Postwar Japanese Cinema

From the immediate Post-war period to present day Japanese filmmakers have employed the\ud visual experience of cinema to offer a more nuanced and complex expression of the human\ud condition. Focusing on films by influential directors including Ozu Yasujirō, Kurosawa Akira,\ud Mizoguchi Kenji, Honda Ishirō, Itami Juzo, and Miyazaki Hayao this course considers how\ud Japanese filmmakers use cinema to investigate issues of truth, beauty, identity, nationhood, and\ud even humor in an attempt to answer fundamental questions regarding life and death in Japan’s\ud Post-war period. Different approaches will be taken to the study of Japanese cinema including\ud an examination of its relationship to literature, politics, religion, gender, world cinema cultures,\ud and the atomic age. Current debates in cinema studies as well as modern concepts of “art” and\ud “history” in Japan’s post-war era will frame our class discussions and film analyses. In addition\ud to these topics, students will utilize the visual structures of Japanese cinema to create a short\ud film