Introduction. The Misleading Discovery of Japanese National Cinema
The Western ‘discovery’ of Japanese cinema in the 1950s prompted scholars to articulate essentialist visions understanding its singularities as a result of its isolation from the rest of the world and its close links to local aesthetic and philosophical traditions. Recent approac...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2018-11-01
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| Series: | Arts |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/7/4/87 |
| _version_ | 1817980116673757184 |
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| author | Marcos P. Centeno Martín |
| author_facet | Marcos P. Centeno Martín |
| author_sort | Marcos P. Centeno Martín |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Western ‘discovery’ of Japanese cinema in the 1950s prompted scholars to articulate essentialist visions understanding its singularities as a result of its isolation from the rest of the world and its close links to local aesthetic and philosophical traditions. Recent approaches however, have evidenced the limitations of this paradigm of ‘national cinema’. Higson (1989) opened a critical discussion on the existing consumption, text and production-based approaches to this concept. This article draws on Higson´s contribution and calls into question traditional theorising of Japanese film as a national cinema. Contradictions are illustrated by assessing the other side of the ‘discovery’ of Japanese cinema: certain <i>gendaigeki</i> works that succeeded at the domestic box office while <i>jidaigeki</i> burst into European film festivals. The <i>Taiyōzoku</i> and subsequent <i>Mukokuseki Action</i> films created a new postwar iconography by adapting codes of representation from Hollywood youth and <i>western</i> films. This article does not attempt to deny the uniqueness of this film culture, but rather seeks to highlight the need to reformulate the paradigm of national cinema in the Japanese case, and illustrate the sense in which it was created from outside, failing to recognise its reach transnational intertextuality. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T22:50:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9be8f718c7194f9fa41d33f7e4c2d490 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0752 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T22:50:29Z |
| publishDate | 2018-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Arts |
| spelling | doaj.art-9be8f718c7194f9fa41d33f7e4c2d4902022-12-22T02:26:13ZengMDPI AGArts2076-07522018-11-01748710.3390/arts7040087arts7040087Introduction. The Misleading Discovery of Japanese National CinemaMarcos P. Centeno Martín0Department of Cultures and Languages, School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UKThe Western ‘discovery’ of Japanese cinema in the 1950s prompted scholars to articulate essentialist visions understanding its singularities as a result of its isolation from the rest of the world and its close links to local aesthetic and philosophical traditions. Recent approaches however, have evidenced the limitations of this paradigm of ‘national cinema’. Higson (1989) opened a critical discussion on the existing consumption, text and production-based approaches to this concept. This article draws on Higson´s contribution and calls into question traditional theorising of Japanese film as a national cinema. Contradictions are illustrated by assessing the other side of the ‘discovery’ of Japanese cinema: certain <i>gendaigeki</i> works that succeeded at the domestic box office while <i>jidaigeki</i> burst into European film festivals. The <i>Taiyōzoku</i> and subsequent <i>Mukokuseki Action</i> films created a new postwar iconography by adapting codes of representation from Hollywood youth and <i>western</i> films. This article does not attempt to deny the uniqueness of this film culture, but rather seeks to highlight the need to reformulate the paradigm of national cinema in the Japanese case, and illustrate the sense in which it was created from outside, failing to recognise its reach transnational intertextuality.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/7/4/87national cinematransnational Japanese film<i>taiyōzoku</i><i>mukokuseki</i>‘kimono effect’youth iconspostwar film festivals |
| spellingShingle | Marcos P. Centeno Martín Introduction. The Misleading Discovery of Japanese National Cinema Arts national cinema transnational Japanese film <i>taiyōzoku</i> <i>mukokuseki</i> ‘kimono effect’ youth icons postwar film festivals |
| title | Introduction. The Misleading Discovery of Japanese National Cinema |
| title_full | Introduction. The Misleading Discovery of Japanese National Cinema |
| title_fullStr | Introduction. The Misleading Discovery of Japanese National Cinema |
| title_full_unstemmed | Introduction. The Misleading Discovery of Japanese National Cinema |
| title_short | Introduction. The Misleading Discovery of Japanese National Cinema |
| title_sort | introduction the misleading discovery of japanese national cinema |
| topic | national cinema transnational Japanese film <i>taiyōzoku</i> <i>mukokuseki</i> ‘kimono effect’ youth icons postwar film festivals |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/7/4/87 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT marcospcentenomartin introductionthemisleadingdiscoveryofjapanesenationalcinema |