Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship, 1895-1925

by Aaron Gerow

Japan has done marvelous things with cinema, giving the world the likes of Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu. But cinema did not arrive in Japan fully formed at the end of the nineteenth century, nor was it simply adopted into an ages-old culture. Aaron Gerow explores the processes by which film was defined, transformed, and adapted during its first three decades in Japan. He focuses in particular on how one trend in criticism, the Pure Film Movement, changed not only the way films were made, but also how they were conceived. Looking closely at the work of critics, theorists, intellectuals, benshi artists, educators, police, and censors, Gerow finds that this trend established a way of thinking about cinema that would reign in Japan for much of the twentieth century.

Genres: Film, History, Japan

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

My name is also listed as Aaron Andrew Gerow. I teach Japanese and East Asian cinema and culture at Yale University in the USA. My most recent books are Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship, 1895-1925; Kitano Takeshi; and A Page of Madness: Cinema and Modernity in 1920s Japan. I've also written the Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies with Abe Mark Nornes. Before coming to Yale, I spent nearly 12 years in Japan working for the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and teaching at Yokohama National University and Meiji Gakuin University. I have published numerous works in English, Japanese and other languages on such topics as Japanese early cinema, contemporary directors, film genre, censorship, Japanese manga, and cinematic representations of minorities. I wrote film reviews for the Daily Yomiuri newspaper for nearly 12 years and selected the best ten Japanese films of the year for Eiga geijutsu, one of Japan's longest running film magazines.

Reviews

[Tosh]

I am fascinated with the early cinema in Japan. Specifically the role of the Benshi in Japanese Cinema.