Re-Viewing the Past: The Uses of History in the Cinema of Imperial Japan

Title Description: Re-Viewing the Past: The Uses of History in the Cinema of Imperial Japan analyzes the complicated relationship between history films, audiences, reviewers and censors in Japan for the critically important years from 1925–1945. First contextualizing the history of the popular “Bakumatsu” period (1853–1868), the moment of Japan’s emergence as a modern nation, Sean O’Reilly paves the way for a reinterpretation of Japanese pre and postwar cinema. Setting a film in the Bakumatsu period offered ‘cultural breathing room’ to both filmmakers and viewers, offering a cinematic space where apolitical entertainment and now-forbidden themes like romance still reigned. Some filmmakers—and viewers—even conceived of these films as being a form of resistance against Japan’s growing militarism.