Overview

In Japanese Cinema and Punk, Mark Player examines how the do-it-yourself ethos of punk empowered a new generation of Japanese filmmakers during a period of crisis and change in Japan’s film industry. Drawing on rare materials and first-hand interviews with key figures from the jishu eiga (self-made film) tradition, including Ishii Gakuryu (formerly Ishii Sogo), Yamamoto Masashi, Tsukamoto Shin’ya, and Fukui Shozin, Player explores how punk’s bricolage style was leveraged to create exciting intermedial film aesthetics. These aesthetics were influenced by rock music, graffiti art, street performance, handmade animation, television, and other mass media. By considering the practical, phenomenological, and political ramifications of combining diverse media elements, Player offers in-depth analyses of films such as Burst City (1982), Robinson’s Garden (1987), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), and more. He further traces the changing sociocultural position of Japan’s punk generation throughout the 1980s—from its euphoric early-80s peak to the growing disillusionment caused by its mainstream co-optation and convergence.

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9781350378568

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Reviews

An essential book not just for anyone interested in Japan’s punk scene, but for anyone with an interest in the history of independent Japanese cinema. -- William Carroll, University of Alberta, Canada This book breaks new ground both in its exploration of the exciting, experimental area of Japanese punk filmmaking and in its refined and sensitive intermedial approach. -- Ágnes Petho, Sapientia University of Transylvania, Romania

Author Information

Mark Player is a film scholar specialising in Japanese cinema. He previously taught film at the University of Reading, UK and has been published in journals such as Japan Forum, Punk & Post Punk, and Film and Media Studies. His research interests include Asian cinema, (cyber)punk, media distribution, film festivals, amateur film, DIY and underground subcultures.

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