Authors of the Japanese
Cinema: Mizoguchi Kenji, Oshima Nagisa, Kitano Takeshi
Instructor: Michael Raine
Class Meetings: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30am 10:45am
Screenings: Thursday 4 pm 6 pm, 203 BCSB
Course Description
Each of these three filmmakers represents a new generation in the history
of Japanese cinema: Mizoguchi Kenji, master of the mobile long take whose
career spanned the two Golden Age of Japanese cinema; Oshima Nagisa, leader
of the aesthetically and politically radical Japanese New Wave; and Kitano
Takeshi, new standard bearer for personal filmmaking in an increasingly
banal Japanese film industry. In this class we examine the ways in which
these directors have been considered film authors, or "auteurs."We
will discuss various ways of understanding authorship, in itself and in
relation to the other factors involved in film production. We will also
discuss the reception of these films, the way in which these three directors
"author" our sense of what Japanese cinema, and by extension its
culture, is all about.
Goals and Objectives
- 1. Develop skills in talking about films not just stories and characters
but technical details of image and narration.
- 2. Develop an awareness of the history of Japanese Cinema follow the
career of three film artists whose careers span virtually the whole of
Japanese film history.
- 3. Develop an awareness of the history of film studies study the debate
over authorship from the 1950s to the 1990s.
- 4. Develop discussion skills learn how to analyze what others say and
practice making persuasive arguments in class.
- 5. Develop reading skills learn how to analyze complex arguments in
the material that we read.
- 6. Develop writing skills learn how to describe precisely and argue
cogently in the written assignments.
Course Materials
Japanese films are our primary texts. One film will be screened each
week at the time and place noted above. One (free!) booklet will be distributed
in class.
Gerald O'Grady (ed.) Mizoguchi the Master
Two books will also be available from the Prairie Lights book store.
- Donald Kirihara Patterns of Time: Mizoguchi and the 1930s
- Maureen Turim. The Films of Oshima Nagisa
Additional materials will be available in xerox form. A copy of the required
reading for each week will be placed in the Reserve Room of the Main Library,
under the instructor's name and this course number. Another copy will be
available in the file cabinet in room 107 BCSB.
Assignments, Class Requirements, Grading
There will be three written assignments, a mid-term test and a final
exam. In addition, you are required to participate in class discussions
and to make presentations on films and reading assignments. Presentations
will often be made in groups. The same grade will be applied to all members
of the group. All written assignments will be explained fully in a hand-out
given three weeks before the assignment deadline.
- Participation: classroom discussion and presentations (20%)
- Assignment 1: 5-page paper on Mizoguchi, due 10/1/98 (20%)
- Mid-term test: quiz on material covered so far 10/22/98 (5%)
- Assignment 2: 5-page paper on Oshima, due 11/12/98 (20%)
- Assignment 3: EITHER: 5 page paper on one of these directors OR: 10
page paper that incorporates material from one of the earlier assignments,
due 12/10/98 (20%)
- Final Exam: short exam on issues covered in the course and on Kitano
Takeshi's film, Sonatine (15%)
Schedule
Week 0: INTRODUCTION TO FILM AND AUTHORSHIP
Tuesday: 8/25/98 Discussion and explanation of the course
Mizoguchi Kenji
Week 1: MIZOGUCHI KENJI ZEN AND THE ART OF INTERNATIONAL CINEMA I
Thursday: 8/27/98
- Readings: Audie Bock. "Kenji Mizoguchi"
- Film: UGETSU (UGETSU MONOGATARI, 1953)
Tuesday: 9/1/98
- Readings: Reviews of Ugetsu
- Keiko McDonald. "Ugetsu: Why is it a Masterpiece?"
in Mizoguchi the Master
- Donald Richie. "Distance and Beauty in the Films of Mizoguchi"
Week 2: MIZOGUCHI KENJI, ZEN AND THE ART OF INTERNATIONAL CINEMA II
Thursday: 9/3/98
- Readings: Auteur theory: Extracts from Cahiers du Cinema, Movie,
and Andrew Sarris
- Alexandre Astruc. "What is mise-en-scene?" Extract from Cahiers
du Cinema: The 1950s, pp. 260-265
- David Bordwell. Extract from "Interpretation as Explication"
- Film: SANSHO THE BALIFF (SANSHO DAYU, 1954)
Tuesday: 9/8/98
- Readings: Robin Wood. "Mizoguchi: The Ghost Princess and the Seaweed
Gatherer"
- Keiko McDonald. "Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Baliff,
1954)"
Week 3: MIZOGUCHI KENJI SHIMPA MELODRAMA AND THE BENSHI
Thursday: 9/10/98
- Readings: Joseph L. Anderson. "Spoken Silents in the Japanese
Cinema"
- Donald Kirihara. "Traditions and Backgrounds" in Mizoguchi
the Master
- Film: THE DOWNFALL OF OSEN (ORIZURU OSEN, 1935)
Tuesday: 9/15/98
- Readings: Donald Kirihara. "An Unhurried Gaze" in Patterns
of Time
- Donald Kirihara. "A Zig-Zag Career" in Patterns of Time
Week 4: MIZOGUCHI KENJI SPACE AND REALISM
Thursday: 9/17/98
- Readings: Donald Kirihara. "The Downfall of Osen"
in Patterns of Time
- Film: OSAKA ELEGY (NANIWA HIKA, 1936)
Tuesday: 9/22/98
- Readings: Donald Kirihara. "Naniwa Elegy" in Patterns
of Time
Week 5: MIZOGUCHI KENJI -- SOUND AND IMAGE
Thursday: 9/24/98
- Readings: Carole Cavanaugh. "Unwriting the Female Persona in Osaka
Elegy and Life of Oharu" in Mizoguchi the Master,
pp. 64-65
- Film: THE STORY OF THE LAST CRYSANTHEMUM (ZANGIKU MONOGATARI, 1939)
Tuesday: 9/29/98
- Readings: Kinoshita Chika. "Floating Sound: Sound and Image in
The Story of the Last Crysanthemum" in Mizoguchi the Master,
pp. 45-47
- Donald Kirihara. "The Story of the Last Crysanthemum"
in Patterns of Time
Week 6: MIZOGUCHI KENJI WAYS OF BEING "FEMINISUTO"
Thursday: 10/1/98
- Readings: Critical reflections on Mizoguchi in Mizoguchi the Master,
pp. 3-9
- Interviews with Mizoguchi in Mizoguchi the Master, pp. 10-13
- Memories of Mizoguchi in Mizoguchi the Master, pp. 14-16
- Film: FIVE WOMEN AROUND UTAMARO (UTAMARO O MEGURU GONIN NO ONNA, 1946)
Tuesday: 10/6/98 [First assignment due]
- Readings: Keiko McDonald. Extract from "Facing the Occupation:
Films About Women's Liberation"
- Dudley Andrew. "Ways of Seeing Japanese Prints and Films: Mizoguchi's
Utamaro" in Mizoguchi the Master, pp. 17-20
Oshima Nagisa
Week 7: OSHIMA NAGISA YOUTH AND CRUELTY IN OSHIMA'S NEW WAVE FILMS I
Thursday: 10/8/98
- Readings: Audie Bock. "Nagisa Oshima"
- Noel Burch. "Oshima Nagisa"
Film: CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH (SEISHUN ZANKOKU MONOGATARI, 1960)
Tuesday: 10/13/98
- Readings: Oshima Nagisa. "Is it a Breakthrough? (The Modernists
of Japanese Film)"
- Maureen Turim. "Cultural Iconoclasm and Contexts of Innovation"
in The Films of Oshima Nagisa
Week 8: OSHIMA NAGISA YOUTH AND CRUELTY IN OSHIMA'S NEW WAVE FILMS II
Thursday: 10/15/98
- Readings: Oshima Nagisa. "To Critics, Mainly from Future Artists,"
"A Review of 'Sleeping Lion' Shochiku Ofuna," "Authorial
Asthenia," "Beyond Endless Self-Negation: The Attitude of the
New Filmmakers"
- Film: THE SUN'S BURIAL (TAIYO NO HAKABA, 1960)
Tuesday: 10/20/98
- Readings: Maureen Turim. "Cruel Stories of Youth and Politics"
in The Films of Oshima Nagisa (I)
Week 9: OSHIMA NAGISA ICONOCLASM IN POLITICS AND FILM LANGUAGE
Thursday: 10/22/98 [Mid-term Test] [Hand out Assignment #2]
- Readings: Maureen Turim. "Feminist Troubles on a Map of Split
Subjectivities" in The Films of Oshima Nagisa
Film: NIGHT AND FOG IN JAPAN (NIHON NO YORU TO KIRI, 1960)
Tuesday: 10/27/98
- Readings: Oshima Nagisa. "What is a Shot?" "The Laws
of Self-Negation," "In Protest Against the Massacre of Night
and Fog in Japan"
Week 10: OSHIMA NAGISA INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION AND THE THEATRICAL SIGN
Thursday: 10/29/98
- Readings: Maureen Turim. "Cruel Stories of Youth and Politics"
in The Films of Oshima Nagisa (II)
- Film: DEATH BY HANGING (KOSHIKEI, 1968)
Tuesday: 11/3/98
- Readings: Oshima Nagisa. "About Death by Hanging"
- Maureen Turim. The Films of Oshima Nagisa, pp. 61-81
- Student Research: Reviews of Death by Hanging
Week 11: OSHIMA NAGISA TRANSNATIONAL ART CINEMA
Thursday: 11/5/98
- Readings: Roland Barthes. "The Death of the Author
- Michel Foucault. "What is an Author?"
- Film: MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. LAWRENCE (SENJO NO MERII KURISUMASU, 1983)
Tuesday: 11/10/98
- Readings: Student Research: Articles on Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
- Maureen Turim. The Films of Oshima Nagisa, pp. 168-184
Kitano Takeshi
Week 12: KITANO TAKESHI VIOLENT COPS AND TV GENRES
Thursday: 11/12/98 [Assignment #2 due]
- Readings: Oshima Nagisa. "Perspectives on the Japanese Film"
- Peter Wollen "The Auteur Theory"
- Film: VIOLENT COP (SONO OTOKO, KYOBO NI TSUKI, 1989)
Tuesday: 11/17/98
- Readings: Student Research: Articles on Kitano and Violent Cop
Week 13: KITANO TAKESHI DEATH OF THE AUTHOR
Thursday: 11/19/98 [Hand out Assignment #3]
- Readings: Edward Buscombe. "Ideas of Authorship"
- Film: SONATINE (SONACHINE, 1993)
Tuesday: 11/24/98
- Readings: Student Research: Articles on Kitano and Sonatine
Week 14: KITANO TAKESHI
Thursday: 11/26/98
- No Class Thanksgiving Break
Tuesday: 12/1/98
- Readings: Stephen Crofts. "Authorship and Hollywood"
Week 15: KITANO TAKESHI MEMORY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Thursday: 12/3/98
- Readings: Timothy Corrigan. Extract from A Cinema Without Walls
- Film: KID'S RETURN (1996)
Tuesday: 12/8/98
- Readings: Victor Perkins. "Film Authorship: The Premature Burial"
- Student Research: Articles on Kitano and Kid's Return
Week 16: KITANO TAKESHI THE RETURN OF THE AUTHOR
Thursday: 12/10/98 [Assignment #3 due]
- Readings: Review of readings on Mizoguchi, Oshima, and Kitano
- Film: REVIEW OF FILMS BY MIZOGUCHI, OSHIMA, AND KITANO
Week 17: FINALS WEEK
- 12/14 12/18/98