Brill The Crisis of Identity in Contemporary Japanese Film: Personal, Cultural, National (Brill's Japanese Studies Library): 30

A concise, textually analytical study of the ways in which works of contemporary Japanese cinema have explored and reflected a 'crisis' in Japan's changing conceptions of individuality and identity approaching the central issue from a range of aspects. Review "The ambitious scope of the work, with its suggestive exploration of the ways in which films speak to issues of identity, lays a valuable foundation for further investigation into cinema's relation to contemporary Japanese society." Laura Lee, University of Chicago, JAS From the Back Cover This study, from a variety of analytical approaches, examines ways in which contemporary Japanese film presents a critical engagement with Japan's project of modernity to demonstrate the 'crisis' in conceptions of identity. The work discusses gender, the family, travel, the 'everyday' as horror, and ways in which animated films can offer an ideal space in which an ideal conception of identity may emerge and thrive. It presents close, theoretically-informed textual analyses of the thematic issues contemporary Japanese films raise, through a wide range of genres, from comedy, family drama, and animation, to science fiction and horrror by directors such as Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Morita Yoshimitsu, Miike Takashi, Oshii Mamoru, Kon Satoshi, and Miyazaki Hayao, in language that is accessible but precise. About the Author Timothy Iles, Ph.D. (1997) in Modern Japanese Literature, University of Toronto, is Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Victoria. He has published on Japanese cinema, literature, and theatre, including Abe Kōbō an Exploration of his Prose, Drama, and Theatre (European Press Academic Publishing, 2000).