Alexander Zahlten, The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, and Media Ecologies

Alexander Zahlten’s book, The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, and Media Ecologies creates a map for the “road less traveled” in Japanese film industry history, covering a period from the 1960s through the early 2000s, a time oft-noted as the decline of the Japanese post-Fordist studio system frequently blamed on the rise of television. This time period is mostly referenced as a dark time in Japanese film, due to a sharp decline in production and the disappearance off the global stage previously established in the 1930-1950s. By analyzing three “industry genres,” Zahlten fills the gaps with in-depth histories of Pink Film, Kadokawa Film, and V-Cinema (straight to video cinema), offering an incisive intersection between narrative and industry that can ideally be applied to other time periods and national contexts. Zahlten builds the argument that these industrial genres lead into new “media ecologies,” which include specific aspects of the Japanese film industr

Alexander Zahlten’s book, The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, and Media Ecologies creates a map for the “road less traveled” in Japanese film industry history, covering a period from the 1960s through the early 2000s, a time oft-noted as the decline of the Japanese post-Fordist studio system frequently blamed on the rise of television. This time period is mostly referenced as a dark time in Japanese film, due to a sharp decline in production and the disappearance off the global stage previously established in the 1930-1950s. By analyzing three “industry genres,” Zahl