A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors. Alexander Jacoby

director of Tetsuo is Shin’ya Tsukamoto. I have transliterated titles using loan words exactly as spelled in kana: thus, the Japanese language title of Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale is given as Batoru Rowaiaru. Where the original credits of the film give the title in Roman script (an increasingly common practice nowadays), I have of course reproduced it as spelled.

      In listing Japanese-language titles in the filmographies I have adhered to the Revised Hepburn system strictly, so that they are transliterated as accurately as possible. In the body of the text, however, and in supplying English translations of the titles, I have departed from Hepburn in the case of naturalised English words or names. Thus, I write Tokyo not Tōkyō and refer to Noh theater not Nō theater. I have considered the names of production companies and historical periods to be naturalized words for this purpose. Where personal names or place names occur in film titles, I dispense with macrons in the English translation, since official English-language release titles never supply them; thus, for instance, I give Rashōmon (with macron) as the Japanese-language film title, and Rashomon (without macron) as the English-language one.

      I have endeavored to supply a translation for all titles, except where the title is the name of a person or a place, or an untranslatable set phrase. Where films have been released abroad, I have used the official release title; if a film has been written about elsewhere and thus has a semi-official title, I have used that unless I judge it to be in error. If the film is widely known under more than one title, I have supplied two or several, although where alternative titles are basically variations on the same idea, I have not listed every possible permutation. I have usually listed the most frequently used translation first, except where I consider it misleading. If the most commonly used translation is not the most lit­eral one, I have indicated which title is most literal. Where the only previously used titles are not literal, I have where possible supplied a literal translation in parentheses, particularly where the literal title suggests aspects of the film which standard translations do not.

      Where the title of a film has not previously been translated into English, I have devised my own. In general, these titles have been kept at literal as possible, even at the risk of sounding ungainly in English. However, where titles use descriptive words such as maki (“reel”) to indicate different episodes, I have dropped these in translation if the result sounds impossibly convoluted.In a few cases, too, I have opted for a translation which seems truer to Japanese usage—for instance, where an idiomatic phrase has a direct parallel in a different English idiom. Where a title might have several possible meanings, I have tried to choose the most accurate translation by seeking information about the film’s content. Sometimes, however, particularly in the case of lost films, information about content is not readily available, and in these cases I have had to make an educated guess.

      The issue of name order is a thorny one. When the Japanese write their name in their own language, they put surname first, as do the Chinese, Koreans, and Hungarians. Scholars of Chinese almost invariably preserve Chinese name order: thus, the maker of Farewell My Concubine is Chen Kaige, not Kaige Chen. On the other hand, writers on the Hungarian cinema do not usually talk about Jancsó Miklós. In the field of Japanese studies, convention is somewhat divided; most scholarly books favor the Japanese name order; books aimed at the general reader generally give Western name order. I have decided to opt for Western name order because when films are distributed abroad, the credits invariably follow Western name order. I have made an exception if a film has been distributed abroad under a title which includes a personal name and preserves Japanese name order: thus, I translate Noboru Tanaka’s Jitsuroku Abe Sada as The True Story of Abe Sada and A Woman Called Abe Sada because these are titles which have been used in foreign screenings and DVD releases. Another exception is the name of the writer Edogawa Ranpo, because it is a pseudonym which derives from a pun on the name of American author Edgar Allen Poe. Naturally, in the heading of each entry, I also put surname first, as this is the usual convention of encyclopedias in Western languages. This has the advantage that the Romanized name in the heading appears in the same order as the Japanese name in kanji, which is supplied along with it.

      Acknowledgments

      A book such as this naturally incurs so many debts that I hardly know where to begin. I do not have space to list the many friends and family members whose affection and encouragement has helped me to find the energy to finish it; they know who they are, and I am grateful to them all. I must however mention my parents, Michael Jacoby and Ann Jacoby, and my stepfather Gus Baker, who tolerated my sometimes obsessive passion for Japanese cinema, supported my initial decision to live and work in Japan, and assisted financially with the expenses involved in writing this book. Beyond that, I want to thank them for their immeasurable emotional support, encouragement, and love.

      My heartfelt thanks go to Beth Cary for her tireless editorial work, which has saved me from more than a few errors (needless to say, in the old phrase, any that remain are entirely my own responsibility). I thank, too, everyone at Stone Bridge Press, especially Peter Goodman for his patience with a project that has taken rather longer to complete than I anticipated. I should also acknowledge the patience of Alastair Phillips, my Ph.D. supervisor at the University of Warwick, who has displayed a supreme tolerance and understanding as time that should have been devoted to my studies was absorbed instead by this book.

      The completion of this project was made possible by a generous grant from the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, which enabled me to fund a vital research trip to Japan in the summer of 2006. I thank Marie Conte-Helm and all her colleagues at Daiwa for their faith in my abilities and their support for my work.

      Much of the research for this book was done at the Tokyo office of the Japan Foundation, whose staff displayed a generosity beyond the call of duty in allowing me extensive access to their collection of subtitled prints over a lengthy period, at some inconvenience to themselves. I am grateful especially to Yūko Murata, Marie Suzuki, Aiko Yatsuhashi, Mirai Itsutsuji, and Kiyo Seike. I was able to conduct supplementary research at the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute and at the Film Center of the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. At the former institution, my thanks are due to Masayo Okada and Atsuko Fukuda; at the latter, to Akira Tochigi and Hisashi Okajima.

      The production of filmographies in Romanized Japanese and English would have been impossible without the dedication of my two teachers, Etsuko Takagi and Maiko Miyoshi, to both of whom I am deeply grateful. Hiroshi Komatsu of Waseda University made me the beneficiary of his formidable knowledge of Japanese film and his unerring accuracy in factual matters, and was especially helpful in providing correct readings for some of the most obscure titles. With his wife, Ritsuko, he was also a welcoming host while I conducted my research in Tokyo in 2006. For their hospitality during that trip, I also thank Jonathan Cant, Ben Rowlett and Kazuhito Yamada, Richard Smart, Shōtarō Yamauchi and family, Mitsukazu Yoshida, and especially Cathy Lambshead, who was my host for longer than I had any right to ask.

      I owe a particular debt to Richard Chatten, who as a film historian sadly has yet to achieve the recognition he deserves. He made me a generous loan to cover the cost of photographs included in the book, and read the entire manuscript in draft, offering many useful suggestions, spotting various errors, and sharpening numerous turns of phrase. Michael Walker, a model teacher, also read the whole book in draft and commented perceptively on matters both factual and critical. Others who read and commented on portions of the manuscript include Aaron Gerow, Mark LeFanu, Arthur Nolletti, Bob Quaif, and James Quandt. Jasper Sharp gave generously of his considerable expertise and knowledge of the byways of Japanese film, and put his extensive collection of DVDs at my disposal. Johan Nordström shared the pleasure of viewing a good few of the films discussed in this book, helped to shape my thoughts on them, and was a constant source of enthusiasm. Stephen Wan assisted with the transliteration of Cantonese in the titles of Hong Kong-made films. For their help, advice, and encouragement, I should also thank Kevin Brownlow, Michael Campi, Michelle Carey, Roland Domenig, Mika Kō, Michael McCaskey, Abe Mark Nornes, Steve Pickles, and especially Glynford Hatfield and Franco Picollo, whose assistance to this project was invaluable.

      For giving me permission to reproduce and supplying the many beautiful still photographs which illustrate this book, I must thank the following: At Shochiku, Junko Kawaguchi and Shin’ya Watanabe; at Nikkatsu, Shinako Matsuda and Noritoshi Nakano; at Kadokawa Pictures,