Japanese Film and Animation of the 20th Century

Recent years have seen an explosion of worldwide interest in Japanese popular media, including manga (comics), anime (animation), and films. Yet Japan’s current success in exporting films/anime abroad is by no means just a recent phenomenon. We will explore Japanese live action film/animation from its origins through turn of 21st century. Students will learn to read films as narrative texts, and critiquing them on multiple levels. In the process, we will attempt to seek out what about Japanese cinematic art has caught the attention of Western critics, keeping our eyes on questions of identity and responses to historical events.