Samurais, courtesans, actors, ghosts! In the 1950s into the early 1960s four magnificent Japanese filmmakers made some of cinema's crowning achievements: Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozo and Masai Kobayashi. Their films are set in Japan's historical past or in a fast-changing contemporary society. The films question power, hierarchy and the glorification of war, sometimes employing the supernatural and uncanny. They also look at the meaning and continuance of traditional Japanese culture in post-war society and the family's role in that world. Mizoguchi and Ozu's films, especially, explore the situation of women, past and present, in patriarchal society. Five of our films were named as the greatest ever made in Sight and Sound's latest 100 Best Films.
In this Film Studies SDG, we'll cover historical background, cultural context , and, importantly, how the art of film--narrative, mise-en-scene, cinematography, music, sound, editing, acting--expresses meaning and a director's unique vision. We will do scene analyses that illustrate this artistry.
