Author Freda Freiberg

Originally published in Senses of Cinema issue 40, July 2006. Girls occupy a distinctive place in Japan’s mass media, including films and literature. What fascinates the Japanese is that the shojo nestle in ...

This article was first published in the groundbreaking Don’t Shoot Darling! Women’s Independent Filmmaking in Australia (Greenhouse Publications, Richmond, 1987, pp. 334-42). It is reproduced here with the kind...

Pale Flower/Kawaita hana (1963 Japan 96 mins) Prod Co: Shochiku Dir: Shinoda Masahiro Scr: Baba Masaru, Shinoda Masahiro, adapted from a story by Ishihara Shintaro Phot: Kosugi Masao Mus: Takemitsu Toru ...

This essay examines the Shojo archetype (androgynous cute young girl) that figures prominently in Miyazaki’s films and its relevance to Japanese culture.

Kenji Mizoguchi is acknowledged as one of the masters of classic Japanese cinema, but his films are rarely exhibited or studied in film courses. One of the major reasons for this sad state of affairs is doubtle...

Mizoguchi is acknowledged as one of the three great masters of classic Japanese cinema but he has not received the same amount of attention as the other two, outside of Japan and France. Film theorists and ...

Twenty-Four Eyes/Nijushi no hitomi (1954 Japan 155 mins) Source: NFVLS Prod Co: Shochiku Dir: Keisuke Kinoshita Scr: Keisuke Kinoshita, based on Sakae Tsuboi's novel Phot: Hiroyuki Kusuda Art Dir: Kimihi...

Dragnet Girl/Hijosen no onna (1933 Japan 100 mins) Source, Prod Co: Shockiku Films Dir: Yasujiro Ozu Scr: Tadao Ikeda, based on a story by “James Maki” (Yasujiro Ozu) Phot: Hideo Mohara Ed: Kazuo Ishikaw...

Donzoko/The Lower Depths (1957 Japan 125 mins) Source: NLA/ACMI Prod Co: Toho Prod, Dir, Ed: Akira Kurosawa Scr: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, from the play by Maxim Gorky Phot: Kazuo Yamasaki Prod Des: Y...

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003) Film scholars have rightly become sceptical about the value of books published under the imprint of an American academic institution. Too often we encounter...

Utamaro and his Five Women/Utamaro o Meguro Gonin no Onna (1947 Japan 90mins) Source: ACMI/NLA Prod Co: Shochiku (Kyoto studio) Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi Scr: Yoshikata Yoda Phot: Shigeto Miki Ed: Shintarô Mi...

Freda praises highly the cinema of Ann Hui, in particular, her tender, lyrical Song of the Exile.