Japanese Film Directors

by Audie Bock

Taking ten filmmakers, such as Oshima and Kurosawa, and following their careers chronologically has resulted in a history of Japanese film as well as a study of each master.

Genres: Film, Japan, Nonfiction

378 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 1979

About the author

Audie E. Bock graduated from Wellesley College in 1967, and earned her Masters Degree in East Asian studies from Harvard University. She has taught Japanese cinema at Yale, Harvard, and Berkeley.

In the Preface to his autobiography, renowned Japanese film director Kurosawa Akira described her as an "American scholar of Japanese cinema, a person who when it comes to my films knows more about me than I do about myself".

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in my obsessive period of knowing everything possible about Japanese cinema. I had a weird obsession about Ozu and his films as well as Oshima's work. This book is one of the early volumes on the subject of Japanese filmmakers and their films. It's a good book. It's not on a Donald Richie level, but it's up there.

[Ad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is from 1978 - I have the updated edition from 1985. When I bought this book, there was very little information on Japanese film available and I used it extensively in the late 1980s and 1990s when I was busy discovering Japanese film. I lived in Tokyo at that time, and contrary to today, there were still classical films on TV; I also borrowed tapes from a local video store and even bought a few (for incredible prices, due to the vertical structure of the Japanese film world).

Audie Bock discusses in detail 10 classical directors (Mizoguchi, Ozu, Naruse, Kurosawa, Kinoshita, Ichikawa, Kobayashi, Imamura, Oshima and Shinoda) and also gives filmographies with a brief description of the film in question. That was very useful for discovering new films, or learning what films a particular director had made. It was a good book, now sadly out of print, and anyway, also outdated. For good introductions of Japanese directors - much more comprehensive, but unfortunately without the film descriptions - we now have A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. But today there are so many books more on Japanese film...

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audi Bock’s out of print book, Japanese Film Directors, still has a lot of relevance even though it isn’t up to date anymore-it was originally published in 1978. It is a useful reference and introduction to the films of Japan's master film directors. Bock is also known as the translator of Akira Kurosawa’s biography Something Like A Biography. There are three sections in which Bock discussed the careers and influence of several directors in each section from the prewar 30s, postwar mid-50s and late 60s. The first section is “Early Masters” and Bock gives an in-depth look at the films of Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, and Mikio Naruse. I haven’t explored the films of Mizoguchi or Naruse yet, and feel compelled to do so after reading the chapters on the directors-Mizoguchi in particular comes across as an interesting character. The next section looks at “The Postwar Humanists”: Akira Kurosawa, Kesuke Kinoshita, Kon Ichikawa, and Masaki Kobayashi. Again I am compelled to search out films by the directors I am largely unfamiliar with: Kinoshita, Ichikawa, and Kobayayshi. The final section is “The New Wave And After” focuses on the films of Shohei Imamaura, Nagisa Oshima, and Masahiro Shinoda. Shinoda is the only director of the three that I haven’t seen a film by, but again feel compelled to search out some films by him. It is a good introduction to the films of the Japan’s 20th century masters of film.

[keyvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I pickked this up as I came across many of Audie Bock's re-printed articles in Criterion collection & Masters of Cinema DVD collections. Though this is out-of-print, and it's well worth seeking out. She covers the 3 main waves of Japanese cinema in the 20th century (it's arguable if any 4th wave is worthy of that distinction.) As well as the 3 superstar directors best known in the West (Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi) she covers the 6 other directors including the much neglected Naruse, several of the post-war 'humanists' and the 3 representatives of the Japanese New Wave including Immaura, Oshima & Shinoda.

Given the greater availability of the output of many of these directors, this book will be a very useful guide for those with the interest in the golden age(s) of Japanese film.

[Drahcir10001 · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the time of publication (1978) a much needed intro to 10 notable directors for English speaking cinephiles.

A very easy read, not academic at all - it shares ‘studio gossip’ and the contemporary domestic critical view of the directors’ reputations. Audie was privileged to interview some of the directors and speak with a good range of producers, scenarists and actors.