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 - Took this class during winter quarter & it has been one of the easiest classes I've taken so far. There's only one midterm paper, one final paper & you have to do 5 postings for the whole quarter which are short, one page papers that are based on the readings/films. She would post two postings per week and you get to choose which ones you will do. I will say that she does assign multiple readings/films that you should read/watch previous to attending lecture but she does discuss them & lowkey you don't have to read all of them. I would recommend reading enough of them/ watching the movies because the papers will require you to use some of your choice. Attendance isn't mandatory for lecture & they're recorded.
Winter 2025 - Took this class during winter quarter & it has been one of the easiest classes I've taken so far. There's only one midterm paper, one final paper & you have to do 5 postings for the whole quarter which are short, one page papers that are based on the readings/films. She would post two postings per week and you get to choose which ones you will do. I will say that she does assign multiple readings/films that you should read/watch previous to attending lecture but she does discuss them & lowkey you don't have to read all of them. I would recommend reading enough of them/ watching the movies because the papers will require you to use some of your choice. Attendance isn't mandatory for lecture & they're recorded.
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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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