A Dream of Resistance

The Cinema of Kobayashi Masaki

By Stephen Prince

Rutgers University Press

Celebrated as one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers, Kobayashi Masaki’s scorching depictions of war and militarism marked him as a uniquely defiant voice in post-war Japanese cinema. A pacifist drafted into Japan’s Imperial Army, Kobayashi survived the war with his principles intact and created a body of work that was uncompromising in its critique of the nation’s military heritage. Yet his renowned political critiques were grounded in spiritual perspectives, integrating motifs and beliefs from both Buddhism and Christianity.

A Dream of Resistance is the first book in English to explore Kobayashi’s entire career, from the early films he made at Shochiku studio, to internationally-acclaimed masterpieces like The Human Condition, Harakiri, and Samurai Rebellion, and on to his final work for NHK Television. Closely examining how Kobayashi’s upbringing and intellectual history shaped the values of his work, Stephen Prince illuminates the political and religious dimensions of Kobayashi’s films, interpreting them as a prayer for peace in troubled times. Prince draws from a wealth of rare archives, including previously untranslated interviews, material that Kobayashi wrote about his films, and even the young director’s wartime diary. The result is an unprecedented portrait of this singular filmmaker.

Prince, already one of the field's greatest observers of film form, has moved beyond form to demonstrate Kobayashi's deep humanism, fierce political convictions, and religio-philosophical leanings within a career of rare depth and beauty. This is the definitive work. David Desser, author of The Samurai Films of Akira Kurosawa

Prince delves broadly and deeply into the world of Kobayashi’s films, providing an introduction to the international community. This will be a great boon to a new generation of audiences. Ogasawara Kiyoshi, co-writer of the screenplay for Tokyo saiban

He was regarded as a ‘filmmaker of steel,’ But throughout his films you can see the figure of the director himself, drawn to beauty, friendly, easily moved to tears, prone to feeling lonely, straightforward, and possessing the heart of a youth…. It has been one hundred years since Kobayashi Masaki’s birth and twenty since his death. I sincerely hope that through Professor Prince’s book, the thoughts that director Kobayashi entrusted to his films will cross national borders and reach a new generation.' Kajiyama Koko, managing director, Geiyukai, Kobayashi Masaki archive

Draws on previously untranslated material in a study of the Japanese filmmaker (1916-96), who is known for his critique of war and militarism. Chronicle

[A] meticulously researched new book, A Dream of Resistance: The Cinema of Kobayashi Masaki, is sensitive to many of these issues and refreshingly demonstrates the insights a scholar can arrive at by using rigorous auteurist analysis and concentrating on recurring stylistic and narrative devices. New York Review of Books

Prince, an expert on Japanese cinema, offers a profound, passionate, and introspective account of another Japanese master. Senses of Cinema

STEPHEN PRINCE is a professor of cinema at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He has written or edited fourteen books, including The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa and Digital Visual Effects in Cinema: The Seduction of Reality (Rutgers University Press).

Introduction 1
1 Conjoining Spirit and World 12
2 A Sharp and Piercing Thorn 70
3 The Logic of Negation 123
4 Guardians of the Gate 178
5 A Pilgrim on the Silk Road 240
Acknowledgments 297
Films by Kobayashi Masaki 299
Notes 301
Index 315

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