Visions of Japanese modernity : articulations of cinema, nation, and spectatorship, 1895–1925

Description

In this study, Aaron Gerow focuses on the early period in which the institutional and narrational structure of Japanese cinema was in flux, arguing that the transnational intertext is less important than the power-laden operations by which the meaning of cinema itself was discursively defined. Both progressive critics of the 'pure film' movement and the more conservative Japanese cultural bureaucrats demanded a unitary text that suppressed the hybrid and unpredictable meanings attendant on early Japanese cinema's informal exhibition contexts. Gerow points out the irony that the progressive and individualist pure film movement critics worked in concert with the Japanese state to undo the 'theft' of Japanese cinema, proposing to replace representations of Japan in Western films by exporting a Japanese cinema 'reformed' to emulate the international norm.  Read more... The motion pictures as a problem -- Gonda Yasunosuke and the promise of film study -- Studying the pure film -- The subject of the text: Benshi, authors, and industry -- Managing the internal -- Conclusion : mixture, hegemony, and resistance.