Essay 1: Japanese cinema
Japanese cinema has been in existence for over a century. Japan has a record of one of the biggest and oldest film businesses in the globe. By the year 2010, Japan was ranked amongst the top ten best film producing countries globally. In the year 2011, the films produced in Japan grossed an average of 2.4 billion dollars in the box offices (Desjardins 36). Since 1897, Japan has been producing movies after the arrival of the first cinematographer. Japan films have been amongst the best eight films produced in Asia. In the rankings and awards received, Japan has scooped the Academy awards a couple of times more than any other Asian country. In 1894, the first film to be produced in Japan, the kinetoscope and was aired in 1896. However, during this period, the moving pictures were not common in Japan because of the sophisticated devices used to like the magic lantern (Desjardins 67). In 1897, the first successful film aired in Tokyo, Japan. In 1898, there were ghost films made like Bake Jizo and Shiro Asano. In 1899, the first documentary, Geisho no teodori was short in Japan. Traditional theatre influenced early films like Bunraku and kabuki.
There were storytellers and benshi, who were hired by Japan to do screen writing and produce movies (Iles 78). After a gradual increase of sound, the benshi was no longer popular. With the success of Honnoji gassen, the director, Shozo Makino, started to produce other films in Japan (Desjardins 98). Shozo hired a number of writers and directors to begin his productions. He hired Onoe to become one of the most popular Japanese actors. Onoe appeared in over one thousand movies and some popular short stories. Actor Tokuko was the first female artist to appear in a professional acting.
Essay 2
Battle royale film was film produced in Japan in 2000. The film was adapted from the popular novel by Koushun Takami. Kinji Fukasaku directed the film. Fukasaku’s son, Kenta, wrote the screenplay of the film (Iles 78). The star in the film is Takeshi Kitano. The film is about Shuya Nanahara who is a high school student. Nanahara has been struggling since his father passed. His father had committed suicide by hanging himself. Kitano had reported that Nanahara’s class was to participate in Battle royale because of the BR Act (Fukasaka). The government forced him to play a fatal game, which involved a student’s killing game. After the airing of the film, there were several controversies that made it get banned in a number of countries. This film was a successful blockbuster and turned out to be one of Japan’s highest grossing films. Japan released the film in more than twenty-two countries globally. The film got an international audience and vital acclaim. This film is possibly one of Japan’s most popular films. It is also one of the best films produced by Fukasaku. After the success of the first film Fukasaku begun to work on the sequel, Battle Royale II. Unfortunately, before Fukasaku could complete the filming, he died of prostate cancer. In 2003, Fukasaku’s son finished the film and honored it to his father.
Works Cited
Desjardins, Chris. Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005. Internet
resource.
Fukasaka, Kinji. Battle royale. Web. 7 December 2012.
Available at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zKUBPgBQ1Q>
Iles, Timothy. The Crisis of Identity in Contemporary Japanese Film: Personal, Cultural,
National. Leiden: Brill, 2008. Internet resource.
