The Cinema of Gosho Heinosuke

"With this work Nolletti (English, Framingham State College) closes a gap in the anglophone literature on the history of Asian cinema. Although Gosho (1902—81) won the Japanese award for Best Film of the Year 11 times and was recognized at the 1953 Berlin Film Festival, he has received sparse attention in the West, in large part due to the paucity of English—language materials. Gosho's 40—year—plus career began in 1925 with his debut as writer and director, and he became legendary during what Nolletti refers to as the first Golden Age of Japanese Cinema in the 1930s. Selecting from Gosho's 44 extant films (Gosho made more than a hundred films during his career), the author provides close analysis of films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and he discusses contemporaneous social and historical circumstances surrounding their production. Nolletti looks at the genres Gosho worked in, from drama (family stories and human—interest stories of common people), to slapstick comedy, to period films. He explores films that reveal Gosho's love for humanity and his talent for portraying human foibles through, as the book's subtitle says, laughter and tears. Nolletti's intention is that this book, which includes a useful filmography, will inspire further research on this great filmmaker, and it is certain to do so. Summing Up: Essential. Readers at all levels. —B. M. McNeal, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania"—Choice, December 2005

"With this work Nolletti (English, Framingham State College) closes a gap in the anglophone literature on the history of Asian cinema. . . . Nolletti's intention is that this book, which includes a useful filmography, will inspire further research on this great filmmaker, and it is certain to do so. Summing Up: Essential. Readers at all levels. December 2005"—Choice