточная аттестация (4 модуль)
  0.25 * Class participation + 0.3 * Final paper + 0.15 * Midterm paper + 0.15 * Presentation + 0.15 * Test

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Aaron Gerow, Visions of Japanese Modernity : Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship, 1895-1925
• Abé Mark Nornes, Japanese Documentary Film : The Meiji Era through Hiroshima (University of Minnesota Press, 2003).
• Mark Nornes, Forest of Pressure : Ogawa Shinsuke and Postwar Japanese Documentary (University of Minnesota Press, 2007).
• Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Nippon Modern : Japanese Cinema of the 1920s And 1930s
• Yoshiharu Tezuka, Japanese Cinema Goes Global : Filmworkers' Journeys

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Colette Balmain, Introduction to Japanese Horror Film
• Hikari Hori, Promiscuous Media : Film and Visual Culture in Imperial Japan, 1926-1945 (Cornell University Press, 2018).
• Hiroshi Kitamura, Screening Enlightenment : Hollywood and the Cultural Reconstruction of Defeated Japan (Cornell University Press, 2011).
• Jennifer Coates, Making Icons : Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945–1964 (Hong Kong University Press, 2016).
• Peter Wild, Akira Kurosawa (Reaktion Books, Limited, 2014).
• Scott Nygren, Time Frames : Japanese Cinema and the Unfolding of History
• William M. Tsutsui and Michiko Ito, In Godzilla's Footsteps : Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage