This class is an interesting GE option, as it will introduce you to some Japanese films that you likely have not yet seen. Professor Yamazaki is also very nice and will do her best to be flexible and resolve any issues that may arise.

Regarding the grading breakdown, there is a participation component worth 15%, discussion board postings that account for 20%, a paper worth 20%, pop quizzes that total 5%, an in-discussion assignment worth 10%, and a final paper worth 30%. Participating grading is fairly lenient, as I contributed just an average amount and still got 100%. Discussion board postings are weekly and are about 250 words each. Grading on these was tougher at the beginning of the quarter than the end. The midterm paper was just three pages or so, and was not overwhelming by any means. The pop quizzes and in-discussion assignment are nothing to be concerned about - participation is the primary aspect being graded in both instances.

The final paper, for me, was during the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore was made optional. However, I still did it because I'm dedicated to the Bruinwalk community and wanted to provide a thorough review. There are three options, two of which are papers and one which is a creative project. I opted for one of the papers, which was 5-7 pages long and entailed comparing two of the films we watched. This option is structured around your choice of prompt that Professor Yamazaki provides, and therefore you are provided some guidance in that sense. I suspect grading was fairly lenient given the circumstances surrounding the end of this quarter.

Other items of note: There is no textbook, as all of the readings are on CCLE. The workload is moderate due to the films that you must watch on your own. Also, the grading scheme is favorable, as she rounds up to the nearest integer (so a 92.01% becomes a 93%, and therefore an A). Moreover, extra credit is offered (up to 2%), which further benefits students grade-wise.

TL;DR: An interesting, unique GE with a nice Professor and a favorable grading scheme.

Professor Yamazaki is the SWEETEST professor I have ever had at UCLA. She genuinely cares about her students, and she was so flexible in accommodating everyone this quarter. She is not stingy with extra credit AT ALL.. in fact, she give us 7% worth of extra credit opportunities this quarter. I'm not going to get into the format of the class because she made a lot of changes this quarter due to COVID-19, but honestly I'm sure her in person class is just as great! Definitely take this class if you need a breather class on the side of heavier, harder classes. I love you, Junko!! Thank you for an amazing quarter<3

I thoroughly enjoyed this class. It was a really interesting and pretty easy GE. Before this, my only experience with Japanese cinema was through anime so this class definitely broadened my horizons. The grading scheme was really fair and there were multiple opportunities for extra credit. The workload wasn't bad. Per week, you would watch a movie, read (or skim) the readings, and write a response to a question regarding the film and readings on CCLE. The films were mostly pretty entertaining but I watched most of them at 1.25x or 1.5x speed depending on the film (Paprika was an absolute serve, highly recommend). The readings were oftentimes very long but you only need to read bits of it to understand the whole reading. During discussion section, the TA would go over the readings as well so you would come out of it with a full understanding. Professor Yamazaki doesn't bruincast and there were a few pop quizzes so going to lecture is pretty important but as long as you watched the movie and understood what she was going over in lecture, you'll be fine for those. We had to write two essays during the quarter and neither was particularly difficult. I did really well on the first one so I decided to opt-out of the final, as this was when the chaos of the pandemic started to reach campus. Both Professor Yamazaki and my TA Victoria are super kind and understanding of your personal circumstances. Overall, this was a great GE and I would definitely recommend taking it.

This class was a fairly easy GE. I personally was not that interested in Japanese cinema and found most of the movies quite strange, but I still did well in the class.
I believe that the grading was a lot harsher at the beginning of the quarter, but, with the whole coronavirus pandemic, the grading at the end of the quarter was quite lenient. There were two essays. The first was a shot analysis and was fairly short (3-4 pages?).
The final paper had multiple prompts that you could have chosen or made your own. I chose to go with a designated prompt because I found it easier. There is also a final project option.
Each week you watched a film and then wrote a discussion post about it. These were fairly easy and were not graded harshly. You don't have to do all the readings, but it definitely helps you write discussion posts and your final paper.
There were also extra credit opportunities! For example, if you watched the movie in a group and discussed it, you could earn up to 2%.
There were also pop quizzes, but they were more of a completion grade to prove that you attended lecture that day. They weren't difficult and she gives you a lot of time and basically tells you the answer.
She also rounds up the grades, which proves that she cares a lot more about student learning than just grades.
I had Victoria as a TA and loved her! She was such a kind, helpful TA and made the class great. The professor is also super sweet and I can tell she definitely cares about her students.
I personally was not interested in the content of this class, which is why I did not enjoy it (just my personal preference). However, if you want an easier GE or really enjoy Japanese cinema, this would definitely work.

I love Professor Yamazaki! She's super accomodating, sweet, and super understanding. The class itself was not hard but there were required readings and viewings each week. They are required because you discuss them during your discussion sections and you have to use them for your weekly discussion boards. The weekly discussion boards are 250 words max and is about the viewings (and occasionally readings).

The viewings are interesting Japanese movies(and can be super gorey at some point) but not at all boring. The readings can be interesting but most of the time it's confusing and longggg but during lectures the professor breaks them down! (I think I did fine because I would skim through the readings and watch the films at 2x speed) (But I took notes on readings so it'd be easier to write the discussion boards).

A LOT of extra credit (up to 7%!). Extra credit for watching the required viewings and having a group discussion and writing about the group discussions.

There was no midterm because of COVID and final isn't that bad. There's three options: option A & B are writing prompts (5-7 pages) and option C is a creative project (an animation, a video essay, etc) plus a response paper on the project you did. Option C can be a group project!

Would totally recommend as a class to fulfil your GE requirements

very laid back class, going to lecture isn't necessary to get an A in the class (but she does take attendance by assigning around 3 pop quizzes throughout the quarter and you pretty much need to go to class in order to answer these quizzes --> worth 8% of your total grade). she'll generally post the pop quiz a few hours before any given lecture on canvas (so you know ahead of time). discussion attendance mandatory with excused absences allowed. entire class is made up of doing discussion posts & one final essay worth 33% of your grade. also you can get up to 7.5% EC through straightforward activities (some involve spending money on movie tickets so it can be an investment). overall very easy class.

Nice class! One would expect to watch a movie and write a 300 w analysis each week. The discussion section requires attendance, and only one long paper will be needed throughout the quarter. The final paper is very flexible since there are many options for you to choose from. One may even choose your own movie and topics to write on. Although some of the movies in the middle of the courses are a bit boring, most movies are goods ones, and I would recommend this class to anyone to likes movies.

I would definitely recommend taking this GE if you have any interest in film and/or Japanese culture. Some of the readings are even focused on critical theory if you're interested in sociology. Basically, you'll watch one movie every week in your free time and then learn about the background and film details behind those movies in Prof. Yamazaki's lectures. You also discuss your reaction to the actual movies we watch in the discussion sections and in weekly posts to the website. If you can make time to do all that, this class is really easy, and you can mostly just skim the weekly readings. There's a final paper that your TA grades (which was easy bc my TA was very lenient and chill; shoutout Yiou Li), and there was supposed to be a midterm paper, but Yamazaki canceled it due to Omicron shutting down school for a month. Speaking of that, I wanted this class to be in person, but it ended up being fully online & over Zoom for the whole quarter, even after Omicron restrictions were lifted. I have no idea if it'll be in-person for the next quarter that it's held, but honestly being online wasn't too hard, it just made it difficult to concentrate on lectures a lot of the time. I guess I had more time to sleep, so that was good lol