by Chris MaGee
I had wanted to talk about director and screenwriter Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo) on the blog for awhile now, but never had the right opportunity. That changed when contributing editor, Bob Turnbull brought to my attention an article posted at Paul Schrader’s official website. Taken from Film Comment Magazine’s January/ February 1974 issue it’s called “Yakuza-Eiga: A Primer” and while I don’t agree with everything he outlines in it is a really interesting and extensive look at the yakuza genre in Japanese cinema, its roots in the decline of jidai-geki films and how comparisons should be drawn between yakuza-eiga and Hollywood westerns as opposed to other gangster films.
It’s interesting too that this article came out a year before the release of the Schrader penned (along with his brother) and Sydney Pollack directed “The Yakuza” starring Robert Mitchum and yakuza-eiga legend Ken Takakura, but cinephiles will know that Schrader’s love for Japanese films stretches back to his time studying at UCLA. It was here that steeped himself in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. He went on to write “Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer” in 1972 that highlighted the master’s influence on him, co-wrote and directed “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” about famed Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima in 1985 and most recently wrote the forward to Donald Richie’s essential work “A Hundred Years of Japanese Film”. Today he is one of the most respected experts on the subject of Japanese cinema.
To read the full article head on over to Paul Schrader’s website here.
I had wanted to talk about director and screenwriter Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo) on the blog for awhile now, but never had the right opportunity. That changed when contributing editor, Bob Turnbull brought to my attention an article posted at Paul Schrader’s official website. Taken from Film Comment Magazine’s January/ February 1974 issue it’s called “Yakuza-Eiga: A Primer” and while I don’t agree with everything he outlines in it is a really interesting and extensive look at the yakuza genre in Japanese cinema, its roots in the decline of jidai-geki films and how comparisons should be drawn between yakuza-eiga and Hollywood westerns as opposed to other gangster films.
It’s interesting too that this article came out a year before the release of the Schrader penned (along with his brother) and Sydney Pollack directed “The Yakuza” starring Robert Mitchum and yakuza-eiga legend Ken Takakura, but cinephiles will know that Schrader’s love for Japanese films stretches back to his time studying at UCLA. It was here that steeped himself in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. He went on to write “Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer” in 1972 that highlighted the master’s influence on him, co-wrote and directed “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” about famed Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima in 1985 and most recently wrote the forward to Donald Richie’s essential work “A Hundred Years of Japanese Film”. Today he is one of the most respected experts on the subject of Japanese cinema.
To read the full article head on over to Paul Schrader’s website here.
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