THE JAPANESE CINEMA SCENE

Although many film buffs consider the "golden age" of Japanese movies to have revolved around the post-World-War-II work of such renown directors as Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi, others see a resurgence in the world of contemporary Japanese cinema in such films as Shunji Iwai's Love Letter. 

One has only to read the collected reviews of Aaron Gerow (a Ph.D. in film studies from the University of Iowa who writes for The Daily Yomiuri, an English-language Japanese newspaper) or the comments of Daisuke Onitsuka (who, besides teaching American literature and English at a women's college in Shizuoka, also writes for Kinema Jumpo, Japan's most respected journal of film criticism and review). They maintain an eye on the current cinema second to none and have lots of interesting things to say about the state of the contemporary Japanese film world. 

One particularly "fun-atical" site related to Japanese film, the one most likely to reflect what many non-Japanese often first think of when "Japanese movies" are mentioned, is that dealing with everything you might want to know about that classic film monster Godzilla (as brought to you by Barry S. Goldberg, Esquire, who also runs a WebRing linking to other similar sites). 

At a symposium sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center in October 1998, Ian Buruma commented on the significance assigned Japan's most famous movie monster; his remarks are reported in an article entitled "Ian Buruma Critiques Theories on Japanese Behavior" by Mary-Lea Cox and Alexei Kral of the Center's staff.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF "OLD JAPAN"

The Nagasaki University Library has brought together for public viewing the most extensive collection of Old Photos of Japan ever made available over the Internet. More than 5400 hand-tinted photos of famous places, urban and rural scenery, people, aspects of culture and customs can be viewed in small "thumbnail" format, then enlarged with a quick mouse button click.

Viewers can search the collection files by key word, location or "shelf number" (the order in which the pictures were received by the library). Captions provide key information about each photograph. Most show Japan as it looked in the years between 1860 and 1890 at the dawn of the Age of Photography.

Wonderful stuff!