JAPANESE 296
THE FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU
Winter Quarter, 2003
Class information:
Classroom: 160-317
Time: Friday, 2:15-5:00
Screenings: Thursday, 7:30-9:30
Instructor information:
Jim Reichert
Office hours: Tuesday, 3:35-5:00, or by appointment
Office: 50-51E
Telephone: 725-3436
Email: reichert@stanford.edu
Required Texts:
David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson, Film Art, Fifth Edition
Arthur Nolletti, Jr. and David Desser, Reframing Japanese Cinema
Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry
Donald Richie, Ozu
J296 Course Reader
Requirements:
Requirements include preparation for class and participation in discussions. You will be required to attend the screenings of nine films.
Grading:
Class presentation 80%
Class participation 20%
READING ASSIGNMENTS
Week 1: January 10, Organizational Meeting
Week 2: January 17, Early Japanese Film Industry
Umarete wa mita keredo…
Ozu, pp. 1-17
The Japanese Film, pp. 21-71
Reframing Japanese Cinema, pp. 259-311.
Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, "The Vernacular Meanings of Genre," pp. 90-116, Course Reader
Donald Richie, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, pp. 43-64, Course Reader
Week 3: January 24, Sound
Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka?
The Japanese Film, pp. 72-125
Reframing Japanese Cinema, pp. 313-27
Film Art, pp. 315-54
Christian Metz, "Aural Objects," pp. 313-16, Course Reader
John Belton, "Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound," pp. 323-331, Course Reader
Week 4: January 31, Historical Context
Banshun
The Japanese Film, pp. 126-181
Kyoko Hirano, Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo, pp. 13-103, 147-78, Course Reader
Edward Fowler, "Piss and Run," pp. 273-92, Course Reader
Donald Richie, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, pp. 107-115, Course Reader
Week 5: February 7, Mise-En-Scene
Ochazuke no aji
Film Art, pp. 169-209
Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, "Space and Narrative in the Films of Ozu," pp. 41-73, Course Reader
Kristin Thompson, "Notes on the Spatial System in Ozu’s Early Films," pp. 8-18, Course Reader
Dennis J. Konshak, "Space and Narrative in ‘Tokyo Story,’" pp. 31-40, Course Reader
Kathe Geist, "Playing with Space," pp. 283-98, Course Reader
Week 6: February 14, Reception
Tôkyô monogatari
"Reviews of Tokyo Story," pp. 145-67, Course Reader
David Desser, "Introduction: A Filmmaker for All Seasons," pp. 1-24, Course Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum, "Richie’s Ozu: Our Prehistoric Present," pp. 175-79, Course Reader
Onuki Yuji, "In Search of the Real Ozu: Studies in Ozu from ‘the West,’" pp. 87-105, to be distributed in class.
Week 7: February 21, Genre
Sôshun
Thomas Elsaesser, "Tales of Sound and Fury," pp. 512-35
Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, "Melodrama, Postermodernism, and Japanese Cinema," pp. 101-26, Course Reader
Week 8: February 28, Cinematography
Higanbana
Film Art, pp. 210-69
Ozu, 105-58
Maya Deren, "Cinematography," pp. 59-70, Course Reader
Week 9: March 7, Narrative
Akibiyori
Film Art, pp. 89-165
Ozu, pp. 18-104
Reframing Japanese Cinema, pp. 91-125
Week 10 March 14, Editing
Sanma no aji
Film Art, pp. 270-314
Ozu, pp. 159-85
Vsevolod Pudovkin, "On Editing," pp. 121-26, Course Reader