This web page is designed to acquaint Kenyon College students and faculty with electronic, print and media resources on the broad topic of Japanese cinema in our Library's collection, as well as guide these researchers towards materials available through our Consort and Ohiolink partner libraries. Access to the individual databases featuring critical film theory and feature film reviews are also included. Successful research involves perseverance and a willingness to explore a number of print and electronic resources, if you have trouble during any point of your research process contact a librarian.

This web page also links to a selected list of readings for the effective use of film in the college classroom and a limited number of internet resources. Visitors to the web page, who are not members of the Kenyon community, should refer to their home library's list of databases for access information.

There are a number of ways to locate films in the CONSORT catalog.

• If you know the title, try a title search Throne of Blood

Alternately, for foreign language films, you may need to search for the foreign-language title: Kencho no hoshi

If you're looking for films by a particular director or screenwriter, or starring a particular actor, try an author search:

• Kurosawa, Akira 
• Chishu Ryu
• You can limit your search to films with an advanced search (especially useful for movies based on novels or plays):
  • Search for DVDs at Kenyon
  • Search for VHS at Kenyon
  • Search for DVDs and VHS at Kenyon
• To browse films added to the collection in 2008, search by "other call number" and use DVD 08 as your search term.

Many educational films and documentaries are available electronically from OhioLINK's Digital Resourse Commons (DRC).

"Film reviews" and "film criticism" are sometimes used interchangeably; in this context, "reviews" are articles published in newspapers and an array of non-specialist publications (for example, in trade journals or magazines instead of peer-reviewed, scholarly journals) that typically include a synopsis of the film and commentary from the reviewer. Reviews are especially useful primary sources when studying how a film was received by audiences upon its release.

• Film Review Index (1882-1985) REF PN1995 .F53 1986
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe many reviews of films from 1980 onwards (see link below).
• Magill's Survey of Cinema - Foreign Language Films REF PN1995.9.F67 M34
• New York Times Film Reviews (1913-1980) REF PN1995 .N4
• There is an online archive of reviews from 1960 to the present at the NYT website (see link below).
• Variety Film Reviews (1907-1980) REF PN1995 .V34 1983
• Recent reviews are also available at Variety's website (see link below).

(an additional 60+ books may be found in Consort through a simple keyword search for Japan cinema, 80+ books under Japanese cinema, varying keywords will produce different entries)

Anderson Joseph. The Japanese film: Art and Industry. Rutland, Vt.: C. E. Tuttle Co. [c1959]. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 A7 1960

Balmain, Colette. Introduction to Japanese Horror Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008. CONSORT Resource

Barrett, Gregory. Archetypes in Japanese Film: The Sociopolitical and Religious Significance of the Principal Heroes and Heroines. Selinsgrove [Pa.]: Susquehanna University Press, 1989. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 B37 1989

Baskett, Michael. The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, c2008. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 B38 2008

Berra, John. Directory of world cinema: Japan. Chicago: Intellect, 2010.  Call number: PN1993.5 .J37 2010

Bowyer, Justin (ed). Cinema of Japan and Korea. New York: Wallflower, 2004. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 C56 2004

Burch, Noel. To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in the Japanese Cinema. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1979. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 B8

Ciecko, Anne Tereska. Contemporary Asian Cinema: Popular Culture in a Global Frame. New York: Berg, 2006. Call Number: PN1993.5.A75 C655 2006

Davis, Darrell William. Picturing Japaneseness: Monumental Style, National Identity, Japanese Film. New York : Columbia University Press, c1996. Call number: PN1993.5.J3 D38 1996

Desser, David. Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the New Japanese Wave Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1988. Consort Resource: PN1993.5.J3 D47 1988

Galbraith, Stuart. The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2008. Consort Resource: PN1999.T58 G35 2008

Iles, Timothy. The Crisis of Identity in Contemporary Japanese Film: Personal, Cultural, National. Boston : Brill, 2008. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 I47 2008

Kitamura, Hiroshi. Screening enlightenment Hollywood and the cultural resconstruction of defeated Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010. Consort Resource: PN1993.5.J3 K57 2010

Ko, Mika. Japanese cinema and otherness : nationalism, multiculturalism and the problem of Japaneseness. New York: Routledge, 2010. Call Number: PN1995.9.N355 K6 2010

MacWilliams, Mark. Japanese visual culture:explorations in the world of manga and anime. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, c2008. CONSORT Resource

McDonald, Keiko. Cinema East: A Critical Study of Major Japanese Films. Rutherford [N.J.]: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, c1983. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 M35 1983

-----. From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, c2000. Call Number: PL747.55 .M36 2000

-----. Japanese Classical Theater in Films. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, c1994. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 M36 1994

-----. Reading a Japanese Film. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 M363 2006

Mellen, Joan. Japanese Classical Theater in Films. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, c1994. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 M36 1994

-----. The Waves at Genji's Door: Japan Through Its Cinema. New York: Pantheon, 1976. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 M4

Miyao, Daisuke. The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press, c2014.  Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 O97 2014 

Nornes, Abe M. Japanese documentary film. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c2003. CONSORT Resource

Nores, Abe M. and Aaron Gerow. Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies. Ann Arbor : Center for Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan, 2009.  Call Number: PN1993 .5 .J3 N67 2009

Nygren, Scott. Time Frames: Japanese Cinema and the Unfolding of History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 N94 2007

Richie, Donald. A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. New York: Kodansha International, 2005. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 R53 2005

-----. Japanese Cinema: an Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. CONSORT Resource

Shilling, Mark. Contemporary Japanese Film. New York: Weatherhill, 1999. CONSORT Resource

Standish, Isolde. A New History of Japanese Cinema. New York: Continuum, 2005. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 S72 2005

-----, Politics, porn and protest : Japanese avant-garde cinema in the 1960s and 1970s. New York: Continuum International Pub. Group, c2011.  CONSORT Resource.

Thorne, Roland. Samurai Films. Harpenden : Kamera, 2008. Call Number: PN1995.9.S24 T46 2008

Wada-Marciano, Mitsuyo. Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920's and 1930's. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, c2008. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 W33 2008

Washburn, Dennis and Carol Cavanaugh. Word and Image in Japanese Cinema. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Call Number: PN1993.5.J3 W67 2001

Yau Shuk-ting, Kinnia. East Asian cinema and cultural heritage : from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan to Japan and South Korea. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. CONSORT Resource.

(an additional 25+ books may be found in Consort through a simple keyword search for anime Japan)

Brown, Steven T. Tokyo cyberpunk: posthumanism in Japanese visual culture. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Call Number: NC1766.J3 B76 2010

Dobson, Nichola. Historical Dictionary of Animation and Cartoons. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2009. Call Number: REF PN1997 .5 .D63 2009

MacWilliams, Mark. Japanese visual culture:explorations in the world of manga and anime. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, c2008. CONSORT Resource

Napier, Susan. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiening Contemporary Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave, 2001. CONSORT Resource

(an additional 25+ books may be found in Consort through a simple keyword search for Japan motion picture directors)

Bock, Audie. Japanese Film Directors. Tokyo: Kodansha Interantional, 1976. Call Number: PN1998.A2 B618

Jacoby, Alexander. A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley, Calif. : Stone Bridge Press, c2008. Call Number: PN1998 .2 .J29 2008

Mellen, Joan. Voices from the Japanese Cinema. New York: Liveright, [1975]. Call Number: PN1998.A2 M37 1975

Stone, Judy. Eye on the World: Conversations with International Filmmakers. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, c1997. Call Number: PN1995.9.P7 S75 1997 

Kon Ichikawa
Quant, James. Kon Ichikawa. Toronto: Cinematheque Ontario, c2001. Call Number: PN1998.3.I25 K66 2001

Akira Kurosawa
Cardullo, Bert (ed). Akira Kurosawa Interviews. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, c2008. CONSORT Resource

Desser, David. Samurai Films of Akira Kurosawa. Ann Arbor, Mi.: UMI Research Press, c.1983. Call Number: PN1995.9.S24 D47 1983

Goodwin, James. Perspectives on Akira Kurosawa. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, c1994. CONSORT Resource

The Japan Film Center presents Kurosawa, a retrospective : 26 films by Akira Kurosawa, October 9-December 20, 1981. New York : The Society, [1981]. Call Number: FOLIO PN1998 .A3 K875 1981

Kurosawa, Akira. Something Like an Autobiography. New York: Vintage Books, 1983. Call Number: PN1998.A3 K789413 1983  

Martinez, D. P. Remaking Kurosawa: Translations and Permutations in Global Cinema. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009. Call Number: PN1998.3.K87 M37 2009

Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro. Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 200. Call Number: PN1998.3.K87 Y67 2000 

Hayao Miyazaki
Cavallaro, Dani. The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson: McFarland, 2006. CONSORT Resource

Odell, Colin. Studio Ghibli: The Films of Hayo Miyazaki & Isao Takahata. Harpenden: Kamera Books, 2009.  Call Number: NC1766.J32 S884 2009

Kenji Mizoguchi
Le Fanu, Mark. Mizoguchi and Japan. London: BFI Publishing, 2005. CONSORT Resource

Sato, Tadao. Kenji Mizoguchi and the Art of Japanese Cinema. New York: Berg, 2008. Call Number: PN1998.3.M58 S2813 2008

Oshima Nagisa (note the variation in the structure of his name between the two authors)
Cameron, Ian (ed.). Second Wave. New York: Praeger [1970]. Consort Resource: PN1998.A2 S4

Nagisa, Oshima. Cinema, Censorship, and the State: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima, 1956-1978. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, c1992. CONSORT Resource

Turim, Maureen. The Films of Oshima Nagisa: Images of a Japanese Iconoclast. [electronic resource] Berkeley : University of California Press, c1998. see Consort online record for link.