Back for a second encore following the success of the first two installments, this volume takes as its subject not the genres or movements that constitute the cinema of the Land of the Rising Sun but the filmmakers themselves. Focusing entirely on directors, the contributors here offer over forty essays on key Japanese auteurs, ranging from the Golden Age to the New Wave to the present day, including of trend-setting and taboo-breaking genre specialists who have achieved a significant cult following.

Though the spotlight is on the filmmakers, this new volume continues to consider a wide range of genres associated with Japanese cinema, including animation, contemporary independent cinema, J-Horror, the New Wave, period drama, science fiction, and yakuza.

Like its predecessors, Directory of World Cinema: Japan 3 endeavors to move scholarly criticism of Japanese film out of the academy and into the hands of cinephiles the world over. This volume will be warmly welcomed by those with an interest in Japanese cinema that extends beyond its established names to equally remarkable filmmakers who have yet to receive such rigorous attention.  

John Berra is a lecturer in film and language studies at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He is the editor of the Directory of World Cinema: Japan and its successor, coeditor of World Film Locations: Beijing, and coeditor of World Film Locations: Shanghai.