The only Japanese director to have won the Palme d’Or from Cannes more than once, and second only to Ozu Yasujiro in the number of times he has won the prestigious Kinema Jumpo Best One award, the late Imamura Shohei was one of Japan’s leading and most controversial film directors. This book is one of the first to study all of Imamura’s major films alongside his television and theatrical documentaries, focusing on his major themes and concerns. By giving shape to Imamura’s career, the book positions him as a stylistic innovator as well as an ethnographic investigator into Japanese culture and tradition; the preeminent examiner of the hidden, barely repressed underpinnings of Japanese society.

Key features

The first book to look at the entire career of Imamura Shohei
Incorporates the work of top Japanese Cinema scholars from the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Japan
Organised by thematic concerns that cut across Imamura’s career

About the Contributors:

John Berra, Renmin University of China
Adam Bingham, SOAS, University of London
Bianca Briciu, Carleton University and St. Paul University, Ottawa
Jennifer Coates, University of East Anglia
Lindsay Coleman, independent scholar
David Deamer, Manchester Metropolitan University
Rayna Denison, University of East Anglia
David Desser, University of Illinois
Timothy Iles, University of Victoria, Canada
Mats Karlsson, University of Sydney
Hiroshi Kitamura, College of William and Mary
Lauri Kitsnik, Kyoto University
Diane Wei Lewis, Washington University in St. Louis
Dolores P. Martinez, SOAS, University of London and University of Oxford
Joan Mellen, Emerita, Temple University
Bill Mihalopoulos, University of Central Lancaster
Michael Raine, Western University, Canada