Book Review: A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to Videos and DVDs, by Donald Richie

Donald Richie’s long-awaited new book, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to Videos and DVDs (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2001), is a bit like old wine in new skins, though this is not necessarily a criticism. It attempts to update the field, incorporate new work on Japanese film history and modify some untenable positions taken in the past. A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, however, like its title, retains a slightly musty flavor that, depending on one’s taste, improves with age. In a day when specialization and would-be sophistication dominates film and media study, a straightforward, synoptic introduction to Japanese film can be refreshing.