Myth and Masculinity in the Japanese Cinema: Towards a Political Reading of the Tragic Hero

Standish is the most reliable of today's critic/scholars of japanese cinema. altho' familiar with the jargon, she is foremost a highly competant historian and absolutely knows her facts, which so many others publishing J-Film books do not. this in-depth study of masculine images in japanese cultural history as viewed thru' the film is not for the browser but only for the dedicated seeker of enlightenment. it tackles the political bases of gender image in performance with originality, style and incisive intelligence. the serious student of both film and gender studies will be happy to have paid whatever it takes to lay hands on this superlative book.CONTENTS: coverage begins with early cinema and its relation to nationalism, covers wartime and postwar war films ["The Kamikaze Film and the Politics of the Collective"], postwar trends ["Uninformed Politicans: The Enemy Within"] and the gangster and wanderer films of the 1960s [Takakura Ken, "'Reflexive Masochism' and the Aesthetics of Violence"], concluding with "Historicity and the Sensual Imperative of Imaged Masculinity." footnotes are copious & fascinating.