In 1972 Joan Mellen won an international award from the Mainichi Shimbun newspapers for her essays on Akira Kurosawa. The present book brings together for the first time the views of the most acclaimed directors of one of the world's great cinemas. Mellen's introduction points out the special relationship between modern Japanese film and the nation's feudal past. She explores Japan's quest for national identity, which is a special concern of the country's major film artists. Among the great directors presented here are Kon Ichikawa, Masaki Kobayashi, and the great master, Akira Kurosawa. The author also spent considerable time in discussion with the brilliant but less well known younger generation of directors, writers, and performers, such as Sachiko Hidari, Shuji Terayama, Masahiro Shinoda, and Nagisa Oshima. What emerges from the book is the first inside view of Japanese films, directors, and artists published in English. Kurosawa speaks of his motives and the evolution of such films as Seven Samurai and High and Low. Shinoda discusses his sense of the need for a Japanese Ingmar Bergman. Ichikawa explores the impact of Walt Disney on his work. Oshima, often called Japan's Godard, stresses the differences and conflict between his generation and that of Kurosawa. Sachiko Hidari, the acclaimed actress and wife of Susumu Hani, gives a compelling description of the plight of the Japanese woman, and Susumu Hani offers a frank account of his experiments in filmmaking, which make the French New Wave appear stodgy. Mellen sees Japan as "an irrepressibly intense and vital culture." Its artists are wary of the direction which post-war Japan has taken, and they are attempting to move away from an authoritarian tradition. Voices from the Japanese Cinema provides new insights into the inner concerns of Japan's great film directors and performers. The author stresses the continuing feudal response to women in Japan and to women in general. This part of her dialogue with Japan's film artists adds a further dimension to a remarkable book.--From dust jacket.