Japanese Film and the Floating Mind

Japanese film is enduringly fascinating, challenging and rewarding. This book provides a cultural, historical and philosophical study of Japanese film, from the silent era to the present-day, focusing on its expansive consciousness. The author examines masterpieces by Ozu, Mizoguchi, Oshima and many other directors, discussing their influence on the Japanese culture of esoteric Zen Buddhism and relating them to recent neuroscientific theories of brain trauma.

Justin Vicari is an award-winning poet, essayist and film writer. He lives in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.

Justin Vicari

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 232
Bibliographic Info: 34 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6498-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2496-9
Imprint: McFarland

Preface: Japanese Film X 1
Introduction: Paradoxes of Perception: In a Ghostly Theater 6

Part One: Toward the Last Ontology
1. Moon in Water 23
2. The Broken Heart of Ontology 37
3. Anxieties of Change, Changing Anxieties 52
4. Extremisms 64
5. The Last Ontology 101

Part Two: The Floating World
6. Refugees of the Floating World 109
7. The Meanings of the Wound 127

Part Three: Emperor Worship
8. The Problem of Emperor Worship 147
9. Naruse: An Early and Enduring Critic of Emperor Worship 160
10. Ozu, After Surrender 166
11. “Just a memory”: The Figure of the Emperor in Postwar Melodrama 176
12. Three Films 186

Mizoguchi’s Women of the Night  186
Imamura’s Outlaw Matsuo Comes Home  188
Wakamatsu’s Caterpillar  192
Conclusion 197
Chapter Notes 205
Works Cited 215
Index 221