The crisis of identity in contemporary Japanese film : : personal, cultural, national / / by Timothy Iles.

• Superior document: Brill's Japanese studies library, v. 30
• Author: Iles, Timothy, 1961-
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's Japanese studies library ; v. 30.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

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.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Materials / T. Iles -- Introduction / T. Iles -- Chapter One. Contextualising Identity In Contemporary Japanese Film / T. Iles -- Chapter Two. Problems Of Communication, Identity, And Gendered Social Construction In Contemporary Japanese Cinema: The Look And The Voice / T. Iles -- Chapter Three. Families, Crisis, And Film / T. Iles -- Chapter Four. Horror, Thriller, Suspense: “Who Are You?” / T. Iles -- Chapter Five. Traveling Toward The Self In Japanese Film / T. Iles -- Chapter Six. The Human/Post-Human In Japanese Animation / T. Iles -- Chapter Seven. Animation And Identity: Drawing A Line Between The Real And The Ideal / T. Iles -- Conclusion - Looking For The Face In The Frame / T. Iles -- Bibliography / T. Iles -- Index / T. Iles.