Peter Cowie is a bona fide expert on international film and has
published 30+ books on the subject
His account of Japanese film includes personal encounters with the
directors themselves and others icons such as Donald Richie.
A comprehensive guide to Japanese film: from prewar films to
21st-century Japanese animation.
Has the breadth of an introduction for the uninitiated along with
perceptive analysis to impress film buffs.
Includes individual chapters dedicated to revered directors Akira
Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Hayao Miyazaki, among others.
Peter Cowie is a frequent collaborator with the Criterion
Collection where one can view many of the films mentioned in the
book.
Japan is considered to have one of the world's premier national
cinemas: for reference, the Criterion Collection hosts 221 Japanese
films, surpassed only by the United States and France in quantity.
The British Film Institute ranks Ozu's Tokyo Story and Late Spring
as the 3rd and 15th greatest film of all time respectively. Akira
Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Rashomon rank 17th and 26th respectively.
Distinguished film critic Roger Ebert has sited Ozu's Floating Weeds
and Kurosawa's Ikiru on his 10 greatest films of all time. All 6 of
which feature in this book.
Japanese film auteurs such as Ozu and Kurosawa receive individual
chapters dedicated to their oeuvre, so too does the international
face of Japanese animation, Hayao Miyazaki.
According to UNESCO, Japan has consistently ranked as the 4th largest
film-producing country, in terms of number of films produced, and 3rd,
in terms of gross box office, coming in at 2.4 billion.
