Week 2★Oct 12th 1. Early Japanese Cinema: Benshi & Period Films

Week 2★Oct 12^th    Lecture and Discussion

Required Readings:[for all]

Burch, Noel. “A Machine Appears”, “a Rule and its Ubiquity” & “Bulwarks of Tradition”, To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in Japanese Cinema, University of California Press, 1979, p57-60 & p67-88 

[you would be able to download the whole book HERE; please only read the necessary pages]

Richie, Donald, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, Kodansha International, revised edition, 2005, p 17-32[download HERE]

Reference Readings

[recommended for year-4 students and above]

Gerow, Aaron. “Introduction,” Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema,Nation and Spectatorship, 1895-1925, University of California Press, 2010, p1-39 [download HERE]

Ran's note: Anderson's is not difficult to read actually!!

Anderson, J. L.  “Japanese Swordfighters and American Gunfighters”, Cinema Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Spring, 1973), pp. 1-21[download HERE]