JPN 350 - Topics in Japanese Cinema

Prerequisite, JPN 202 or consent of instructor. The course will be conducted entirely in Japanese, immersing students in a mode of thinking in the target language. As a topic course, the content will change every time it is offered. Close observation of Japanese films with attention to invisible impacts of filmic forms and assumptions on our emotions and thoughts. Students will examine works by Miwa Nishikawa, Kenji Uchida, Masahide Ichii, Nagisa Oshima, and Ozu Yasujiro. The complex relationship between images and sound, individual and the nation-state as well as cultural forms and its ideological effects will be discussed. The class will learn how to focus on subtle nuances behind generic storytelling by sampling various techniques and interpretative habits. Themes will include: gender and class, patriarchy and modernity, freedom and family tradition, Americanism and consumerism, identity and differences, technological mediation of consciousness, etc. Letter grade. May be repeated for credit. (Offered as needed.) 3-6 credits