- Paperback: 624 pages
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (Jan 23 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0299181340
- ISBN-13: 978-0299181345
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.5 x 3.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 839 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #911,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
From the late 1920s through World War II, film became a crucial tool in the state of Japan. Detailing the way Japanese directors, scriptwriters, company officials, and bureaucrats colluded to produce films that supported the war effort, The Imperial Screen is a highly-readable account of the realities of cultural life in wartime Japan. Widely hailed as "epoch-making" by the Japanese press, it presents the most comprehensive survey yet published of "national policy" films, relating their montage and dramatic structures to the cultural currents, government policies, and propaganda goals of the era. Peter B. High's treatment of the Japanese film world as a microcosm of the entire sphere of Japanese wartime culture demonstrates what happens when conscientious artists and intellectuals become enmeshed in a totalitarian regime.
English language edition is revised and expanded from the original Japanese
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
the Pacific War seen through film-makers' eyes,
By
This review is from: Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture In The Fifteen Years War, (Paperback)
This is a very difficult and very useful book. Despite his western name and origins, Mr. High is a professor of film in Japan, and he is evidently fluent in the language. With affection but without excusing anything, he takes us through the early years of Japanese cinema and especially through what is mysteriously called the 15 Years War. (It probably seemed longer, but in fact it lasted 14 years.) More than a survey of militarism in a unique culture, Mr. High uses the movie business as a way to explore Japanese life and behavior during the awfulness, for example by explaining the American bombing raids in terms of the number of movie houses destroyed each month. I've seen but not been able to understand the dialogue in several of the films he discusses, and I was delighted to have some of the gaps filled for me. Altogether, a very valuable exercise, both for the film buff and for those of us with an interest in Imperial Japan and the horrors it unleashed upon Asia. -- Dan Ford
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
the Pacific War seen through film-makers' eyes,
By Daniel Ford - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture In The Fifteen Years War, (Paperback)
This is a very difficult and very useful book. Despite his western name and origins, Mr. High is a professor of film in Japan, and he is evidently fluent in the language. With affection but without excusing anything, he takes us through the early years of Japanese cinema and especially through what is mysteriously called the 15 Years War. (It probably seemed longer, but in fact it lasted 14 years.) More than a survey of militarism in a unique culture, Mr. High uses the movie business as a way to explore Japanese life and behavior during the awfulness, for example by explaining the American bombing raids in terms of the number of movie houses destroyed each month. I've seen but not been able to understand the dialogue in several of the films he discusses, and I was delighted to have some of the gaps filled for me. Altogether, a very valuable exercise, both for the film buff and for those of us with an interest in Imperial Japan and the horrors it unleashed upon Asia. -- Dan Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Joy to read!,
By Poe Poe Poe - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture In The Fifteen Years War, (Paperback)
This book won the KATHERINE SINGER KOVACS BOOK AWARD for 2004 (Society for Cinema and Media Studies) as well as other awards and honorable mentions. Without a doubt, it is the most authoritative work in its field. Not only does it cover cinema, it is a wonderful introduction to the whole spectrum of creative culture in Japan during the war years. Despite its impeccable academic credentials, it is extremely reader friendly--in fact, parts of it read with the vividness of a novel! Anyone--and I mean ANYONE!--interested in what it was like to be an artist or intellectual under Japanese-style fascism, should read this book!
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