Against this background, Carl Cassegård, cultural sociologist at the University of Gothenburg, presents us with a highly topical and detailed volume on youth movements in Japan, successfully challenging pre-‐established notions on Japan’s “apathetic” youth. Looking beyond conventional forms of participation, emergent forms of activism have hardly received attention.
Consequently, younger Japanese had been regarded as generally disinterested in political issues, showing seemingly little political activity or civic engagement. What has been puzzling to many observers is that, despite growing socioeconomic risks that threaten the livelihood of young Japanese workers, there has been a conspicuous absence of large-‐scale protest rallies in Japan after the 1970s. Leiden, Boston: Global Oriental, 2014, xiii + 289 pp., $148.00 (hardcover ISBN 978-90-04-24591-4) Julia Obinger / University of Zurich Lifestyle and activities of young Japanese have captured the interest of scholars for years, even more so during times of economic recession. The sampling includes studio genre films, independent films as well as selections from film festivals in order to discuss aspects of genre film theory as intersectional with industry and to track a cultural moment in contemporary Japanese film.Unformatted text preview: Youth Movements, Trauma and Alternative Space in Contemporary Japan by Carl Cassegård. This project is a delineation of these sub-genres of Japanese youth films, their narrative tropes, and commercial impact. Cultural categories such as the socioeconomic classifications freeter, NEET, hikikomori, and yankii are discussed throughout each chapter. The chapters do not write a historical overview of the entire movement but instead investigate the relationships around youth, themes, and historical context and input them into generic modes. Each chapter analyzes three to six films as a sampling of the group. I follow thematic patterns as cycles and thus also analyze how the previously stated new genre categories intersect and overlap. Four chapters include: “New Japanese Cinema Seishun Eiga,” “Death Game films,” “Yankii films,” and “Near-Disaster films.” The scope of this project comprises “youth” representation not as a genre but as a set of limitations, such as films that cast young adult actors and address social issues typical of young adulthood in Japan such as enjo kosai, ijime (bullying), class conflicts, social media technologies and global cinema cultures. This project tracks thematic trends in the films themselves, particularly those trends that intersect with current youth movements in Japan.
Contemporary Japanese Seishun Eiga Cinema examines Japanese popular films of the last 30 years that focus on youth protagonists, analyzes new generic modes and how Japanese film history and tradition informs and influences them.
0 kommentar(er)
