
Japanese Cinema and Punk
Intermedial Exchanges
Mark Player(Author)
Bloomsbury Academic (Publisher)
Published on 29. May 2025
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-1-350-37856-8 (ISBN)
Description
In Japanese Cinema and Punk, Mark Player examines how the do-it-yourself ethos of punk empowered a new generation of Japanese filmmakers during a period of crisis and change in Japan's film industry.
Drawing on rare materials and first-hand interviews with key figures from the jishu eiga (self-made film)
tradition, including Ishii Gakuryu (formerly Ishii Sogo), Yamamoto Masashi, Tsukamoto Shin'ya, and Fukui Shozin, Player explores how punk's bricolage style was leveraged to create exciting intermedial film aesthetics. These aesthetics were influenced by rock music, graffiti art, street performance, handmade animation, television, and other mass media.
By considering the practical, phenomenological, and political ramifications of combining diverse media elements, Player offers in-depth analyses of films such as Burst City (1982), Robinson's Garden (1987), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), and more. He further traces the changing sociocultural position of Japan's punk generation throughout the 1980s-from its euphoric early-80s peak to the growing disillusionment caused by its mainstream co-optation and convergence.
Drawing on rare materials and first-hand interviews with key figures from the jishu eiga (self-made film)
tradition, including Ishii Gakuryu (formerly Ishii Sogo), Yamamoto Masashi, Tsukamoto Shin'ya, and Fukui Shozin, Player explores how punk's bricolage style was leveraged to create exciting intermedial film aesthetics. These aesthetics were influenced by rock music, graffiti art, street performance, handmade animation, television, and other mass media.
By considering the practical, phenomenological, and political ramifications of combining diverse media elements, Player offers in-depth analyses of films such as Burst City (1982), Robinson's Garden (1987), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), and more. He further traces the changing sociocultural position of Japan's punk generation throughout the 1980s-from its euphoric early-80s peak to the growing disillusionment caused by its mainstream co-optation and convergence.
Reviews / Votes
An essential book not just for anyone interested in Japan's punk scene, but for anyone with an interest in the history of independent Japanese cinema. -- William Carroll, University of Alberta, Canada This book breaks new ground both in its exploration of the exciting, experimental area of Japanese punk filmmaking and in its refined and sensitive intermedial approach. -- Agnes Petho, Sapientia University of Transylvania, RomaniaMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-37856-8 (9781350378568)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Mark Player is a film scholar specialising in Japanese cinema. He previously taught film at the University of Reading, UK and has been published in journals such as Japan Forum, Punk & Post Punk, and Film and Media Studies. His research interests include Asian cinema, (cyber)punk, media distribution, film festivals, amateur film, DIY and underground subcultures.
Content
Introduction: Anarchy in Japan
1. Apathy and Atrophy: The emergence of Japan's punk generation
2. Synergies and Analogues: Exchanges between self-made film and punk
3. Liberation and Capitulation: Burst City and the politics of musicality
4. Placemaking and Resistance: The competing mediascapes of Robinson's Garden
5. Assimilation and Symbiosis: Tetsuo: The Iron Man and the intermedial (cyber)punk body
6. Space and Feeling: The explosive sound of Pinocchio 964
Notes
References
Works Cited
Index
1. Apathy and Atrophy: The emergence of Japan's punk generation
2. Synergies and Analogues: Exchanges between self-made film and punk
3. Liberation and Capitulation: Burst City and the politics of musicality
4. Placemaking and Resistance: The competing mediascapes of Robinson's Garden
5. Assimilation and Symbiosis: Tetsuo: The Iron Man and the intermedial (cyber)punk body
6. Space and Feeling: The explosive sound of Pinocchio 964
Notes
References
Works Cited
Index