The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu

An Elemental Cinema

Linda C. Ehrlich

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9783030330507
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030330514
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu: An Elemental Cinema draws readers into the first 13 feature films and 5 of the documentaries of award-winning Japanese film director Kore-eda Hirokazu. With his recent top prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Shoplifters, Kore-eda is arguably Japan's greatest living director with an international viewership. He approaches difficult subjects (child abandonment, suicide, marginality) with a realistic and compassionate eye.

The lyrical tone of the writing of Japanese film scholar Linda C. Ehrlich perfectly complements the understated, yet powerful, tone of the films. From An Elemental Cinema, readers will gain a special understanding of Kore-eda's films through a novel connection to the natural elements as reflected in Japanese traditional aesthetics.

An Elemental Cinema presents Kore-eda's oeuvre as a connected whole with overarching thematic concerns, despite frequent generic experimentation. It also offers an example of how the poetics of cinema can be practiced in writing, as well as on the screen, and helps readers understand the films of this contemporary director as works of art that relate to their own lives.

Bibliography

Kore-eda Hirokazu (Sources about his films)

1. Anderson, Jason. “The Third Murder” (review). Sight and Sound, 2017, 52–53.
2. Andrews, Mallory. Shoplifters (review). Cinema Scope (online, Cannes), 2018. http://​cinema-scope.​com/​spotlight/​shoplifters-kore-eda-hirokazu-japan/​.
3. Batchelor, Tom. “Cannes 2018: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters Wins Palme d’Or Award.” The Independent, May 19, 2018. https://​www.​independent.​co.​uk/​arts-entertainment/​films/​news/​shoplifters-palme-dor-cannes-hizokazu-kore-eda-award-blackkklansman-spike-lee-a8359736.​html.
4. Bertolé, Claudia. Splendidi riflessi di ciò che ci manca: Il cinema de Koreeda Hirokazu. Piombino: Edizioni Il Foglio, 2013.
5. Blair, Gavin. “Japan’s Prime Minister Snubs Cannes Palme D’Or Winner.” Hollywood Reporter, May 31, 2018.
6. ———. “I Try to Avoid Being Slushy: Director Hirokazu Kore-eda on His Foreign-Language Oscar Hopeful: Shoplifters.” Hollywood Reporter, January 6, 2019. https://​www.​hollywoodreporte​r.​com/​news/​shoplifters-director-responds-controversy-japans-oscar-contender-1172640.
7. Bordwell, David. http://​www.​davidbordwell.​net/​blog/​2017/​09/​12/​venice-2017-crimes-no-misdemeanors/​ (The Third Murder). http://​www.​davidbordwell.​net/​blog/​category/​national-cinemas-japan/​ (Shoplifters).
8. ———. “Five Lessons from Stealth Poetics.” In The Poetics of Chinese Cinema, edited by Gary Bettinson and James Udden, 15–29. New York: Palgrave, 2016.
9. Boscarol, Matteo. “Caminando, como faceva Ozu.” Manifesto, September 17, 2008.
10. Bradshaw, Peter. “Nobody Knows (review).” The Guardian, May 14, 2004. https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​film/​2004/​may/​14/​cannes2004.​cannesfilmfestiv​al.
11. ———. “Mysteries and Miracles (review of Kiseki).” The Guardian, February 7, 2013, 14. https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​film/​2013/​feb/​07/​i-wish-review.
12. ———. “Hirokazu Kore-eda: They Compare Me to Ozu…But I’m More Like Ken Loach.” The Guardian, 2015. https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​film/​2015/​may/​21/​hirokazu-kore-director-our-little-sister-interview.
13. ———. “The Third Murder (review): Death-Sentence Drama Leaves You Hanging.” The Guardian, September 14, 2017. https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​film/​2017/​sep/​14/​third-murder-review-toronto-film-festival-tiff.
14. ———. “Kore-eda’s Audacious Latest Steals the Heart.” The Guardian, November 21, 2018. https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​film/​2018/​nov/​21/​shoplifters-review-hirokazu-kore-eda.
15. Brown, Georgia. “Ghosts (review of Maborosi).” The Village Voice, 10 September 1996, XLI(37).
16. Cacoulidis, Cleo. “Talking to Hirokazu Kore-eda: On Maborosi, Nobody Knows, and other Pleasures.” Bright Lights Film Journal, February 1, 2005.
17. Cannon, Kristopher L. “Ec-Static Air: The Unseeable Sounds of Being Beside Oneself.” Discourse 38, no. 2 (Spring 2016): 265–280 (About Air Doll).
18. Cardullo, Bert. “Life and Nothing But.” The Hudson Review 51, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 409–416.
19. Carew, Anthony. “Communal Complicity: Family and Fairness in Hirokazu Koreeda’s Shoplifters and The Third Murder.” Metro Magazine 199 (2019): 58+. Gale Academic Onefile.
20. Centeno, Marcos. “Kore-eda’s Our Little Sister: A Return to Japanese Classicism.” Film Comment 40 (2016): 3. https://​quod.​lib.​umich.​edu/​f/​fc/​13761232.​0040.​312/​--kore-edas-our-little-sister-a-return-to-japanese-classicism?​rgn=​main;view=​fulltext.
21. Chang, Justin. “A Quiet Mastery of Cinema: Japanese Director Hirokazu Kore-eda Is Being Honored with a Career Retrospective.” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2017, E1.
22. ———. “Hirokazu Kore-eda Carries on Through Success and Sadness with the Release of His Palme d’Or Winner Shoplifters.” Los Angeles Times, November 23, 2018. https://​www.​latimes.​com/​entertainment/​movies/​la-ca-mn-shoplifters-hirokazu-koreeda-20181123-story.​html.
23. Churi, Maya. “Hirokazu Kore-eda Remembers Af...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Introductory Thoughts
• Earth/The Documentary Impulse: Mō hitotsu no kyōiku—Ina shōgakkō harugumi no kiroku/ Lessons from a Calf—Record of the Spring Class at Ina Elementary School, 1991
• Water: Maborosi no hikari/Maborosi, 1995
• Water: Aruite mo aruite mo/Still Walking, 2008
• Water: Umi yori mo mada fukaku/After the Storm, 2016
• Liminality: Wandafuru raifu/After Life, 1998
• Liminality: Daremo shiranai/Nobody Knows, 2004
• Fire: Distance, 2001
• Fire: Sandome no satsujin/The Third Murder, 2017
• Air: Kūki ningyō/Air Doll, 2009
• Air: Kiseki/I Wish, 2011
• Air: Soshite chichi ni naru/Like Father Like Son, 2013
• Air: Umimachi diari/Our Little Sister, 2015
• Metal: Hana yori mo nao/Hana, 2006
• An Elemental Cinema Re-examined: Manbiki kazoku/Shoplifters, 2018
• Endings
• Final Thoughts
• Selected Filmography
• Back Matter