The Paths of Zatoichi charts the history and continuing influence of the Japanese film and TV franchise about Zatoichi the blind swordsman, both within the Japanese media industriesand within global popular culture.
Critical Essays on Film, Literature, Anime, Video Games
Contemporary Japanese horror is deeply rooted in the folklore of its culture, with fairy tales-like ghost stories embedded deeply into the social, cultural, and religious fabric. Ever since the emergence of the J-horror phenomenon in the late 1990s with the opening and critical success of films such as Hideo Nakata's The Ring (Ringu, 1998) or ......
This unique collection explores the complex issue of vigilantism, how it is represented in popular culture, and what is its impact on behavior and the implications for the rule of law. The book is a transnational investigation across a range of eleven different jurisdictions, including accounts of the Anglophone world (Australia, Britain, Canada, ......
Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Screening Loss examines bereavement as it appears in horror films of the last two decades. This book addresses global hits such as Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and Jennifer Kent's The Babadook as well as lauded arthouse films such as Lars von Trier's Melancholia and Ari Aster's Midsommar.
In this book, Paul Lynch explores the genre of the British conspiracy thriller, a confrontational and dark response to what novelists and filmmakers perceived as an increasingly Orwellian secret state in the political landscape of the time. Through analyses of a variety of film and television productions, Lynch examines the ways in which they were ......
This book uses an intercultural communication lens to analyze six cross-cultural films and their depictions of migration, mobility, and the resulting intercultural communications. It argues that the results of these complex and stressful moments of conflict include personal growth, oppression, familial or social separation, and loss of identity.
Japanese Horror, Fractured Realities, and New Media
This book examines Japanese horror films released from the 2010s to present day, analyzing the function of computers, smartphones, and social media in the narratives, dissemination, and consumption of these films. Lindsay Nelson argues that the multitude of screens creates a sense of fractured reality in contemporary Japanese horror.
