JAPAN 70
Images of Japan: Literature and Film
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Knowledge of Japanese culture, literature, or language not required. Introduction to visual and textual images of Japan's literary heritage, including documentary and feature films based on Japan's literary classics. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Interesting class that involves watching a lot of interesting and unique movies and some short stories/parts of books. Topics ranged from the supernatural to manga to gender. Many involved an uncomfortable amount of suffering, but I feel like most humanities are like that. Watching all the films can take a decent chunk of time. Really opened my eyes to a lot of different perspectives though. Lectures were recorded and involved discussions about the context and history surrounding the topics. Professor Shima had students do group discussions about whatever they wanted to promote socialization. Quizzes were easy and based on just identifying the text/movie based on a passage/scene. Weekly Discussion Questions were graded fairly generously. Midterm and Final paper with no written tests. I'm not a great writer, so I think the grading was not too harsh based on what I got. My TA was great and I heard nothing but good things for the other TAs as well. Discussions were based on one of the works and pretty casual, but mandatory. TLDR; Pretty interesting class that I do not regret taking. Pretty easy but can be a bit time consuming if you try to watch and read everything.
Winter 2021 - Interesting class that involves watching a lot of interesting and unique movies and some short stories/parts of books. Topics ranged from the supernatural to manga to gender. Many involved an uncomfortable amount of suffering, but I feel like most humanities are like that. Watching all the films can take a decent chunk of time. Really opened my eyes to a lot of different perspectives though. Lectures were recorded and involved discussions about the context and history surrounding the topics. Professor Shima had students do group discussions about whatever they wanted to promote socialization. Quizzes were easy and based on just identifying the text/movie based on a passage/scene. Weekly Discussion Questions were graded fairly generously. Midterm and Final paper with no written tests. I'm not a great writer, so I think the grading was not too harsh based on what I got. My TA was great and I heard nothing but good things for the other TAs as well. Discussions were based on one of the works and pretty casual, but mandatory. TLDR; Pretty interesting class that I do not regret taking. Pretty easy but can be a bit time consuming if you try to watch and read everything.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - Shimazaki is the sweetest professor ever! I loved going to her office hours to talk about the class and getting ideas for the papers we had to write. If you brainstorm early and talk to her about it, she is sooo helpful with fleshing it out and guiding you. The class itself was really interesting and I enjoyed some of the films we saw. We only had to write 5 postings for the entire quarter. You do not have to keep up with all the readings and films, but you should be familiar with a couple for the final paper. Loved her so much! She's amazing and super passionate!
Winter 2025 - Shimazaki is the sweetest professor ever! I loved going to her office hours to talk about the class and getting ideas for the papers we had to write. If you brainstorm early and talk to her about it, she is sooo helpful with fleshing it out and guiding you. The class itself was really interesting and I enjoyed some of the films we saw. We only had to write 5 postings for the entire quarter. You do not have to keep up with all the readings and films, but you should be familiar with a couple for the final paper. Loved her so much! She's amazing and super passionate!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2015 - Winston is a very nice professor. She does repeat herself sometimes, but that helps with the memorization. When I took it, we covered more traditional subjects, such as samurais and geishas, so don't expect anything too contemporary. Books are all online and short stories are always available on CCLE. Very chill, would recommend. It does help to have an interest/background in the subject though.
Fall 2015 - Winston is a very nice professor. She does repeat herself sometimes, but that helps with the memorization. When I took it, we covered more traditional subjects, such as samurais and geishas, so don't expect anything too contemporary. Books are all online and short stories are always available on CCLE. Very chill, would recommend. It does help to have an interest/background in the subject though.
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