Japanese Cinema

My knowledge of Japanese cinema is shamefully limited. Like most film viewers I’m aware of the films by director Akira Kurosawa and the work of actor Toshiro Mifune. However, apart from those two cinematic giants very little has passed my way, although I did get to see Kwaidan at the Film Forum cinema last year. When you think of cinema from this region I tend to conjure up two images, either tales about ghosts returning to reap vengeance, or scenes of epic battles. (Three, I suppose if I include the city terrorizing monster films). So it’s interesting to read about the smaller more intimate dramas that were being produced in the post-war period. These seem to have a sociological link with cinema that was occurring around the world. Just like in the USA and in Britain, Japanese cinema started to take a bleaker look at its own country.

After the war Japanese cinema appears to have embraced the aesthetic challenges of the medium. Some directors incorporated traditional Japanese art, while others like Yasujiro Ozu headed toward a more realistic style. Yet, even within this he has a sense of style that differs from his peers. In a typical scene directed by Ozu he may focus on small objects in a room, or employ a subdued color scheme. One of the more interesting and disorientating techniques that Ozu uses is to film with a 360 degree circle. Films generally have a 180 degree rule when editing more than one viewpoint together. This ensures that two characters in a scene have the same left-right relationship to each other. Ozu would dispense with this in order to achieve a more visually interesting scene. When we watch Early Summer (1951) it will be fascinating to see if this enhances the film or proves to be too jarring for our sensibilities.