JAPN 310: JAPANESE CINEMA
COURSE DESCRIPTION
JAPN 310: Japanese Cinema
An introductory scrutiny of major Japanese directors and genres with attention to film composition, choices of subject and character, ideas of the cinematic, and the relationship of cinema to Japanese culture and society. Students will analyze and critique films. Discussion of films will deal with the production of their historical, social, and cultural context, as well as issues dealing with popular culture and equity. Taught in English. From CSU Monterey Bay Catalog
An introductory scrutiny of major Japanese directors and genres with attention to film composition, choices of subject and character, ideas of the cinematic, and the relationship of cinema to Japanese culture and society. Students will analyze and critique films. Discussion of films will deal with the production of their historical, social, and cultural context, as well as issues dealing with popular culture and equity. Taught in English. From CSU Monterey Bay Catalog
Course reflective narrative
I took this course in the spring of 2014 with professor Chikaomi Takahashi. This course fulfills the requisite of MLO 4, Secondary Cultural Knowledge. In this class we watched Japanese movies each session for which we had to turn in a reflective analysis of each film, in which we had to include the essences of the Japanese culture capture, such as camerawork, storyline, the music, characters expressions etc. Finally we had to write how the films related to our own life experiences and rate the films from one to five. We were also assigned two books to read, one was Something Like an Autobiography from Akira Kurosawa and A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. Two of the most representative Japanese films are Seven Samurai, which inspired in the making of Star Wars or the legendary Gojira, precursor of the great American Godzilla. We also watched Hidden Fortress, Ikuru, Late Spring, Red Beard, Departures and many others. In the film Tampopo, I was able to notice the influence of the American cowboy movies in the Japanese film. Its incredible how much the Japanese influenced the world through their films, and how much modern Japanese directors took from western movies.Prior to taking this course, I thought that the Japanese were strange people, perhaps I had never been exposed to nothing more than what I watch on regular television. By been exposed to this films I could understand the essence of live of the Japanese through their tidy life style. Sometimes I have question the rigidness of their rules, but had never tried to understand them. Now I realize that these rules are an essential part of culture to achieve harmony to their societies. I have learned that as humans, Japanese also make mistakes, but they look at this mistakes as a lesson to learn, is an essential part of their life. While I took the curse I realized all similarities there is between Japanese and Mexican people customs such as all the struggles some people of the societies have to face to maintain such traditions and customs. I will love to take a few more Japanese cultural courses that can better help me understand their culture. I have always thought that to get a better understanding of the unknown, one must became part of it, for this reason, in a near future I would love to travel to Japan.
Work Sample
Work Sample 2