The Cinema of Kinoshita Keisuke: Films of Joy and Sorrow
(Hardback)
Publishing Details
The Cinema of Kinoshita Keisuke: Films of Joy and Sorrow
By (Author) David Desser
Edited by Earl Jackson
Edinburgh University Press
Edinburgh University Press
8th December 2025
United Kingdom
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Physical Properties
Hardback
338
Width 156mm, Height 234mm
Description
Kinoshita Keisuke was once thought of as the equal in importance and popularity to his colleague Ozu Yasujiro and friend Kurosawa Akira. In many ways, he was even more popular with audiences than they were, as well as being a critical favorite. He had built an overseas following with prestigious festival play and was considered an innovator for his use of color and widescreen. In addition, he was known for his cinematic depictions of the plight of women under rigid social restrictions along with his often-rebellious heroines who endured and sometimes triumphed. Yet he is much less known than his fellow filmmakers. Leading scholars from the US, Australia, the UK and Japan, relying on close analysis and numerous Japanese sources come together to redress this gap and demonstrate why Kinoshita deserves to be returned to the pantheon Japanese and world cinema.
Author Bio
David Desser is Emeritus Professor, University of Illinois. He is a well-known scholar of Japanese cinema, author or editor of eight books on the subject. His latest publications are The Blackwell Companion to Japanese Cinema (2023) and, with Lindsay Coleman, Killers, Clients and Kindred Spirits: The Taboo Cinema of Shohei Imamura (2019). He has worked on a number of Blu-ray commentaries for Criterion (including Tokyo Story) and Arrow Academy, including a boxset of the films of Yoshida Kiju. Earl Jackson is Associate Professor Emeritus from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Professor Emeritus from the National Chiao Tung University. He is the author of Strategies of Deviance: Studies in Gay Male Representation (1995), and numerous essays on Japanese and Korean cinema, gender and sexuality, New Narrative writers, and the work of Samuel R. Delany. His forthcoming monograph is titled Critical Conditions: Theory and Practice in Japanese Cinema and he is writing a book entitled Templates for Trauma: Crisis and Significance in Japanese Genre Film.
