The Japanese Film Industry Today: Problems and Potential

Mark Schilling, American Film Critic, Journalist, Translator, and Author, Tokyo, Japan
Recorded on October 20, 2022.
Mark Schilling examines the state of Japanese cinema today, based on three decades of reviewing and reporting. Topics includes the impact of the pandemic, the #MeToo movement and growing calls for greater diversity and representation.
U-M alumnus Mark Schilling has been reviewing Japanese films for “The Japan Times” since 1989 and reporting on the Japanese film industry since 1990, presently for "Variety." Since 2000 Schilling has been a program consultant for the Udine Far East Film Festival, curating retrospectives on Nikkatsu Action films (2005), the Shintoho studio (2010) and Japanese SF/fantasy films (2016). Book publications include “The Yakuza Movie Book - A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films” (2003), “No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema” (2007) and “Art, Cult and Commerce: Japanese Cinema Since 2000.” He also wrote the original story for and produced "Convenience Story," a film directed by Miki Satoshi that opened in Japan in August, 2022.
This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.