Guide 02 Asian cinema independent information
Japanese cinema golden age, from Kurosawa to animation
Japanese cinema is one of the oldest national film cultures and one of the most varied. This guide sketches the main periods and gives you a few safe places to begin.
What was the golden age of Japanese cinema?
Many film histories treat the 1950s as a peak. Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) is so famous because it won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1951 and is often named as the film that opened Western festival audiences to Japanese cinema; its story told from conflicting viewpoints also gave critics a shorthand for such narratives. His Seven Samurai (1954) shaped how adventure stories about a group of heroes are told, in Japan and elsewhere.
At the same time, Yasujiro Ozu made quiet family dramas such as Tokyo Story (1953), filmed with a low, still camera and very little melodrama. Kenji Mizoguchi, whose Ugetsu (1953) won a Silver Lion at Venice, favoured long takes and graceful movement. The three directors could hardly be more different, which is the point: the golden age was a range of styles, not one.
Monsters and genre
Godzilla (1954), directed by Ishiro Honda, turned fear of nuclear weapons into a monster film and started a long series. Studios such as Toho, Nikkatsu and Toei also produced yakuza films, samurai films and many B pictures, which later directors loved and quoted.
The New Wave and after
In the 1960s a group including Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura challenged the older studio style, with more openly political stories and rougher images. Imamura later won the Palme d'Or twice, for The Ballad of Narayama (1983) and The Eel (1997).
From the 1980s and 1990s a mix of independent filmmakers and festival favourites emerged. Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palme d'Or in 2018 for Shoplifters, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car won the Oscar for best international feature at the ceremony held in 2022.
Animation
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 around Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001) won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2002 and the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2003. Anime is a large field of its own, from family films to science fiction such as Akira (1988), and it deserves its own watching list.
Japanese golden age films: where to start
Try Seven Samurai for story and action, Tokyo Story for stillness, Spirited Away for animation, and Shoplifters for a modern drama. If you like a film, look for the same director's next one rather than the same genre.