Kawabata And Cinema: The Ambivalence Of Knowledge, Medium, And Influence, Aaron Gerow
Jan 2018
Kawabata And Cinema: The Ambivalence Of Knowledge, Medium, And Influence, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
Many researchers have considered the involvement of Kawabata Yasunari in cinema and the medium’s possible influence on his literature. Such approaches, however, tend to assume a definition of the motion pictures as visuality or montage that then influences Kawabata instead of first considering Kawabata’s own conception of cinema, his own film theory. By analyzing his writings on film, including his film criticism, short stories involving cinema, and his involvement in the film A Page of Madness, this paper outlines Kawabata’s conception of cinema and argues that he developed a portrait of cinema that posed it as a challenge to …
The Past Of Japanese Science Fiction And Fantasy Movies, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2015
The Past Of Japanese Science Fiction And Fantasy Movies, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
A chapter written for the catalog of a special retrospective of Japanese science fiction and fantasy films, titled Beyond Godzilla: Alternative Futures and Fantasies in Japanese Cinema, that Mark Schilling curated for the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. Directed at a general audience, the chapter surveys examples of efforts to produce science fiction or fantasy films in prewar Japan, focusing on early monster films and examples of movie robots—even in samurai films. I argue how most such films were mostly shunted to the margins of the industry with the exception of Toho starting in the late 1930s.
Japan: The Japanese Film Musical, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2011
Japan: The Japanese Film Musical, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
Considers the phenomenon of musicals in Japanese cinema by focusing on the problem of genre, both in terms of the general issue of the structure of genre in the Japanese film industry and the specific problem Japanese musicals have faced in trying to pursue what is often perceived as a Hollywood genre. The paper takes up two examples of the salaryman musical, Harikiri Boy from 1937 and You Can Succeed Too! from 1964, to explore how Japan too could succeed at the film musical.
Aoyama Shinji, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2010
Aoyama Shinji, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
A "new and improved" version of my essay on the Japanese film director first published in Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers (Routledge, 2002). It analyzes his work up until Sad Vacation (2008), especially in relation to his theoretical stances.
Introduction: The Theory Complex, Aaron Gerow
Nov 2010
Introduction: The Theory Complex, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
This introduction to a special issue entitled "Decentering Theory: Reconsidering the History of Japanese Film Theory" considers the problems in how film theory has been conceived, and the potentials and problems in examining the rich history of Japanese film theory. I call the "theory complex" a constellation of complexities in which not only foreign but also Japanese scholars ignore Japanese film theory, and in which Japanese thinkers experience a difficulty in terming their work theory.
Visions Of Japanese Modernity: Articulations Of Cinema, Nation, And Spectatorship, 1895-1925 (Excerpt), Aaron Gerow
Apr 2010
Visions Of Japanese Modernity: Articulations Of Cinema, Nation, And Spectatorship, 1895-1925 (Excerpt), Aaron Gerow
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 …
Kind Participation: Postmodern Consumption And Capital With Japan's Telop Tv, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2009
Kind Participation: Postmodern Consumption And Capital With Japan's Telop Tv, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
Analyses the phenomenon of subtitles (more properly called "telop") on Japanese television, especially variety programming. Critically using Ota Shoichi's work on owarai (especially the boke and tsukkomi in manzai) and Azuma Hiroki's work on database consumption, I argue about how Japanese TV not only reads itself, but encourages viewers to contribute their labor as readers to enhance the value of the televisual commodity.
Research Guide To Japanese Film Studies (Introduction), Aaron Gerow, Markus Nornes
Dec 2008
Research Guide To Japanese Film Studies (Introduction), Aaron Gerow, Markus Nornes
Aaron Gerow
The Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies provides a snapshot of all the archival and bibliographic resources available to students and scholars of Japanese cinema. Among the nations of the world, Japan has enjoyed an impressively lively print culture related to cinema. The first film books and periodicals appeared shortly after the birth of cinema, proliferating wildly in the 1910s with only the slightest pause in the dark days of World War II. The numbers of publications match the enormous scale of film production, but with the lack of support for film studies in Japan, much of it remains as …
Playing With Postmodernism: Morita Yoshimitsu’S Family Game, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2007
Playing With Postmodernism: Morita Yoshimitsu’S Family Game, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
An analysis of Morita’s film in relation to its contemporary context, especially discussions of postmodernism in Japan.
Repetition And Rupture In The Films Of Kawase Naomi / Ripetizione E Rottura Nei Film Di Kawase Naomi / Repetición Y Ruptura En Las Peliculas De Naomi Kawase, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2007
Repetition And Rupture In The Films Of Kawase Naomi / Ripetizione E Rottura Nei Film Di Kawase Naomi / Repetición Y Ruptura En Las Peliculas De Naomi Kawase, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
An analysis of the films of Kawase Naomi, from her first 8mm works to The Mourning Forest, focusing on the thematic and stylistic tension between repetition and rupture.
Kitano Takeshi (Excerpt), Aaron Gerow
Dec 2006
Kitano Takeshi (Excerpt), Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
The award-winning art film "Hana-Bi", the stoic gangster elegy "Sonatine", the surfer romance "A Scene at the Sea", the absurdist comedy "Getting Any?", the entertainment samurai spectacle "Zatoichi" - very different films made under one name "Kitano Takeshi." Who is this varied and sometimes elusive "Kitano Takeshi"? What relationship does he have to "Beat Takeshi," the name he also uses as an actor and immensely popular media personality in Japan? Is he an artistic auteur in the traditional sense, offering a singular vision easily identifiable in all his work, or a new kind of star who manages multiples identities, strategically …
Between The Sun And Japan: An Inter-National Ethics Of Cinema / 『太陽』と日本のあいだ 映画におけるインターナショナルな倫理, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2005
Between The Sun And Japan: An Inter-National Ethics Of Cinema / 『太陽』と日本のあいだ 映画におけるインターナショナルな倫理, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
This article considers how Alexandr Sokurov’s film The Sun (Solntse, 2005) approaches the problem of representing the nation by foregrounding the issue of the ethics of representing a foreign country—in this case, the Shōwa emperor Hirohito. This becomes a cinematic problem because of the way the Japanese emperor, in films ranging from The Last Samurai to The Emperor, the Empress, and the Sino-Japanese War, has often been treated as an object or subject of the gaze. Focusing on the mismatched gazes in the film, this article finds the spectator floating between the two gazes or between the seer …
Uchida Tomu And The Missing Links / Materialität Und Existenz: Uchida Tomu Und Die Fehlenden Bindeglieder Des Japanishcen Kinos, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2004
Uchida Tomu And The Missing Links / Materialität Und Existenz: Uchida Tomu Und Die Fehlenden Bindeglieder Des Japanishcen Kinos, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
A short article written for an Austrian film journal which argues that the director Uchida Tomu can serve as a sort of missing link, connecting especially pre- and postwar cinema.
Spectateurs Combattants. La Réception Du Cinéma Japonais Dans La Sphère De Coprospérité De La Grande Asie Orientale, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2002
Spectateurs Combattants. La Réception Du Cinéma Japonais Dans La Sphère De Coprospérité De La Grande Asie Orientale, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
La remarque de Paul Virilio selon laquelle « la guerre est le cinéma, le cinéma est la guerre » portait avec raison non seulement sur la relation entre la guerre et le contenu du cinéma, mais également sur la similitude entre la guerre et 1 appareil cinématographique lui-même. Néanmoins, un tel raisonnment a eu tendance à insister davantage sur l'appareil lui-même que sur le rôle des spectateurs dans la relation du film à la guerre. Cet article montre justement qu'en fait, durant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, le monde cinématographique japonais considérait comme essentielle la participation du public dans le déroulement …
From The National Gaze To Multiple Gazes: Representations Of Okinawa In Recent Japanese Cinema, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2002
From The National Gaze To Multiple Gazes: Representations Of Okinawa In Recent Japanese Cinema, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
Investigates how Japanese cinema has represented the people and islands of Okinawa. Analyses a range of films from Sayonara Nippon and Free and Easy 11, to works by Sai Yoichi, Kitano Takeshi, and Takamine Go.
The Empty Return: Circularity And Repetition In Recent Japanese Horror Films, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2001
The Empty Return: Circularity And Repetition In Recent Japanese Horror Films, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
An analysis of Japanese horror films of the 1990s focusing on the motifs of circularity and repetition. Films analyzed include Ring, Tomie, Cure and Kairo.
From Lndependence To Detachment In Recent Japanese Film / 從獨立走向抽離 當代日本電影, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2001
From Lndependence To Detachment In Recent Japanese Film / 從獨立走向抽離 當代日本電影, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
A piece I wrote for the Hong Kong Film Festival in 2002 discussing the state of independent Japanese film at the time. It focuses particularly on the problem of calling films "independent." In English and Chinese.
The Industrial Ichikawa: Ichikawa Kon After 1976, Aaron Gerow
Dec 2000
The Industrial Ichikawa: Ichikawa Kon After 1976, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
This article uses Ichikawa Kon’s later works to discuss problems in the Japanese film industry from the 1970s to the 1990s.
A Scene At The Threshold: Liminality In The Films Of Kitano Takeshi, Aaron Gerow
Dec 1998
A Scene At The Threshold: Liminality In The Films Of Kitano Takeshi, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
A reworking of an earlier article in Japanese and a precursor to my book Kitano Takeshi (BFI, 2007), this piece considers how liminal spaces such as beaches operate politically and cinematically in Kitano’s early films.
Consuming Asia, Consuming Japan: The New Neonationalist Revisionism In Japan, Aaron Gerow
Mar 1998
Consuming Asia, Consuming Japan: The New Neonationalist Revisionism In Japan, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
An analysis of recent neo-nationalist cultural trends, focusing particular on a “consumer nationalism” evident in such films as Iwai Shunji’s Swallowtail Butterfly.
日本映画1989-1997ベスト30 ＜日本＞と＜映画＞を再定義するための 一仮説 / Nihon Eiga 1989-1997 Besuto 30: 'Nihon' To 'Eiga' O Saiteigi Suru Tame No Hitokasetsu, Aaron Gerow
Sep 1997
日本映画1989-1997ベスト30 ＜日本＞と＜映画＞を再定義するための 一仮説 / Nihon Eiga 1989-1997 Besuto 30: 'Nihon' To 'Eiga' O Saiteigi Suru Tame No Hitokasetsu, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
For a 1997 issue of the Japanese intellectual journal Yuriika (Eureka) which was devoted to the theme "Japanese Cinema: From Kitano On," I was asked to write an article selecting the 30 best Japanese films made since Kitano debuted as a director in 1989. While complicating the notion of the "best" list, I took the opportunity to select films that complicated the notions of both "Japan" and "film." Without ranking them, I grouped the films under the categories: "The Appearance of Others," "The Encounter with Death," "Wandering Identities," "Alternative Identity," and "New Japanese Entertainment Film."
The Self Seen As Other: Akutagawa And Film, Aaron Gerow
Dec 1994
The Self Seen As Other: Akutagawa And Film, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
Analyzes the image of cinema that Akutagawa Ryunosuke evoked in such works as "The Shadow" (Kage).
“I Want To See Seijun’S Films Once More Before I Die”—The Suzuki Seijun Incident And Postmodern Spectatorship / 「清順の映画、もう一度見て死にたい」——鈴木清順問題とポスト・モダン観客性, Aaron Gerow
Jan 1994
“I Want To See Seijun’S Films Once More Before I Die”—The Suzuki Seijun Incident And Postmodern Spectatorship / 「清順の映画、もう一度見て死にたい」——鈴木清順問題とポスト・モダン観客性, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
The Japanese film director Suzuki Seijun was fired from the Nikkatsu studio in 1968 for making "incomprehensible" films. When the studio also declared it would no longer rent out his films, a protest movement emerged among film critics and fans. This paper analyses the form of spectatorship the protest movement proposed, one that aligns with postmodern modes of readership by declaring the rights of the viewer to create and possess the film. An elitist stance towards cinematicity, however, exposed the contradictions in the protests, and presaged the changes in film criticism from 1970 on.
Celluloid Masks: The Cinematic Image And The Image Of Japan, Aaron Gerow
Dec 1992
Celluloid Masks: The Cinematic Image And The Image Of Japan, Aaron Gerow
Aaron Gerow
This article considers the image of cinema being created in prewar Japanese literature, specifically focusing on the works of Kawabata Yasunari and Tanizaki Jun'ichiro.
