Ozu International: Essays on the Global Influences of a Japanese Auteur

Description

In Japan and much of Europe, Ozu is widely considered to be one of the finest film directors who ever lived. While Ozu has a strong reputation in the West, his films are not as well-known or widely appreciated in the U.S. as they are elsewhere. A notable exception to this trend is film critic Roger Ebert, who recently wrote that Ozu is one of his "three or four" favorite directors. Also, moving beyond the view that Tokyo Story is a masterful exception in the Ozu canon, Ebert sees Ozu's films as "nearly always of the same high quality." Ozu International will reflect on Ebert's view of Ozu by arguing that this director deserves broader recognition in the U.S., and that his entire canon is worthy of serious study. With the recent release of more than 15 Ozu DVDs in the Criterion Collection, covering every phase of his career at least in part (including silent films, black-and-white talkies, and color films), Ozu International helps to fill a lingering gap in English-language scholarship on Ozu by giving this new generation of scholars a book-length forum to explore new critical perspectives on an unfairly neglected director. Contributions include specialists in Japanese culture, academics from a range of disciplines, and professional films critics.

Wayne Stein is Professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, USA, and teaches classes on Kurosawa, Japanese horror, and Vietnam War cinema. He has coauthored the readers Fresh Takes (2009) and Strategems (2009) and has written various chapters in books and encyclopedia entries on Asian American literature and Asian cinema. Marc DiPaolo is Assistant Professor of English and Film at Oklahoma City University, USA, and is the author of War Politics and Superheroes and Emma Adapted (2007); editor of Godly Heretics: Essays on Alternative Christianity in Literature (2013) and Unruly Catholics: Faith, Progressivism, and Cultural Studies (2013).

These sophisticated essays certainly challenge, deepen and complicate our standard understanding of Ozu. All the more refreshing is that they are written in a clear, lively style, without a hint of academic jargon. Phillip Lopate, Film Critic, Award-Winning Author, and Director of the Graduate Nonfiction Writing Program, Columbia University, USA From new perspectives on canonical films to new entries into the canon, this scintillating study of Ozu's cinema is truly a must-read for anyone who cares about its subject. No less important than new contextual understandings of Ozu's films drawn from the range of his career are the ways, often surprising but always convincing, that these essays demonstrate Ozu's influence on global cinema. No appreciation of Ozu is complete without this latest addition to the ever-growing literature on Japan's most fascinating and increasingly influential filmmaker. David Desser, Professor Emeritus of Cinema Studies, University of Illinois, USA, and editor of Ozu's Tokyo Story