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An introductory scrutiny of major Japanese directors and genres with attention to film composition, choices of subject and character, ideas of the cinematic, and the relationship of cinema to Japanese culture and society. Students will analyze and critique films. Discussion of films will deal with the production of their historical, social, and cultural context, as well as issues dealing with gender, inequality, and social change. Taught in English.
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In JAPN 310 we looked at a variety of directors and genres of film coming out of Japan. The class time was primarily used to watch films that related to our assigned readings and have discussions on our thoughts on them and how they related. We also had periodic quizzes on the reading material to assess our knowledge. The three final assessments were a test, an essay, and a presentation (in course work section below). This course satisfied two of my Major Learning Outcomes for Japanese.
One Major Learning Outcome that this class satisfies is MLO 2: Japanese Culture. For this class I learned about various topics relating to cinema in Japan. I learned about different directors and what genres they were most active in. One of my favorite directors was Akira Kurosawa, the creator of The Seven Samurai and author of one of our readings Something like an Autobiography. We watched several of his works through the years and learned, through the reading, about his life and the Japan of the time. Another Major Leaning Outcome was MLO 4: Research and Technology. This outcome was fulfilled primarily during the final presentation, which required me to research and create a presentation on a topic of my choice related to cinema. I focused on how the films we had watched reflected family life and roles in them. I talked about the gender roles we often saw portrayed, the relationships between characters of the same family, and compared what we saw in the movies to reality. |