Visual Japan: Identity Explorations in Contemporary Japanese Cinema

This course is part of the "Visual Asia" Minor that will guide students through a variety of communication forms and artistic expressions in some of the Asian and Mediterranean Africa regions, in order to compose a geo-cultural puzzle that, also drawing from local traditions and realities, it can illustrate the transformations of these areas and the interaction with global society. Art, cinema and the internet are not only the mirror of complex cultural systems and a window on ancient civilizations in continuous evolution, but also channels through which they become protagonists on the contemporary world stage in both political and economic terms.

The aim of the course is to provide students of various disciplinary backgrounds with basic knowledge and tools to understand communication strategies and figurative and visual languages used in contemporary Japan for self representation and to relate themselves to the world. Lessons will include case studies and use of audiovisual materials.

No prerequisite is required.

The course aims to offer students some theoretical perspectives for the investigation of Japanese cinema in terms of identity. Cinema is to be understood as a term that sums up the variety of forms that audiovisual production has taken over the last two decades, including contents intended for online use and all the levels in which the production of images has been differentiated.
From the pan-Asian co-production projects to the micro-films intended for mobile devices, the analysis of Japanese cinema makes it possible to address wider issues through the immediacy of the image. These themes include economic dynamics and cultural flows that link China, South Korea and Japan, different political practices (in some cases close to "soft power" dynamics) involving production and distribution of films in Asia, but also in the global market, and the transition to a global aesthetic versus those that have long been analyzed as national cinemas.
Following the most advanced international studies in the film industry in relation to political and social changes and in direct contact with audiovisual production and distribution practices, the course provides students with both historical-theoretical basis and more directly readable keys linked to cinema practices (also in the professional field), orienting them towards the three key phases aritculating audiovisual industry; production, circulation and distribution.

Maria Roberta Novielli, Storia del cinema giapponese, Marsilio, Venezia, 2001 (from p. 199)

Other materials will be provided during classes and on MOODLE platform

Written examination consisting of three essay questions

*In case of online exams an oral test will replace the written examination

Along with textbooks and explanations, a wide range of audivisual material will be employed, in order to complete and enrich oral knowledge.

Italian

written