The termNew Wave was coined after the FrenchNouvelle vague, a movement which had challenged the traditions of their national cinema in style and content, countering established narratives and genres with "the ambiguous complexities of human relationships" and polished techniques with deliberately rough ones,[5] and introducing the theory that directors should be theauteurs of their films.[6]
Unlike the French counterpart, the Japanese New Wave originated within the film studio establishment,[1] especiallyShochiku, whose head Shirō Kido hoped that "cheaply made, innovative pictures could emulate the success of the Nouvelle Vague in Europe".[7] This policy saw the emergence of filmmakers like Nagisa Ōshima, Yoshishige Yoshida, and Masahiro Shinoda (all three Shochiku employees).[1][7][8] Important early examples of the Shochiku New Wave wereCruel Story of Youth andNight and Fog in Japan (both 1960, dir. Ōshima),Blood Is Dry (1960, dir. Yoshida) andDry Lake (1960, dir. Shinoda).[9]Pigs and Battleships, released byNikkatsu the following year, exemplified Shōhei Imamura's status as a director of the New Wave.[10] The (possible) influences on these filmmakers are diverse: While Ōshima's antecedents have been seen in the theories ofVsevolod Meyerhold andBertolt Brecht, and in the Japanese Leftist theatre[11] (an influence ofJean-Luc Godard on Ōshima has been alleged,[12] but also questioned),[11] Yoshida was an outspoken admirer ofMichelangelo Antonioni andIngmar Bergman.[2]
Kido soon withdrew his support for these films (either due to commercial failure, according to film scholar Alexander Jacoby,[7] or due to the uncompromising political content of Ōshima's films, according to historianDonald Richie[9]). By the mid-1960s, Ōshima, Yoshida and Shinoda had all left Shochiku and produced their films independently,[1][8] as did Imamura.[13] At the same time, Ōshima and Yoshida were the representatives of the New Wave who rejected both the term and the notion of a "movement" the most rigorously.[2]
Other directors associated with the New Wave includedHiroshi Teshigahara,Toshio Matsumoto and former documentary filmmakerSusumu Hani.[1][14] Hani directed his works almost entirely outside of the major studios, and favored non-actors and improvisation when possible. The documentaries Hani had made during the 1950s (Children in the Classroom andChildren Who Draw) had introduced a style ofcinéma vérité documentary to Japan, and were of great interest to other filmmakers.[15]Kon Ichikawa,Yasuzō Masumura andSeijun Suzuki have also been encompassed with the term.[1][14] Masumura's debut filmKisses (1957) has often been cited as a precursor of the New Wave[16][17][18] and had been received enthusiastically by Ōshima upon its release.[19] In addition, Film scholarDavid Desser placed directorKaneto Shindō next to Masumura as a "crucial" (Desser) predecessor and contemporary of the New Wave.[14]
Themes addressed by the New Wave includedradical politics,[20]juvenile delinquency, uninhibited sexuality,[21] changing roles of women in society, LGBTQI+ culture, racism and the position of ethnic minorities in Japan.[22] TheArt Theatre Guild, originally co-initiated and co-financed byToho to distribute foreign art films, became an important factor in the distribution of these films, sometimes also acting as producer.[8]
As funding outside of the studio system became increasingly difficult in the 1970s, with the big studios finding themselves in a decline (largely owed to television), the Japanese New Wave began to come apart.[7] While Ōshima had to look for investors outside of Japan,[7] Imamura and Hani switched to documentary filmmaking for television,[7][23] and Shinoda retreated to "academic" (Jacoby) adaptations of classic literature.[7]
^"New Wave".Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved8 July 2023.
^abcdefgJacoby, Alexander (2008).Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press.ISBN978-1-933330-53-2.
^abcDesser, David (1988).Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to The Japanese New Wave Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 42, 62, 118.
^Richie, Donald (2005).A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to DVDs and Videos. New York and Tokyo: Kodansha America. p. 249.
^"Kuchizuke".Japanisches Kulturinstitut (in German). Retrieved2 July 2023.
^"Masumura Yasuzô".Österreichisches Filmmuseum (in German). 2008. Retrieved2 July 2023.
^Jackson, Earl (2020). "Fellini in Japan". In Burke, Frank; Waller, Marguerite; Gubareva, Marita (eds.).A Companion to Federico Fellini. John Wiley and Sons. p. 441.ISBN9781119431534.
^"Kisses".Independent Cinema Offices. Retrieved2 July 2023.
^White, John; Haenni, Sabine; Barrow, Sarah, eds. (2015).The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films.ISBN9780415688932.
^Sato, Tadao (1982).Currents In Japanese Cinema. New York and Tokyo: Kodansha America. pp. 231–234.
^Mellen, Joan (1976).The Waves At Genji's Door: Japan Through Its Cinema. New York: Pantheon. pp. 419–426.
