Alexander Zahlten 2
Books: The End of Japanese Cinema
By Jonathan Clements. Alexander Zahlten’s new book begins with an entertainingly awkward scene at the Tokyo premiere of Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha, when a photo opportunity went horribly wrong. Big-name producer Haruki Kadokawa came over to shake Kurosawa’s hand, but the superstar director turned away and refused to speak to him. Kadokawa had transformed Japanese cinema, […]
Books: Media Theory in Japan
By Jonathan Clements. Takashi Tsumura saw it coming. He suggested that the “computer line” and the television might one day be combined. Moreover, in a “somewhat radical hypothesis” that the Japanese broadcast and phone companies might also combine, he suggested the “net” such a merger produced would have all the power and invasive persuasion of […]