Prenant comme point de départ la naissance du cinéma japonais et son influence sur les autres cinématographies dont l’histoire est directement liée aux événements politiques et sociaux de leur territoire, cet ouvrage retrace près de cent vingt ans de cinémas asiatiques. Illustré de photogrammes (objets rares et films incontournables), il met l’accent sur la diversité et la richesse de ces productions et aide à comprendre les mécanismes dans lesquels les films, les thèmes et les motifs apparaissent. Cet ouvrage intéressera l’étudiant en cinéma et audiovisuel qui cherche à avoir une vision synthétique en vue d’approfondir une période ou une œuvre particulière, tout comme le passionné qui souhaite simplement découvrir ces cinémas d’Asie.
This is a great in depth look at some of the most important films from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong. The book starts at the dawn of cinema and covers the early years from the 1890's to just before WWII. The later part of the book covers from WWII onwards to contemporary films at the time the book was written. I found this book to be a delight to read with extremely well researched information. The book is well balanced with listing notable films and talking about directors, studios, and tendencies of each industry of each respective country. I also appreciate the index of films at the end of the book! I'm very impressed how Monvoisin can take such a huge range of time and geography and condense it into a very readable volume. I plan to read his other book on Japanese cinema also published by Focus Cinéma. As a side note, this is the first book I have read in the French language and it really helps to read about subjects that are of interest to you when delving into a new language.