What do you think?
Rate this book
Cien años de Cine Japonés
Donald Richie nos ofrece una historia detallada, inteligente y muy fundamentada de ese cine. Desde sus comienzos a finales del siglo XIX, a través de los logros de Kurosawa, Mizoguchi y Ozu, hasta los notables trabajos de los jóvenes cineastas de la actualidad, esta historia concisa pero amplia da una perspectiva incomparable del crecimiento y el desarrollo de la cinematografía japonesa. Esta segunda edición sorprendente, a le vez que necesaria, se trata de un texto mejorado en su corrección y revisión respecto de la primera edición.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 4, 2002
35 people are currently reading
899 people want to read
About the author
Donald Richie
117 books103 followersDonald Richie is an American-born author who has written about the Japanese people and Japanese cinema. Although he considers himself only a writer, Richie has directed many experimental films, the first when he was 17. Although Richie speaks Japanese fluently, he can neither read nor write it.
During World War II, he served aboard Liberty ships as a purser and medical officer. By then he had already published his first work, "Tumblebugs" (1942), a short story.
In 1947, Richie first visited Japan with the American occupation force, a job he saw as an opportunity to escape from Lima, Ohio. He first worked as a typist, and then as a civilian staff writer for the Pacific Stars and Stripes. While in Tokyo, he became fascinated with Japanese culture, particularly Japanese cinema. He was soon writing movie reviews in the Stars and Stripes. In 1948 he met Kashiko Kawakita who introduced him to Yasujiro Ozu. During their long friendship, Richie and Kawakita collaborated closely in promoting Japanese film in the West.
After returning to the United States, he enrolled at Columbia University's School of General Studies in 1949, and received his Bachelor's Degree in English in 1953. Richie then returned to Japan as film critic for the The Japan Times and spent much of the second half of the twentieth century living there. In 1959, he published his first book, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, coauthored with Joseph Anderson. In this work, the authors gave the first English language account of Japanese film. Richie served as Curator of Film at the New York Museum of Modern Art from 1969 to 1972. In 1988, he was invited to become the first guest director at the Telluride Film Festival.
Among his most noted works on Japan are The Inland Sea, a travel classic, and Public People, Private People, a look at some of Japan's most significant and most mundane people. He has compiled two collections of essays on Japan: A Lateral View and Partial Views. A collection of his writings has been published to commemorate fifty years of writing about Japan: The Donald Richie Reader. The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 consists of extended excerpts from his diaries.
In 1991, filmmakers Lucille Carra and Brian Cotnoir produced a film version of The Inland Sea, which Richie narrated. Produced by Travelfilm Company, the film won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Hawaii International Film Festival (1991) and the Earthwatch Film Award. It screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992.
Author Tom Wolfe describes Richie as: "the Lafcadio Hearn of our time, a subtle, stylish, and deceptively lucid medium between two cultures that confuse one another: the Japanese and the American."
Richie's most widely recognized accomplishment has been his analysis of Japanese cinema. From his first published book, Richie has revised not only the library of films he discusses, but the way he analyzes them. With each subsequent book, he has focused less on film theory and more on the conditions in which the films were made. One thing that has emerged in his works is an emphasis on the "presentational" nature of Japan's cinema, in contrast to the "representational" films of the West. His book, A Hundred Years Of Japanese Film includes a helpful guide to the availability of the films on home video and DVD mentioned in the main text. In the foreword to this book, Paul Schrader says: "Whatever we in the West know about Japanese film, and how we know it, we most likely owe to Donald Richie." Richie also has written analyses of two of Japan's best known filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.
Richie has written the English subtitles for Akira Kurosawa's films Kagemusha (1980) and Dreams (1990)[8].
In the 21st century, Richie has become noted for his erudite audio commentaries for The Criterion Collection on DVDs of various classic Japanese films, notably those of Ozu (A Story of Floating Weeds, Early Summer), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascend
During World War II, he served aboard Liberty ships as a purser and medical officer. By then he had already published his first work, "Tumblebugs" (1942), a short story.
In 1947, Richie first visited Japan with the American occupation force, a job he saw as an opportunity to escape from Lima, Ohio. He first worked as a typist, and then as a civilian staff writer for the Pacific Stars and Stripes. While in Tokyo, he became fascinated with Japanese culture, particularly Japanese cinema. He was soon writing movie reviews in the Stars and Stripes. In 1948 he met Kashiko Kawakita who introduced him to Yasujiro Ozu. During their long friendship, Richie and Kawakita collaborated closely in promoting Japanese film in the West.
After returning to the United States, he enrolled at Columbia University's School of General Studies in 1949, and received his Bachelor's Degree in English in 1953. Richie then returned to Japan as film critic for the The Japan Times and spent much of the second half of the twentieth century living there. In 1959, he published his first book, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, coauthored with Joseph Anderson. In this work, the authors gave the first English language account of Japanese film. Richie served as Curator of Film at the New York Museum of Modern Art from 1969 to 1972. In 1988, he was invited to become the first guest director at the Telluride Film Festival.
Among his most noted works on Japan are The Inland Sea, a travel classic, and Public People, Private People, a look at some of Japan's most significant and most mundane people. He has compiled two collections of essays on Japan: A Lateral View and Partial Views. A collection of his writings has been published to commemorate fifty years of writing about Japan: The Donald Richie Reader. The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 consists of extended excerpts from his diaries.
In 1991, filmmakers Lucille Carra and Brian Cotnoir produced a film version of The Inland Sea, which Richie narrated. Produced by Travelfilm Company, the film won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Hawaii International Film Festival (1991) and the Earthwatch Film Award. It screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992.
Author Tom Wolfe describes Richie as: "the Lafcadio Hearn of our time, a subtle, stylish, and deceptively lucid medium between two cultures that confuse one another: the Japanese and the American."
Richie's most widely recognized accomplishment has been his analysis of Japanese cinema. From his first published book, Richie has revised not only the library of films he discusses, but the way he analyzes them. With each subsequent book, he has focused less on film theory and more on the conditions in which the films were made. One thing that has emerged in his works is an emphasis on the "presentational" nature of Japan's cinema, in contrast to the "representational" films of the West. His book, A Hundred Years Of Japanese Film includes a helpful guide to the availability of the films on home video and DVD mentioned in the main text. In the foreword to this book, Paul Schrader says: "Whatever we in the West know about Japanese film, and how we know it, we most likely owe to Donald Richie." Richie also has written analyses of two of Japan's best known filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.
Richie has written the English subtitles for Akira Kurosawa's films Kagemusha (1980) and Dreams (1990)[8].
In the 21st century, Richie has become noted for his erudite audio commentaries for The Criterion Collection on DVDs of various classic Japanese films, notably those of Ozu (A Story of Floating Weeds, Early Summer), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascend
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 16, 2017
3.5 stars. A volume of less than 300 pages will have to be brief to survey a hundred year history of Japanese cinema. Richie accomplishes that. He also tosses about few tensions. The insular nature of much of Japanese history is perhaps reflected in its celluloid. Cinema assumed the role of theatre in Japan, a platform for maintaining traditions even as the arrival of modernity left such precarious. A golden set of directors honed their crafter in the 1920s and 30s. Then the military madness assumed control of all cultural matters. After the war, the US Occupation dictated that cinema should promote morale and forgiveness. It should eschew representations of feudalism and a bellicose society. Unfortunately for such project, the directors ready to explore that agenda were all Marxists. Back to the drawing board, Uncle Sam. Ozu, Kurosawa, Kobayashi and Mizogushi made astonishing films. This creates all sort of oppositions amongst such-- much like an either Truffaut or Godard. This sort of behavior is common among middle aged white men. It was also common when one of those white men was much younger. Which side are you on?
Richie details how television ruined it all and how the subsequent decades have left the audiences of not just Japan but the entire first world suitable for only a stylized nihilism. Richie is against a sole privileging of The Cool. I enjoyed the book and saturated such with viewing a host of films recorded from TCM as well as an early viewing of the opening sequences of both Rashomon and Kwaidan.
Richie details how television ruined it all and how the subsequent decades have left the audiences of not just Japan but the entire first world suitable for only a stylized nihilism. Richie is against a sole privileging of The Cool. I enjoyed the book and saturated such with viewing a host of films recorded from TCM as well as an early viewing of the opening sequences of both Rashomon and Kwaidan.
June 11, 2021
Magisterial!
What an incredible resource this book is. A detailed, scholarly, readable history of Japanese film from the silent days to the present (or the present of the book). The great value is that along with outlining the history of the Japanese cinema, you are given a fantastic historical and cultural context for the movies being discussed. Why was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari enthusiastically embraced in Japan and not regarded as 'weird' in the way it was all over the world? The answer is given in a definition of Expressionism that is the clearest I have yet encountered, and then a further explanation as how Expressionism, that most modern of Western art forms, was perfectly in tune with Japanese art as it had been practiced for centuries. For the Japanese, Calegari was just more of what they were used to. I found this fascinating.
The role of the benshi (live narrator for silent films)in the development of Japanese film I found very interesting.
The notion of how Japanese culture, film in particular, reacted to and reflected the rampant militarism of the Thirties is dealt with extremely well. The tension between pro-Western and pro-traditional Japanese style is beautifully delineated.
There is a valuable glossary of Japanese terms. Amaze your friends when you use 'Mono no Aware' at your next cocktail party.
Capsule reviews of about 100 major films with cast, director and synopsis increase the books value as a reference volume as well as a good read.
I am looking forward to reading Richie's books on Ozu and Kurosawa next
What an incredible resource this book is. A detailed, scholarly, readable history of Japanese film from the silent days to the present (or the present of the book). The great value is that along with outlining the history of the Japanese cinema, you are given a fantastic historical and cultural context for the movies being discussed. Why was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari enthusiastically embraced in Japan and not regarded as 'weird' in the way it was all over the world? The answer is given in a definition of Expressionism that is the clearest I have yet encountered, and then a further explanation as how Expressionism, that most modern of Western art forms, was perfectly in tune with Japanese art as it had been practiced for centuries. For the Japanese, Calegari was just more of what they were used to. I found this fascinating.
The role of the benshi (live narrator for silent films)in the development of Japanese film I found very interesting.
The notion of how Japanese culture, film in particular, reacted to and reflected the rampant militarism of the Thirties is dealt with extremely well. The tension between pro-Western and pro-traditional Japanese style is beautifully delineated.
There is a valuable glossary of Japanese terms. Amaze your friends when you use 'Mono no Aware' at your next cocktail party.
Capsule reviews of about 100 major films with cast, director and synopsis increase the books value as a reference volume as well as a good read.
I am looking forward to reading Richie's books on Ozu and Kurosawa next
September 16, 2017
A good start for a general history of Japanese cinema history, but Richie leaves a lot out and has a somewhat banal writing style. Notably, Richie makes nil reference to his own 'Japanese' erotic avant-garde films. For example, Richie's "Five Filosophical Fables" (1967) was a favorite of none other than Yukio Mishima. Speaking of Mishima, Richie also makes no reference to the Japanese Renaissance man's virtual cinematic suicide letter "Yûkoku" (1966) aka "Patriotism" aka "Rite of Love & Death." Rather disappointingly, Shûji Terayama is barely even referenced. I could go on and on...
September 16, 2014
Donald Richie is an established expert on the cinema of Japan and this is basically his major work on the subject. According to the inside cover, at the time of publication Japan had been “his adopted home for over fifty years,” so Richie, a Westerner, has unique credentials to explain Japanese culture and cultural production to the West. Culture is, of course, a tricky subject, and some ideas may be beyond translation, or beyond the understanding of foreigners, or invisible to those immersed in it, whether native or foreign, so obviously the reader cannot assume instant familiarity with Japan based on this text, but it is probably a good place to start. Richie is also undeniably highly knowledgeable in the theory and practice of filmmaking, which makes this book a treat to those who like meaty discussions of movies, rather than fluffy or spectacularized accounts.
The book presents its subject in a simultaneously chronological and thematic approach which works overall well. He is most interested in tracing the careers of particular directors, introducing them as they first entered the industry, and then sometimes returning to them in different stages of their career, particularly as styles change and develop. However, he also discusses overall trends, the development of genres and new technologies, and events (such as the war and the occupation) which had major influences on the direction of studios and directors. The overall result is that the book has a clear narrative while presenting a wealth of information, much of which will be new to most readers.
On a theoretical level, Richie is largely concerned with the way that the tension between the “traditional” and the “modern” has informed Japanese cinema. Many directors, as he discusses them, appear to have a common career trajectory: they break onto the scene highly critical of tradition, embracing the modern, but as they mature they find that the only way to be truly “Japanese” is to return to tradition, if not actual conservatism, in their later films. As analytical concepts “traditional” and “modern” are somewhat problematic; they both are slippery concepts that fall into the category of “I know it when I see it,” rather than clear definitions. The degree to which they can blur with concepts of “Japanese” and “Western” identity does not help matters. Still, it seems as though Richie is onto something here, and perhaps a more theoretically rigorous future approach can elucidate.
Richie is particularly interested in examples of “high art” in cinema. Thus, there are excellent discussions of Mizoguchi, Ozu, and Kurosawa, as well as dozens of lesser-known directors in their class. However, readers interested in genre film or more popular fare may be disappointed. There is only one page which mentions Kaiju films at all, with Godzilla being the only example discussed in detail (apart from a passing joke about how Daiei studios “turned turtle”). Innovative horror movies like “House” and the Japanese Dracula series get no mention at all, and science fiction is only discussed as it relates to major Anime breakouts like “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell.” The one popular genre that does get discussed is the Yakuza film, and his discussion of Quentin Tarentino’s influence on directors such as Takashi Kitano will interest many younger readers at least.
The idiosyncrasy which was mentioned to me before I read the book is that Richie has preserved the Japanese names in their traditional family-name-first sequence. Hence, Akira Kurosawa is rightly Kurosawa Akira. I found that I stopped reading the given name after a few pages and just focused on the family name, which generally worked. I don’t think this would be a major problem for most readers, but it might cause confusion for a student unfamiliar with any of the names, hence a brief warning or disclaimer at the beginning might help. A newbie could be misled into requesting “Akira’s” movies at a video store or library, which probably would not result in getting what they wanted.
Overall, however, Richie’s insight into the cinema history of one of film’s most prodigious nations is welcome and useful.
The book presents its subject in a simultaneously chronological and thematic approach which works overall well. He is most interested in tracing the careers of particular directors, introducing them as they first entered the industry, and then sometimes returning to them in different stages of their career, particularly as styles change and develop. However, he also discusses overall trends, the development of genres and new technologies, and events (such as the war and the occupation) which had major influences on the direction of studios and directors. The overall result is that the book has a clear narrative while presenting a wealth of information, much of which will be new to most readers.
On a theoretical level, Richie is largely concerned with the way that the tension between the “traditional” and the “modern” has informed Japanese cinema. Many directors, as he discusses them, appear to have a common career trajectory: they break onto the scene highly critical of tradition, embracing the modern, but as they mature they find that the only way to be truly “Japanese” is to return to tradition, if not actual conservatism, in their later films. As analytical concepts “traditional” and “modern” are somewhat problematic; they both are slippery concepts that fall into the category of “I know it when I see it,” rather than clear definitions. The degree to which they can blur with concepts of “Japanese” and “Western” identity does not help matters. Still, it seems as though Richie is onto something here, and perhaps a more theoretically rigorous future approach can elucidate.
Richie is particularly interested in examples of “high art” in cinema. Thus, there are excellent discussions of Mizoguchi, Ozu, and Kurosawa, as well as dozens of lesser-known directors in their class. However, readers interested in genre film or more popular fare may be disappointed. There is only one page which mentions Kaiju films at all, with Godzilla being the only example discussed in detail (apart from a passing joke about how Daiei studios “turned turtle”). Innovative horror movies like “House” and the Japanese Dracula series get no mention at all, and science fiction is only discussed as it relates to major Anime breakouts like “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell.” The one popular genre that does get discussed is the Yakuza film, and his discussion of Quentin Tarentino’s influence on directors such as Takashi Kitano will interest many younger readers at least.
The idiosyncrasy which was mentioned to me before I read the book is that Richie has preserved the Japanese names in their traditional family-name-first sequence. Hence, Akira Kurosawa is rightly Kurosawa Akira. I found that I stopped reading the given name after a few pages and just focused on the family name, which generally worked. I don’t think this would be a major problem for most readers, but it might cause confusion for a student unfamiliar with any of the names, hence a brief warning or disclaimer at the beginning might help. A newbie could be misled into requesting “Akira’s” movies at a video store or library, which probably would not result in getting what they wanted.
Overall, however, Richie’s insight into the cinema history of one of film’s most prodigious nations is welcome and useful.
May 18, 2015
مدخل واسع عن السينما اليابانية خلال 100 سنة من زمن أول فيلم اتعمل .. "بول شريدر" كان بيقول في المقدمة إن كل المعلومات اللي نعرفها "في الغرب" عن السينما اليابانية ووجهة النظر اللي كوناها في المعلومات دي كلهم جايين عن طريق "دونالد ريتشي" .. وفي وصف طريف متداول بين المهتمين بالسينما اليابانية لما يعوزوا يدللوا على استحالة مشاهدة أو العثور على فيلم ياباني معين بيقولوا إن "دونالد ريتشي ما شافوش" .. الكتاب في مجملة رحلة ممتعة جداً ومليان بحكايات عن الأفلام والمخرجين مهمة وملهمة جداً لأي حد بيحب الأفلام الياباني وعايز يفهمها أكتر .. مشكلتي الوحيدة معاه إنه انتقائي شوية في اختياراته وإن كان فيه مخرجين نفسي أعرف عنهم وعن أفلامهم أكتر لكنه عدا عليهم بسرعة أو تجاهل ذكرهم خالص، بس دي مش نقطة كبيرة لإن الحيز اللي بيغطيه الكتاب كفيل يغطي الواحد مناطق استكشاف لسنتين، تلاتة قدام
March 30, 2012
Richie taught me not only about Japanese film, but about Japanese culture and history, in a way that intrigued and moved me. The feeling I got was not a guidebook feeling, but was the same feeling I get when I am shown a neighborhood by someone who lives there. The book is full of small points and observations that you can't get from researching a topic, but only from living it. It's an excellent book.
January 21, 2018
Richie takes on the challenging task of crafting a narrative out of one hundred years of Japanese movies. As a result, he can only briefly discuss many directors and films while going into more detail on figures like Ozu and Kurosawa. This is apparent in the short section on the role of anime films from the 1980s onward, a section Richie could have easily expanded. The end result is a book that has too many characters for somebody new to remember, but also too little detail to offer those already more familiar with certain aspects of Japanese film.
The end result is a book best suited as a reference or a starting point for learning about Japanese film before going on to more detailed sources. For those new to Japanese film, I recommend immersing yourself in a preferred genre, director, or style before picking up this book to learn about the broader trends in Japanese cinema. For those with more familiarity, this book serves as an excellent reference to find other aspects of Japanese film to explore.
The end result is a book best suited as a reference or a starting point for learning about Japanese film before going on to more detailed sources. For those new to Japanese film, I recommend immersing yourself in a preferred genre, director, or style before picking up this book to learn about the broader trends in Japanese cinema. For those with more familiarity, this book serves as an excellent reference to find other aspects of Japanese film to explore.
March 6, 2019
The expectation is somewhat that you're familiar with non-Japanese filmmakers because there are a number of references to them without explanation. Not being familiar with many non-Japanese filmmakers in the past 100 years, I found this annoying. Additionally the author focusing at all on the emotional impact of a film (pretty subjective) was not at all useful. And the condensed font size of the edition I bought made my eyes hurt for a while.
That said, this book was a pretty useful introduction and an enjoyable read despite the author's subpar writing. I have many films to watch!
That said, this book was a pretty useful introduction and an enjoyable read despite the author's subpar writing. I have many films to watch!
January 29, 2018
Scholarly, if somewhat dry, but an essential analysis of the best of Japanese filmmaking by the recognized sine qua non of that particular subject. Especially revelatory commentary on such figures as Ozu, Kurosawa, et. al. Highly recommended for appreciators of the genre.
December 7, 2017
fine. just short
Read
March 3, 2020“Whatever we in the West know about Japanese film, and how we know it, we most likely owe to Donald Richie.” — Paul Schrader
May 22, 2020
Easy to see why Richie is regarded as the foremost Western writer on Japanese film - this is well-informed, insightful, engaging and not too academic. Highly recommended.
July 13, 2022
okay where tf is my Pinku-eiga part?
September 20, 2024
We've lost so much
September 22, 2011
I found Donald Richie’s book A Hundred Years of Japanese Film to be a very engaging overview of the Japanese film history. It is clear that Richie’s knowledge of Japanese culture informs his observation about the history and development of film. For example in the first chapter Richie discussed the importance of the benishi (or narrator) for audiences. The beneshi were active until the early 30 s because they not only commented on silent films but they also provided information about the west since many Japanese were unfamiliar with customs of the west due to the self-imposed closed country prior to the Meiji restoration. According to Richie this helps explain the Japanese affection for teachers, tour guides, sommeliers and other conduits for acquisition of new experience. He also pointed out that many short films were looped and this process led to the tradition of lengthy films and still can be seen in commercials in Japan today. I found Chapter three to one of the most interesting sections of the book, because this is where Richie discussed most of the post war masters of Japanese cinema: Ozu and Naruse, Mizoguchi and the Period Film, social issues films by Kurosawa, Kinoshita, and Ichikawa. In chapter four Richie discussed the devastating effects of TV on the film industry and the studio system. He also discussed the notion of two Japans. One is the “official” version that has Noh, tea ceremony, Mizoguchi, Ozu, late Kurosawa, along with the approved high-class virtues of fidelity and devotion. The other version is the “real” version of which the people do not behave like the ”official” version. They are seen in the films of Kawashima or Imamura and they are selfish, lusty, amoral and all of the vitality of Japan comes from their members. The sections on the Japanese New Wave filmmakers like Oshima, Yoshida, and Shinoda is enlightening as well. In the final chapter Richie discussed the introduction of genre film in the industry due to the American influence of films. There is a natural connection between yakuza films and the mysteries and thrillers from America. He rounds up the book by discussing the documentary film making scene and the rise of independent film making. There is s a discussion of the new generation filmmakers with an audience abroad like Takashi Kitano, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Shinji Aoyama, and Takashi Miike, as well as the popularity of animation. It is a good overview and provides a lot of general commentary about Japan and Japanese culture.
July 19, 2021
One sentence early on--"All premodern Japanese theatre is a pictorial expansion of verbal storytelling" (p 20)--was a true Zen awakening moment for me. Excellent introduction to the topic.
February 2, 2011
Donald Richie is the (western) expert on Japanese Film and his book on Kurosawa is one of the classics of the genre. This tome, which I picked up used, is a chronological mostly auteur-focused chronicle of the various trends in Japanese cinema over the years up until 2000. He celebrates the pantheon (Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse, Kurosawa) and describes all of the other major (and minor) directors in turn, as well as the various genres (jidaigeki, gendaigeki and many other more narrow classifications and trends). A major distinction between Japanese and Western films focuses on the difference between presentation and representation (whih is a little hard to grasp). In the final chapter, after the studio system has broken down, Richie seems a little at a loss to understand the proliferation of independent productions, devoting a paragraph each to a dozen or more directors, with the only theme being an apparent return to the early days of cinema (new thrills from new technology). The VHS/DVD listing at the end will surely come in handy, even as more and more films become available.
June 2, 2013
With this final edition of his multiple Japanese cinema histories, and because of his totally unique vantage point on that society and its culture, the late Richie remains the authority on Japanese film... up to a point. Outside of isolated case studies, the 1970s onward get comparatively short shrift, and Richie's vintage as a writer of the post-war years somewhat betrays him here.
He was on speaking terms with the many of the first/second generation greats of the 50s/60s Golden Age and flourished creatively in this period, giving us too many ground-breaking essays to list: auteur studies that were often as poetic as the scenes he rekindled with his words (pre- DVD restorations and Youtube).
This is where the books strengths lie, in familiar D. Richie territory, only reinforcing just how much his portrayals of these films have become inexorably tangled with our collective memory of them - whether we know it or not.
He was on speaking terms with the many of the first/second generation greats of the 50s/60s Golden Age and flourished creatively in this period, giving us too many ground-breaking essays to list: auteur studies that were often as poetic as the scenes he rekindled with his words (pre- DVD restorations and Youtube).
This is where the books strengths lie, in familiar D. Richie territory, only reinforcing just how much his portrayals of these films have become inexorably tangled with our collective memory of them - whether we know it or not.
January 10, 2016
Pensé que se iba a tratar de una exploración más descriptiva que otra cosa y me encontré gratamente en una clase teórica de cine cuando menciona las formas en que se desarrolló el uso de técnicas narrativas dentro de la industria del cine japonés. Fue muy refrescante encontrar menciones a elipsis, uso y movimiento de cámara, dirección de actuaciones y muchos otros detalles que perfectamente podría haber quedado por fuera. Imperdible para cualquier director de material audiovisual que se considere en proceso de aprender de la cultura del cine. Lástima que haya sido escrito hace más de una década, me habría encantado ver el análisis de estos últimos años en la obra japonesa.
October 26, 2009
Richie's writing is so lucid and delightful, he makes me want to see every single movie he talks about. I love this guy.
August 30, 2012
Dry and a bit on the academic side
October 10, 2012
Que interesantes son los géneros del cine japonés, ahora a buscar las películas...
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews