Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Shiguéhiko Hasumi: Another History of the Movie in America and Japan
japansociety.org/film/shiguehiko-hasumi
October 9—18, 2025
Since the 1960s, the revered critic and theorist Shiguéhiko Hasumi has yielded an extraordinary body of work extending far beyond his initial beginnings as a scholar of French literature. Once instrumental in introducing Foucault and Deleuze to Japan, Hasumi has lent his interdisciplinary approach to a wide breadth of cultural and literary criticism, from Soseki to Madame Bovary, revolutionizing the field of film studies during the 1970s with his writings and fabled lectures at Rikkyo, and later, the University of Tokyo. Counted among his former students are master filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa along with other celebrated cineastes of the Rikkyo New Wave, or Second Japanese New Wave, including Shinji Aoyama, Masayuki Suo and Akihiko Shiota; Hasumi’s direct influence spreads further, having maintained rapports with Pedro Costa, Hou Hsien-Hsiao and Jean-Luc Godard as well as the contemporary face of Japanese cinema with auteurs Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Sho Miyake (who will attend the program’s second weekend).
The perceived canon of Japanese cinema has long been dominated, not surprisingly, by the voices of Western critics: Bordwell, Schrader, Richie, with little focus made in the sphere of Japanese scholarship, often compounded by the hurdles of language. Hasumi, whose writings constitute a dominant force in Japan, has only just received the first English-language translation of one of his long-form works last year: the landmark 1983 publication Directed by Yasujiro Ozu—considered one of the greatest works ever written on film and noted as having “single-handedly resurrected the status of Ozu”. Distinguished by his unique critical perspective, stylistic prose, and proposition of thematic systems (a focus on gestures such as John Ford’s use of throwing or Ozu’s focus on eating or laughing), the introduction of Hasumi’s texts to English-speaking audiences is not merely welcomed, but inarguably crucial and vital.
On occasion, Japan Society has invited influential public figures to present curated programs, these include critic and essayist Susan Sontag, Donald Richie, Hiroshi Sugimoto and avant-garde composer John Zorn among others. Offered a carte blanche, Hasumi has proposed Another History of the Movie in America and Japan, which suggests the line drawn between the two world cinemas is much less realized than one could imagine.
Guest-curated by Shiguéhiko Hasumi
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Visit: japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions
Like: facebook.com/japansociety
Follow: instagram.com/japansociety
Watch: youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC
Join: japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member
Learn: japansociety.org/language-center
Shiguéhiko Hasumi: Another History of the Movie in America and Japan
japansociety.org/film/shiguehiko-hasumi
October 9—18, 2025
Since the 1960s, the revered critic and theorist Shiguéhiko Hasumi has yielded an extraordinary body of work extending far beyond his initial beginnings as a scholar of French literature. Once instrumental in introducing Foucault and Deleuze to Japan, Hasumi has lent his interdisciplinary approach to a wide breadth of cultural and literary criticism, from Soseki to Madame Bovary, revolutionizing the field of film studies during the 1970s with his writings and fabled lectures at Rikkyo, and later, the University of Tokyo. Counted among his former students are master filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa along with other celebrated cineastes of the Rikkyo New Wave, or Second Japanese New Wave, including Shinji Aoyama, Masayuki Suo and Akihiko Shiota; Hasumi’s direct influence spreads further, having maintained rapports with Pedro Costa, Hou Hsien-Hsiao and Jean-Luc Godard as well as the contemporary face of Japanese cinema with auteurs Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Sho Miyake (who will attend the program’s second weekend).
The perceived canon of Japanese cinema has long been dominated, not surprisingly, by the voices of Western critics: Bordwell, Schrader, Richie, with little focus made in the sphere of Japanese scholarship, often compounded by the hurdles of language. Hasumi, whose writings constitute a dominant force in Japan, has only just received the first English-language translation of one of his long-form works last year: the landmark 1983 publication Directed by Yasujiro Ozu—considered one of the greatest works ever written on film and noted as having “single-handedly resurrected the status of Ozu”. Distinguished by his unique critical perspective, stylistic prose, and proposition of thematic systems (a focus on gestures such as John Ford’s use of throwing or Ozu’s focus on eating or laughing), the introduction of Hasumi’s texts to English-speaking audiences is not merely welcomed, but inarguably crucial and vital.
On occasion, Japan Society has invited influential public figures to present curated programs, these include critic and essayist Susan Sontag, Donald Richie, Hiroshi Sugimoto and avant-garde composer John Zorn among others. Offered a carte blanche, Hasumi has proposed Another History of the Movie in America and Japan, which suggests the line drawn between the two world cinemas is much less realized than one could imagine.
Guest-curated by Shiguéhiko Hasumi
------
Visit: japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions
Like: facebook.com/japansociety
Follow: instagram.com/japansociety
Watch: youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC
Join: japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member
Learn: japansociety.org/language-center
