- Document type
- Book review
- Published
- 16 February 2004
Le cinéma japonais - une introduction
- Author:
- Max Tessier
- Publisher:
- Editions Nathan
Storia del Cinema Giapponese
- Author:
- Maria Roberta Novielli
- Publisher:
- Marsilio
Revival van de Japanse film
- Author:
- Luk van Haute
- Publisher:
- Amsterdam University Press / Salome
- Review by:
- Tom Mes
It sometimes seems as if every country has its reigning Japanese cinema expert. In Europe, three of these are Max Tessier in France, Maria Roberta Novielli in Italy and Luk van Haute in Belgium. Each of these three authorities has written their introductory books on the subject.
Reading and looking much like a French version of Donald Richie's Japanese Cinema: an Introduction, Tessier's similarly-titled Le cinema japonais: une introduction is exactly what its title promises: a fairly broad, but not very deep, overview of the history of Japanese cinema. In 127 pages Tessier starts from the introduction of cinema into Japan in 1897, when two Lumière brothers' cameramen (this is a French book, after all) made the first films on Japanese soil, right up to late-1990s newcomers such as Naomi Kawase and Ryosuke Hashiguchi, taking in all the usual suspects in between.
Tessier's range is quite broad, but it's clear that his heart is in pre-1970 Japanese cinema and the established names. The write-ups on directors of more popular fare like Kenji Misumi and Ishiro Honda are shockingly brief, while Kinji Fukasaku's work is summed up in two scant lines, in which Tessier writes off the director's contributions to the gangster genre as "a pretext for violence." Similarly ridiculous assertions appear in the section devoted to the 1990s (covered in a mere two pages), such as the comparison between Shinya Tsukamoto and Luc Besson!
This book does however do exactly what its title promises and should provide a decent starting point for any French-reading novice enthusiast. Just don't expect anything more than a very global introduction.
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Le cinéma japonais - une introduction
Editions Nathan
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More exhaustive and thoughtful in that respect, and as an overview of Japanese cinematic history as a whole, is Storia del Cinema Giapponese by Italy's Roberta Novielli. A much more hefty volume than the Richie and Tessier introduction books, Novielli's 350-page tome reflects the knowledge of the Venetian professor of Japanese language and culture, with sub-chapters devoted to New Wave documentarians and the underground 8mm movement of the late 70s alongside extensive coverage dedicated the likes of Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kinoshita and Ichikawa.
Published in 2001, it also includes good introductions to the work of such late 1990s genre filmmakers as Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Takashi Miike, taking the time to go into the themes and concerns manifested in their work. Offering both breadth and depth, and sporting a preface by Nagisa Oshima, those able to read Italian could do much worse than picking up a copy of Novielli's work.
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Storia del Cinema Giapponese
Marsilio
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Filling the gap left by the introductory books of Richie, Tessier et al, Luk van Haute's Revival van de Japanse film is entirely devoted to contemporary Japanese cinema. While the fact that it's written in Dutch means its audience is inherently limited, this doesn't deter from the fact that Van Haute's decision to focus on contemporary films should be applauded. Perhaps one could even call it courageous, particularly in the light of the almost contemptuous tone with which Donald Richie approached (or in some cases entirely ignored) the work of many of today's directors in his recent A Hundred Years of Japanese Cinema.
Written in a pleasant, sometimes almost colloquial style, Van Haute's 92-page work takes an inevitably selective approach to the subject. However, the selection he made is at times very intriguing. While stalwarts like Sogo Ishii, Takashi Miike and Kiyoshi Kurosawa are all represented, there's also room devoted to independent producers like Kenzo Horikoshi, influential organisations like PIA and Image Forum, acting coach Toshi Shioya and female pink film director Yumi Yoshiyuki. Although including two women (Naomi Kawase and the aforementioned Yoshiyuki) among the six profiled directors can't really be called a proper reflection of the role of female directors in Japanese cinema today, the inclusion of Yoshiyuki is refreshing and allows the author to delve a bit deeper into the workings of the pink eiga industry, which still takes up a large percentage of the country's annual cinematic output.
Also offering an attempt to explain the titular revival through its socio-economic and political background, Van Haute's short but welcome book is indispensable to any Benelux resident with even the faintest interest in Japanese cinema.