Japanese Film

Classical Japanese cinema is dominated by the formally beautiful domestic dramas of Yasujiro Ozu, the films of Kenji Mizoguchi, often characterised by their exquisite cinematography, and the giant and wide-ranging talent of Akira Kurosawa, whose mastery of contemporary and period topics remains unsurpassed.

But the vibrant diversity of... show more >

Classical Japanese cinema is dominated by the formally beautiful domestic dramas of Yasujiro Ozu, the films of Kenji Mizoguchi, often characterised by their exquisite cinematography, and the giant and wide-ranging talent of Akira Kurosawa, whose mastery of contemporary and period topics remains unsurpassed.

But the vibrant diversity of modern Japanese film also owes much to experimental iconoclasts like Hiroshi Teshigahara, Shohei Imamura and Nagisa Oshima, who dispensed with traditional dramatic and artistic influences in the 1960s and facilitated the rise of genres like the creature feature, the yakuza thriller, the samurai slasher, the erotic Pink picture, J-horror and anime, which unleashed talents like Seijun Suzuki, Kinji Fukasaki, Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Miike. However, its most acclaimed recent exports in film have perhaps been the animated films from Studio Ghibli, headed by acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki, which have charmed and enthralled audiences worldwide. < show less