Welcome to Kinema Club

Welcome to the website of Kinema Club, a long-standing, international but informal group devoted to the study of Japanese moving image media. Kinema Club was started precisely to share knowledge about Japanese cinema, so this site serves both to introduce our activities, such as the KineJapan mailing list and our conferences and workshops, as well promote information and thinking about films, research, bibliography, and education.


Otoko wa tsurai yo: Torajiro, kurenai no hana

Tora’s Lost World

Just as the rather odd signs of Christmas, at least in Japan–such as Santa appearing the department stores and carols filling the air–peak, two other markers of the season assault Japanese movie screens: Godzilla and Tora-san.

This year, Godzilla is dead, but Tora-san will seemingly live on forever as a Japanese institution.

Tora-san,... Read more

Emergency Call

Manila Calling for Medic

They used to make a lot of American movies like Emergency Call. The samaritan male First World professional heads off to less civilized regions of the world to help the natives and learn about their culture, often with the assistance of a beautiful local girl.

Often due to the necessity to avoid miscegenation, the plots were more... Read more

Real Doctor Faces Harsh Realities (Emergency Call)

A husband who steals his dead wife’s body before it can be autopsied, a distraught mother who bites the ear off her newborn baby, and a yellow journalist who does a radio expose on the Japanese doctor for supposed discrimination against the Philippine people. Events like these that occur Omori Kazuki’s new film ... Read more

East Meets West

When the East Fails to Meet the West

Japanese film fans and filmmakers alike have shared a long-standing fascination with the American western, perhaps because of its affinities with one of Japan’s own home-grown genres, the samurai movie, which in many cases also sports a lone hero dueling with villains to restore order to a lawless situation.

Such similarities have made... Read more

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