Divine Work, Japanese Colonial Cinema and its Legacy

Concise, lucid, and deeply researched, Divine Work shows the historical roots of contemporary contours of globalization in East Asia. Kate Taylor-Jones makes a qualitative leap by working from the transnational perspective of the empire rather than a Japanese national one. Her prodigious excavations in far-flung and not always easily accessed archives produce a true revelation for her readers we see Japanese colonial cinema in a whole new way. Investigating how colonized and colonizer worked together in complex relationships under conditions of subjugation and exploitation, she looks at films made by Koreans, Chinese and other subjects and citizens to show how they imagined gender, modernity, landscapes and more. The second half the book demonstrates that this repudiated project has contemporary legacies, ranging from Pan-Asian cinematic projects to the contentions over the Nanjing Massacre. * Chris Berry, Professor of Film Studies, Kings College London, UK * If there is a study more erudite, more penetrating and just plain more important for any consideration of Japans forays into crafting an East Asian cinema during its Imperial era and its far-reaching repercussions than Kate Taylor-Jones Divine Work, Japanese Colonial Cinema and its Legacy Id sure like to see it. For here we have excavations of forgotten, but fascinating films made alongside Japans war efforts as well as films made in the modern era that both reflect upon and sometimes replay those trying and dark times. Working in multiple languages with a bibliography that alone is worth the price of admission, Taylor-Jones opens up a vista on films and filmmakers who shaped and were shaped by the momentous events of the Pacific Wara war which changed Japan, China and Korea and whose reverberations are still being felt in the cinema as elsewhere. * David Desser, Emeritus Professor of Cinema Studies, University of Illinois, USA * With engaging style and sharp observation, Kate Taylor-Jones shows how Orientalist structures of production and representation informed the cinemas of colonial East Asia under Japanese rule, and how these power dynamics continue to operate into the present day. Wide-ranging in scope, considering film in Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia as well as Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria, 'Divine Work' demonstrates how collaboration with the Japanese colonizers propelled the film industries of East Asia forwards, simultaneously creating a sense of ambivalence and profound unease regarding cinema's role in Japanese empire-building. * Rachael Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Delaware, USA and author of Nagai Kafu's Occidentalism: Defining the Japanese Self *

Kate Taylor-Jones is Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies at The University of Sheffield, UK. She has published on topics including colonial Japanese and Korean cinema, cinema and landscape in East Asia, and domestic violence and the sex trade. She is author of Rising Sun, Divided Land: Japanese and South Korean Filmmakers (2013); and editor-in-chief of the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture. She is co-editor with Fiona Handyside of International Cinema and the Girl: Local Issues, Transnational Contexts (2015).

Introduction Part One: Colonial Cinema and the Imperial Machine Chapter One Constructing the Cinematic Japanese Empire: Taiwan and Korea Chapter Two Nations in Harmony: Imperial cinema Chapter Three Landscape and the space of the colonial moment Chapter Four Army Recruitment Films Chapter Five Imperial Women Part Two: Contemporary Manifestations and the Legacy of Empire Introduction to Part Two Chapter Six Legacy of Empire Chapter Seven Japan Remembers, Japan Forgets Chapter Eight Remembering Nanjing Chapter Nine Transnational Legacy and Conclusion Bibliography Filmography