Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema

A filmography with several unreleased titles, including those for television, contributes to the richness of this work. -- Stephen Sarrazin * East Asia * You’ll learn a lot from Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema, and not just about the subject: this scholarly work tells the inspiring story of an artist with a distinct vision that neither time nor studio interference could ever truly tame. -- Pat Padua * Spectrum Culture * Ever engaging, ever challenging, Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema by William Carroll is an utter marvel. To those who have loved Suzuki Seijun as much as I have, you shall find so much to love in this comprehensive work and to those that adore Japanese cinema, this text manages to illuminate so much that it demands reading and should be in every cinephiles library. Highly Recommended!!! -- Ruben Rosario * FilmMonthly * [A] meticulous analysis of the filmmaker’s output throughout the years. -- Dr. A. Ebert * PopCultureShelf.com * Suzuki Seijun and Postwar Japanese Cinema is a thoughtful, stimulating, and rigorous study of a neglected Japanese filmmaker. It makes a major contribution to our understanding of critical discourses circulating in Japan and the situation of the domestic film industry during the protracted decline of the studio system. -- Isolde Standish, author of <i>Politics, Porn, and Protest: Japanese Avant-Garde Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s</i> This groundbreaking book shows that Suzuki, far from being “incomprehensible,” was actually understood by—and deeply entwined with—competing theoretical schools in Japan. Carroll’s study offers not only illuminating analyses of Suzuki’s cinema of deviation within its historical context but also compelling expositions on what it means for cinema then and today. -- Aaron Gerow, Yale University By lucidly setting out the cultural, political, technological, and studio contexts in which Suzuki operated, Carroll goes beyond the prevailing notions of the director as a maverick, iconoclast, and pop-cultural curio who dismissed his own works as ‘nonsense.’ This book presents a convincing argument as to what makes his films so eminently watchable to this day. -- Jasper Sharp, author of <i>Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema</i> This is a very valuable contribution, not only to the study of Suzuki’s work and legacy, or to the study of Japanese cinema of the 1960s, but to the broader project of undoing the domination of English and European film theory within global film studies. * Japan Review * A necessary read for all fans of Suzuki and of Japanese cinema in general. * Asian Movie Pulse * Carroll’s rigorous examination of Suzuki’s craft provides abundant evidence of the intent and deliberation behind a body of work that has become known for eccentricity and offbeat abandon. This book offers an insightful appraisal of Suzuki’s filmography and his methodologies as a director, and provides a clear and accessible overview of the tumultuous postwar context for Japanese cinema. * Alphaville *