eBook - ePub
Japanese Mythology in Film
A Semiotic Approach to Reading Japanese Film and Anime
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
A cyborg detective hunts for a malfunctioning sex doll that turns itself into a killing machine. A Heian-era Taoist slays evil spirits with magic spells from yin-yang philosophy. A young mortician carefully prepares bodies for their journey to the afterlife. A teenage girl drinks a cup of life-giving sake, not knowing its irreversible transformative power. These are scenes from the visually enticing, spiritually eclectic media of Japanese movies and anime. The narratives of courageous heroes and heroines and the myths and legends of deities and their abodes are not just recurring motifs of the cinematic fantasy world. They are pop culture's representations of sacred subtexts in Japan. Japanese Mythology in Film takes a semiotic approach to uncovering such religious and folkloric tropes and subtexts embedded in popular Japanese movies and anime.
Part I introduces film semiotics with plain definitions of terminology. Through familiar cinematic examples, it emphasizes the myth-making nature of modern-day film and argues that semiotics can be used as a theoretical tool for reading film. Part II presents case studies of eight popular Japanese films as models of semiotic analysis. While discussing each film's use of common mythological motifs such as death and rebirth, its case study also unveils more covert cultural signifiers and folktale motifs, including jizo (a savior of sentient beings) and kori (bewitching foxes and raccoon dogs), hidden in the Japanese filmic text.
Part I introduces film semiotics with plain definitions of terminology. Through familiar cinematic examples, it emphasizes the myth-making nature of modern-day film and argues that semiotics can be used as a theoretical tool for reading film. Part II presents case studies of eight popular Japanese films as models of semiotic analysis. While discussing each film's use of common mythological motifs such as death and rebirth, its case study also unveils more covert cultural signifiers and folktale motifs, including jizo (a savior of sentient beings) and kori (bewitching foxes and raccoon dogs), hidden in the Japanese filmic text.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Japanese Mythology in Film by Yoshiko Okuyama in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Médias et arts de la scène & Art asiatique. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Conventions
- Part I: Semiotics for Film Analysis
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Reading Film
- Chapter 3: Mythology in Film
- Chapter 4: Storytelling
- Chapter 5: Visual Literacy
- Part I: Application
- Chapter 6: Taoism and Shinto Symbolism in Onmyo¯ji (2001) and Onmyo¯ji II (2003)
- Chapter 7: Folklore Motifs in Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (2000)
- Chapter 8: Motifs of Buddhism and Folklore in Dororo (2007) and Departures (2008)
- Chapter 9: Eclectic Myths in Mushi-shi (2006) and Cyborg Mythology of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)
- Chapter 10: Conclusion
- Bibliography
- About the Author