Classical Japanese Cinema Flashcards
because they developed differently, classical Asian cinema and classical hollywood cinema have different…
conventions
define jidaigeki
distinctive Japanese style of film, movies about the samurai period
during WW2, the japanese government was very… (2)
authoritarian and used strict censorship
jidaigeki films of WW2 era celebrate..
the traditional samurai value of loyalty to their superiors
how many years post-WW2 does America occupy japan?
6
during the american occupation of japan, movies were…(2)
- heavily censored
- supposed to avoid “traditionalist themes”
during the american occupation, jidaigeki films became…
almost impossible to make
with japan’s independence in the 50s, filmmakers were freed from…
extreme political censorship
example of post occupation japanese cinema is…
Godzilla (1954)
other films of the post occupation period explore the clashes between…
traditionalism and modernity in daily life
what genre were filmmakers able to revive in the post-occupation period?
jidaigeki
post occupation jidaigeki films looked at the samurai legends with a…
much more skeptical eye
who was Yasujiro Ozu?
japanese filmmaker whos work shows the most extreme examples of the distinctive japanese style
main difference in japanese classical cinema involves…
composition
define composition
the arrangement of the objects within the frame of the shot
how did composition in japanese classical cinema differ? (2)
- used symmetrical compositions
- the composition of conversations
why did classical hollywood cinema tend to avoid using symmetrical compositions?
because it felt overly formal and ordered
how did classical hollywood tend to film conversations?
at a 45 degree angle to the face so the audience can see both characters in each frame
define objective perspective
when the audience can see more than either character can
what type of composition does Ozu tend to use for conversations?
frontal composition
why does Ozu use frontal compositions?
so only one person is visible in each shot, creating a series of eyeline matches
Kurosawa tends to use symmetrical composition only to emphasize…
the idea of traditionalism or formality
Rashomon uses an…
original kind of storytelling
define stylist western
italian westerns, inspired by Kurosawa’s samurai films based off american westerns
what was the influence of classical japanese cinema? (2)
- showed western filmmakers that there wasn’t a correct way to make films
- encouraged western filmmakers to experiment more with the language of film
