ReFocus: The Films of Kon Ichikawa

Kyle Barrowman is a media and cinema studies lecturer in Chicago. He received his PhD from Cardiff University. He is the editor of Fighting Stars: Stardom and Reception in Hong Kong Martial Arts Cinema (2024) and his work has been published in such journals as Offscreen, Senses of Cinema, Global Media and China, Asian Cinema, Film-Philosophy and New Review of Film and Television Studies and in such edited collections as A Companion to the Action Film (2019), ReFocus: The Films of William Wyler (2023) and The Cinema of Stephen Chow (2024).

• List of FiguresIntroductionKyle Barrowman1. Isolating Ichikawa: Auteurism between Form and ContentKyle Barrowman2. A High Commercial Aesthetic: Rethinking Authorship and Adaptation through the Films of Kon Ichikawa and Natto WadaDiane Wei Lewis3. The Way of the Painter: Watching Kon Ichikawa Think Through ImagesIsolde Vanhee4. Two Dark Men: Kon Ichikawa and Kazuo Miyagawa’s Chromatic Experiments in BlackDaisuke Miyao5. Kon Ichikawa: The Man Who Visualized the Landscape of Collective Memory in JapanKiyoko Nagai6. Kon Ichikawa and the National Imaginary: An Ambivalent RelationshipChristopher Smith7. The Bitterness of Youth: Punishment Room and the Sun Tribe Films in Postwar JapanErica Ka-yan Poon8. Kon Ichikawa’s Theater of WarDaniel Morgan9. Staging Scenes of Poetic Justice: Ichikawa’s Kindaichi Mystery AdaptationsJeffrey DuBois10. The Architectonics of Voyeurism and Familial Interactions in Odd Obsession and The Makioka Sisters, Ichikawa’s Tanizaki AdaptationsMaureen Turim11. Orchestrating Spectacles: Project Cinema from Tokyo Olympics ’64 to Osaka Expo ’70Hideaki Fujiki12. Kon-mationLaura LeeIndex

Kon Ichikawa is not only a perfect subject for the ReFocus series he is one of the most significant. Kyle Barrowman has done a fine job in getting wide coverage of Ichikawa’s long career. There are some wonderful contributors here, bringing on scholars who have already made a significant contribution to the field of Japanese film studies and new voices to bear