Books On Japanese Action Cinema - Any Recommendations

[Guest kungfusamurai]

We've discussed this topic before - the lack of good books on Japanese action cinema. Most of the good Asian action books out there are focused on the HK/Taiwan kung fu and gunplay genres.

I was browsing through Amazon and came across these books:

Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film

Here's another one:

Stray Dogs and Lone Wolves

Has anyone checked these books out? Perhaps others have come out since we last discussed the topic? The one book I can think of with a detailed Japanese samurai film filmography is the Alain Silver book 'The Samurai Film'. Too bad it's very boring reading, done in an artsy, essay style which might only appeal to academics of the cinema. I thought it was re-released last year, but it looks like its scheduled for an Oct 31st release. I wonder if he's made it more layperson-friendly.

KFS

[Guest Dion Brother]

Chris D.'s book should be good. He wrote some interesting articles on Yakuza movies in the early better days of Asian Trash Cinema (when Ledbetter was the editor), and writes good liner notes on dvd releases. Plus, he's a legend in the LA punk rock scene, so I don't think he'll have that Alain Silver snootiness.

I'll have to get both books.

Keep in mind that when Silver wrote his tome, film snobs were the only perceived market for samurai movies. Thankfully, that's changed over the years.

[Guest Daisho2004]

KFS, I read Stray Dogs and Lone Wolves, Great Book lots of info, definitely pick it up.

[Guest kungfusamurai]

Thanks guys! I will check those books out.

KFS

[Guest White Snake]

Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves is an excellent book for what it covers, which is the samurai films that were available on DVD with subtitles at the time the book was published, early in 2005, so it doesn't include the DVD releases later in the year from AnimEigo, or any of this year's DVD releases. It's written from a fan's viewpoint, not an elitist critic's.

I found Outlaw Masters of Japanese Cinema at Kinokuniya Bookstore in San Francisco Japantown. It covers samurai and yakuza movies, and the movie yakuza were as inclined to use the sword as they were the gun. Besides, there's one whole chapter on Sonny Chiba, including an interview. When I found that, I had to buy it.

The only difference you'll find between editions of Silver's The Samurai Film, is that he'll have added info about more recent films, not revised the sections published in the earlier editions.

If you like action-packed samurai movie posters, there's "Silver Screen Samurai: The Best of Japan's Samurai Movie Posters", published by Cocoro Books in 2004, $20, with over 100 pages of samurai movie posters in color, including some info about each film.

[Guest Daisho2004]

White Snake, thanks for adding some more info, I'll look for those books also.

[Guest steve hubbell]

Not exactly a book, but Chris D. did a series of articles on samurai films for the magazine Cult Movies in the early 1990's.

Samurai Films: A Neglected Genre part 1

(6 pages) Cult Movies #12 (Winter,1994)

Covers the Lone Wolf & Cub, Zatoichi, and Kyoshiro Nemuri series as well as films by Gosha and Misumi.

Samurai Films: A Neglected Genre part 2

(10 and a 1/2 pages) Cult Movies #13 (Spring, 1995)

Covers Kurosawa, Inagaki, Okamoto, Uchida, Kobayashi, and a bunch of other directors.

Samurai Films: A Neglected Genre part 3

(14 pages) Cult Magazine #15 (Fall, 1995)

Covers kaidan (ghost stories) and female samurai films.

Samurai Films: A Neglected Genre part 4 - conclusion

(9 and a 1/2 pages) Cult Magazine #16 (Winter, 1995)

Covers matatabi films, samurai S & M erotica, and ninja films.

Chris D. wrote in the introduction to part 4 the following comment:

As you can see the list of matatobi films below did its best to bury the reader in unwieldy cinematic inventory. I had to pare away titles right and left — not an easy task when virtually every major Japanese actor from the 1920s through the early 1960s portrayed Jirocho, Chuji, Zanpei, Yataro, etc... For a complete list of matatabi films in English you’ll have to wait for my book version of these articles: The Samurai Film: Encyclopedia of a Neglected Genre. A matatabi / period yakuza film list will also appear in my book: Yazuka Eiga: An Encyclopedia of the Japanese Gangster Film 1960 - 1980 (whenever I settle on a publisher).

Unfortunately, he apparently never settled on a publisher since the book was never released.