The course, given in collaboration between Section for Cinema Studies at the Department of Media Studies and The Department of Asian, Middle East and Turkish Studies, provides an overview of the Japanese film's cultural history.

Cultural theoretical, technological, intermediary and political perspectives on "modernity" and "tradition" within Japanese films are related to the role of concepts in other countries' film history. The course also takes into account the ways in which "national film" has been a key historical theoretic concept in understanding the style and theme of films produced in both Japan and the western world.