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THE ART OF MASAMUNE SHIROW
VOLUME 2: ANIMÉ
by Jeremy Mark Robinson
This is a study of the animated adaptations of the art of Masamune Shirow (real name Masanuri Ota, b. 1961, Kobe, Japan), a Japanese artist best known for Ghost In the Shell, Appleseed and Dominion: Tank Police. Shirow is one of the great imaginations in the world of Japanese manga and animé - his works have formed the basis of several important franchises in the world of animation.
Masamune Shirow's art is marked by futuristic, cyber-punk settings, fabulous, often eccentric designs, elaborate mecha (such as tanks and mobile suits), voluptuous warrior women and detailed storytelling (accompanied by his famous notes).
The Art of Masamune Shirow includes a biography; chapters on Shirow's signature works in animé - Appleseed and Ghost In the Shell - and his lesser-known adaptations, such as Dominion: Tank Police and Ghost Hound.
Every adaptation of the two popular franchises based on Masamune Shirow's work, Appleseed and the Ghost In the Shell, is discussed in detail: from the 1988 animé of Appleseed and the 1995 movie of Ghost In the Shell to the latest versions and series (such as the Arise series, the Stand Alone Complex: 2045 series, the live-action version of Ghost In the Shell, and the Appleseed animated films).
Fully illustrated, including many images from Masamune Shirow's whole output in animation, and the neglected works, such as Black Magic, Real Drive and Pandora In the Crimson Shell.
The Art of Masamune Shirow is published in three volumes:
Volume 1: Manga
Volume 2: Animé
Volume 3 Erotica
Hardcover - full colour laminate cover.
Bibliography, resources and notes. 444 pages.
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THE ART OF MASAMUNE SHIROW
VOLUME 1: MANGA
by Jeremy Mark Robinson
This is a study of the art of Masamune Shirow (real name Masanuri Ota, b. 1961, Kobe, Japan), a Japanese artist best known for Ghost In the Shell, Appleseed and Dominion: Tank Police.
Masamune Shirow is one of the great creators in the world of Japanese manga and anim - his works have been the basis of several important franchises. Shirow's art is marked by futuristic, cyber-punk settings, fabulous, often eccentric designs, elaborate mecha (such as tanks and mobile suits), attractive warrior women and detailed storytelling (accompanied by his famous, sometimes arcane notes).
The Art of Masamune Shirow includes chapters on Shirow's signature works, Appleseed and Ghost In the Shell, and his lesser-known comics, such as Dominion: Tank Police, Orion, Black Magic and Neuro Hard; a biography; Shirow's relation to the Japanese manga industry; and themes such as cyberculture and cyber-punk fiction. The Appleseed comic and the three Ghost In the Shell comics are explored chapter by chapter.
Fully illustrated, including many images from Masamune Shirow's whole output, the neglected comics, and Shirow's other works in print publishing, such as the Intron Depot series.
Hardcover - full colour laminate cover.
Bibliography, resources and notes. 376 pages.
www.crmoon.com
THE DEVILS: KEN RUSSELL: POCKET MOVIE GUIDE
By Jeremy Mark Robinson.
The Devils is a celebrated 1971 picture based on the Loudun demonology trials in the 17th century, scripted by Ken Russell from Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun (1952) and the 1961 play by John Whiting (1918-63). The Devils was undoubtedly director Russell's most notorious hour. It was the site of conflicts between the filmmakers, the American film studio (Warners), the censors and the critics.
A tour-de-force of direction (and organization and production), the most significant contribution to The Devils may well be the screenplay - and Ken Russell has the screen credit for the script. Which makes The Devils all the more remarkable. (And as if writing the script and directing the movie wasn't enough, Russell also co-produced it.)
It's clear from the first few minutes of The Devils that Ken Russell was on fire as a filmmaker when he made this picture (he was certainly on fire at the period in his film career - not only The Devils but also The Music Lovers and The Boy Friend were playing at the same time in central London theatres. Incredible - I can't think of another British movie-maker with three big (and very different) movies in release at the same time).
Ken Russell was happy with what he'd achieved in The Devils: 'The Devils is the most successful film I've done, insofar as what I expected is there. The effects I aimed at seemed to work'. In The Devils, Russell was operating with a giant canvas, and you can see that the director is in complete control of the form, and of this movie (which gives the audience confident in the storytellers; this movie really knows what it's doing).
This book about The Devils contains lengthy chapters on every aspect of director Ken Russell. A filmmaker like no other, Russell remains one of cinema's extraordinary talents, a creator of masterpieces such as The Devils, Tommy and The Music Lovers, and a body of work that flies from the pastoral, Romantic lyricism of Delius: Song of Summer and Elgar to the wild extremes of Lisztomania, Altered States and Mahler.
Includes: filmographies; resources; video and DVD availability; quotes from Russell; and fans on The Devils.
Fully illustrated, including many images of the movie, and Ken Russell's cinema. Bibliography and notes. ISBN 9781861717368. 244 pages.
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JEREMY MARK ROBINSON has written many critical studies, including Hayao Miyazaki, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean-Luc Godard, and The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, plus literary monographs on: J.R.R. Tolkien; Samuel Beckett; Thomas Hardy; Andr Gide; Robert Graves; and Lawrence Durrell.
It's amazing for me to see my work treated with such passion and respect. There is nothing resembling it in the U.S. in relation to my work.
Andrea Dworkin (on Andrea Dworkin)
This model monograph - it is an exemplary job, and I'm very proud that he has accorded me a couple of mentions... The subject matter of his book is beautifully organised and dead on beam.
Lawrence Durrell (on The Light Eternal: A Study of J.M.W. Turner)
THE ART OF KATSUHIRO OTOMO
by Jeremy Mark Robinson
This is a book about the genius Japanese artist Katsuhiro Otomo (b. 1954). Best-known for the Akira manga of 1982-90 and the Akira movie of 1988, Otomo is also an all-round artist who writes fiction, writes and directs short and feature movies, produces commercial art, and design projects. Among Otomo's works are the movies Steam-Boy, Mushishi, Metropolis, Memories and Roujin Z, and manga such as Domu, The Legend of Mother Sarah, Hansel and Gretel and Sayonara Japan. The works of Otomo have been celebrated with awards - he won the Kodansha Comic-Strip Award in 1984 for Akira, and the Science Fiction Grand Prix Award in 1983 for Domu.
There are very few genuine auteurs in Japanese animation: the animation industry, like all filmmaking on a large scale, is truly collaborative. However, you can definitely see elements in the films directed and written and supervised by Katsuhiro Otomo that are auteurist: Otomo has his own style, visually, but also his own concerns, thematically, politically and psychologically.
Akira is a giant of a movie that opens at full blast: this movie rocks from shot one. It really rocks - at a far higher level of intensity than any comparable movie, including all of the classics regularly trotted out as hi-octane movie-making. Akira is clearly one of those movies where the filmmakers have thrown everything they can think of into the mix, and it's a movie in which the filmmakers have given their all.
Meanwhile, the manga of Akira exceeds all expectations - about storytelling, about what a comicbook or manga is, about how an action-adventure-fantasy story can work in a contemporary setting, and how a story can be genuinely thrilling, genuinely political, genuinely wild and epic.
In short, Akira ticks all of the boxes: (a) it has action and spectacle in spades, (b) it has fascinating characters and situations, (c) it is incredibly exciting, (d) it is very unusual, sometimes downright eccentric and out-there, (e) it is highly politicized, (f) it has plenty to say about living in the modern world, about contemporary, advanced capitalist societies, and (g) it establishes its own world, its own raison d'etre, its own philosophy with supreme self-confidence.
Akira is the manga to top all manga, to end all manga. It is a manga designed to go further, louder and crazier than any other manga. And it does Akira delivers on its promise: it really is every bit as great as everybody says it is.
The Art of Katsuhiro Otomo includes chapters on: Katsuhiro Otomo's manga and movies; lengthy chapters on every aspect of the Akira movie (animation, sound, music, voices, story, themes, etc); the story of the Akira manga; Otomo's inspirations and inflfiuences; the contemporary anime industry; and a section of the views of critics and fans.
Fully illustrated, including many images from Otomo's whole output, the Akira movie, the Akira manga, Otomo's other works in comics and cinema, and Otomo's inspirations.
Hardcover - full colour laminate cover.
This edition is revised, and contains extra illustrations.
Bibliography, resources and notes. 644 pages.
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Sex + drugs + rock music + comedy + Westerns + crime + drifter lifestyles + space battles + bars + casinos + fashion - and more music - what's not to like in Cowboy Bebop? - and how it wittily and cleverly mixes all of those elements, and many more.
This book focusses on the celebrated, hugely entertaining, cult 26-episode Japanese anime TV series Cowboy Bebop (1998), as well as the 2001 movie of the series. Cowboy Bebop is one of the masterpieces of animation of recent times.
That Cowboy Bebop (first broadcast in 1998, and produced by Sunrise (a subsidiary of Bandai) and TV Tokyo), is a fan favourite goes without saying. It is a masterpiece of storytelling, invention, design and production on every level. It is unique. It regularly features in top ten lists of anime favourites, and sometimes tops the lists. Easy to see why: it's got everything, and then some.
Includes chapters on the Japanese animation industry; on the personnel and the production of Cowboy Bebop; on the style, world and music of the series; and its many cultural links.
At the centre of this book is an episode guide to Cowboy Bebop, running through every show in great detail.
There is a chapter on the movie of Cowboy Bebop, released in 2001.
The appendices include accounts of shows and manga linked to Cowboy Bebop (such as Macross Plus, Samurai Champloo and samurai manga).
Includes: filmographies; resources; video and DVD availability; quotes from fans on Cowboy Bebop.
Fully illustrated, including many images of the series and the movie, the actors and personnel, and related anime shows. Bibliography and notes.
ISBN 9781861714961. 436 pages. www.crmoon.com
This book studies the works of Lawrence Durrell (February 27, 1912 - November 7, 1990), the great British writer. It explores all of Durrell's major works, including The Alexandria Quartet, The Black Book, the poetry, The Avignon Quintet and the Tunc-Nunquam books, many of lesser-known pieces, and reviews all of the Durrell criticism, and Durrell's literary friendships (with Henry Miller, T.S. Eliot, George Seferis, Richard Aldington, etc).
The response that Lawrence Durrell so often generates is negative: critics call him pretentious, baroque, overblown, high-flown, too intellectual, too metaphysical, overwritten, too rich, etc. The Avignon Quintet, his last major work, was received as 'lush', with 'fantastic characters, opulent landscapes', 'flamboyant... rich, easy style', prose that was 'ringingly evocative', 'an elaborate tapestry'.
For some critics, Durrell's books are 'accurate, moving and intensely readable' as a critic wrote of Bitter Lemons, while another critic sees Durrell's novels as 'so beautiful in surface and so uncertain below it'.
It was the 1950s novel Justine that really launched Durrell's career, for Justine was a large, complex work that promised much for the following instalments in The Alexandria Quartet. Durrell's reputation rests largely on the achievement of The Alexandria Quartet, and it is to the Quartet that critics generally refer when they discuss Durrell. And when Durrell's name appears in the index of a book of literary criticism, The Alexandria Quartet is usually being considered.
Includes illustrations, a full bibliography and notes.
JEAN-LUC GODARD: THE PASSION OF CINEMA
VOLUME 2: 1968 ONWARDS
By Jeremy Mark Robinson
There's no one else quite like Jean-Luc Godard, one of the most significant and inspiring filmmakers of recent times. Where the flood of movies globally now runs into many thousands, Godard's works stand out as original, acerbic, romantic, ironic, controversial, humorous and explorative.
This book considers all of Godard's works in cinema, from his early short films and the important success and cultural impact of Breathless through the remarkable series of movies of the 1960s to the latest feature films.
The book is split into two volumes:
Jean-Luc Godard: The Passion of Cinema/ Le Passion de Cinema: Volume 1: To 1968
Jean-Luc Godard: The Passion of Cinema/ Le Passion de Cinema: Volume 2: From 1968
Volume 2 includes a biography of Godard; an exploration of aspects of his cinema; and chapters on movies such as Tout Va BIen, the political films of the Dziga Vertov period (1968-73), Passion, First Name: Carmen, Slow Motion, Detective, King Lear, J.L.G./ J.L.G., New Wave, Woe Is Me, Hail Mary, later works such as Socialism, Goodbye To Language, In Praise of Love and Our Music, and Godard's masterpiece, a history of cinema.
EXTRACT FROM THE CHAPTER ON HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA
Jean-Luc Godard produced an epic history of cinema, between 1989 and 1998, Histoire(s) du Cinéma (which means Stor(ies) of Cinema, as well as Histor(ies) of Cinema). This was a major work, and has generated a good deal of critical comment. As well as being a history of cinema, it was also a history of the age - and a history of Godard himself. It was completed in 1998 (but may develop further): there were five audio CDs (from Edition of Contemporary Music Records),2 a video release of the 8 parts on video from Gaumont (running to 266 minutes), and a boxed set of 4 books from Gallimard.3 A 90-minute 'best of' film was edited for cinemas: Le Moment choisi des Histoire(s) de cinéma, 2004).
In Histoire(s) du Cinéma, Jean-Luc Godard delivered a poetic document of cinema in his highly idiosyncratic style of overlays and endless quotations, a montage style all his own, which combined multiple voices, layers of sounds and music, sound clips from films, captions, and an endless stream of visuals (interspersed with images of Godard at work in his offices, typing or writing or talking). Histoire(s) du Cinéma was a super-dense collage of photos, music, sounds and movie clips, written texts, taking in prints (Rembrandt, Doré), paintings (Turner, Moreau, Renoir, Goya, Grünewald, Delacroix, Kandinsky, van Gogh, Uccello, Klimt, Gentileschi, Giotto, Botticelli, Angelico, Fuseli, Caravaggio, Blake, El Greco, Piero, Monet, Manet, Picasso, Byzantine ikons), writers (Rimbaud, Céline, Brecht, Bataille, Faulkner, Flaubert, Duras, Valéry, Hugo, Dante, Ovid, Aragorn, Malraux, Proust, Gide), ciné-heroes like Henri Langlois, newsreel, pornography, television, and complex video techniques, such as super-impositions, irses, masked frames, visual mixes, flash cuts, repeated phrases, and echo and reverb effects on voices and sounds. And it's Godard's vision, his narration, his philosophy, his ideas, and his emotions that unites it all, that makes it all work. Certainly there are very few filmmakers on the planet who could've pulled it off.
Fully illustrated. Bibliography, filmography, Godardisms and notes.
A pocket guide to the Hollywood adaptions of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, released in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The book tells you everything you need to know about these very popular films, from writing the script through casting and financing, to shooting and performances, to visual effects, editing and theatrical distribution.
The pocket guide includes discussions of every single scene in the three movies, including the Special Extended Editions (some scenes are explored in great detail, as well as some key individual shots). There are sections on the all of the important differences between The Lord of the Ring book and the Hollywood movies (including numerous details), as well as a chapter exploring the additions and the omissions. Looks at behind the scenes stories, and also the critical response to the movies.
There are chapters on the visual effects, on the casting and key personnel of the movies, on the studio and the financing of the films, on the music and sound, and the marketing and release of the movies in 2001-2003 (including the home entertainment releases on DVD and video). There is also a chapter on the critical response to the movies.
There is also an appendix on other adaptions of J.R.R. Tolkien's books.
Jeremy Robinson has written many critical studies, including Steven Spielberg, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean-Luc Godard, Hayao Miyazaki, Ken Russell, Walerian Borowczyk, and The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, plus literary monographs on: J.R.R. Tolkien; J.M.W. Turner; Samuel Beckett; Thomas Hardy; Arthur Rimbaud; Andr Gide; John Cowper Powys; Robert Graves; and Lawrence Durrell.
Includes bibliography, illustrations, appendices and notes. ISBN 9781861713780. 496 pages.
www.crmoon.com
A new pocket guide to Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986), director of seven feature films, including Mirror, Andrei Roublyov, Solaris and The Sacrifice.
This book offers an all-round introduction to the cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky. It explores every aspect of Tarkovsky's output, including scripts, budget, production, shooting, editing, camera, sound, music, acting, themes, symbols, motifs, and spirituality. Tarkovsky's films are analyzed in depth, with scene-by-scene discussions for some famous sequences. Fully illustrated.
Andrei Tarkovsky is one of the most fascinating of filmmakers. He is supremely romantic, an old-fashioned, traditional artist - at home in the company Leonardo da Vinci, Pieter Brueghel, Aleksandr Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoievsky and Byzantine icon painters. Tarkovsky is a magician, no question, but argues for demystification (even while films celebrate mystery). His films are full of magical events, dreams, memory sequences, multiple viewpoints, multiple time zones and bizarre occurrences.
As genre films, Andrei Tarkovsky's movies are some of the most accomplished in cinema. As science fiction films, Stalker and Solaris have no superiors, and very few peers. Only the greatest sci-fi films can match them: Metropolis, King Kong, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tarkovsky happily and methodically rewrote the rules of the sci-fi genre: Stalker and Solaris are definitely not routine genre outings. They don't have the monsters, the aliens, the visual effects, the battles, the laser guns, the stunts and action set-pieces of regular science fiction movies.
No one could deny that Andrei Roublyov is one of the greatest historical films to explore the Middle Ages, up there with The Seventh Seal, El Cid, The Navigator and Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'Life' trilogy. If you judge Andrei Roublyov in terms of historical accuracy, epic spectacle, serious themes, or cinematic poetry, it comes out at the top. Finally, in the religious film genre, The Sacrifice and Nostalghia are among the finest in cinema, the equals of the best of Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Robert Bresson and Carl-Theodor Dreyer.
The text for this new edition has been updated and revised.
Includes illustrations, bibliography, filmography and notes. ISBN 9781861714336.
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A CHINESE GHOST STORY
TONY CHING SIU-TUNG. TSUI HARK
A Critical Study
By Jeremy Mark Robinson
This is a study of the Chinese Ghost Story film series produced by Tsui Hark and helmed by Tony Ching Siu-tung.
The Chinese Ghost Story movies are:
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
A Chinese Ghost Story 2 (1990)
A Chinese Ghost Story 3 (1991)
A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation (1997)
A Chinese Ghost Story was remade in 2011 (and dedicated to Leslie Cheung).
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987, Mandarin: Qiannu Youhun = Sien: Female Ghost, a.k.a. Fair Maiden, Tender Spirit), was one of those movies where everything works, and the mix of elements is just gorgeous. This is a golden, 100% killer of a movie.
A Chinese Ghost Story has everything going for it: it is among the finest fantasy and action movies ever; it boasts a finale as grand as any in cinema; it tackles the most profound themes; it possesses a perfectly achieved tone and attitude; it features two incandescent stars (Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong); it is helmed and produced by two of the greatest action directors in history; and it is brilliant filmmaking.
Tony Ching Siu-tung (b. 1953) started out as an actor and stuntman, working in movies in the late 1960s and 1970s; he moved into television as martial arts co-ordinator in the late 1970s and thru the 1980s (on several historical TV series); he moved up to directing movies with 1983's Duel To the Death.
Tony Ching Siu-tung's two signature works are probably A Chinese Ghost Story and The Swordsman 2. Critically, those two films (and their movie series, the Chinese Ghost Story series and the Swordsman series), have garnered the highest criticial accolades (and they were big hits financially), and The Swordsman 2 has been the subject of numerous analyses of gender-bending issues in cinema. The sight of Brigitte Lin in drag and later fooling around with Jet Li as a 'woman' seems to drive film critics goo-goo.
Tony Ching Siu-tung has won top awards for the action choreography for The Witch From Nepal, Shaolin Soccer, New Dragon Gate Inn, Hero and The Swordsman.
Fully illustrated, with images from the Chinese Ghost Story films and the films of Tony Ching.
With filmography, bibliography and notes. 176 pages.
www.crmoon.com
THE SWORDSMAN
TONY CHING SIU-TUNG. TSUI HARK
A Critical Study
By Jeremy Mark Robinson
This is a study of the Swordsman film series produced by Tsui Hark and helmed by Tony Ching Siu-tung.
The Swordsman is a gorgeous mix of elements: comedy, romance, spectacle, music, characterization, history/ mythology, Chinese culture - and of course action and martial arts. The Swordsman is also a truly inspired vision of the jiangzhu, the martial arts world, which Tony Ching and Tsui Hark explored many times; and, of course, Tsui had dived into the jiangzhu in his very first feature film as director, The Butterfly Murders, while Tony Ching had lived in the cinematic jiangzhu since the 1960s (working on his father's films at Shaws).
The casting of The Swordsman is marvellous, and each of the principals embodies their characters as well as popping out of them - there is always a feeling in Chinese, historical action movies of this kind that it's all a pantomime, that it's pure entertainment, and should be taken as just that - a wild show. Actors aren't allowed to wink at the camera (rightly), but the movie does. The cast play it straight - but also with plenty of Peking Operatic over-acting. They don't need to nod at the audience, because the situations are so outlandish.
The Swordsman movies were adapted from The Smiling, Proud Wanderer by Jin Yong (Louis Cha, 1924-2018), which have been used for five or so TV series (and a Shaw Brothers movie of 1978). So the Swordsman films are by no means the only interpretations of the novels of Jin Yong, one of the best-known authors of wuxia stories. In fact, a TV series is a probably more fitting form for adaptation, because Jin Yong's stories contain a huge cast of characters and numerous events. Those depicted in the Swordsman movies are but one small segment (and a loose adaptation at that).
Tony Ching Siu-tung (b. 1953) started out as an actor and stuntman, working in movies in the late 1960s and 1970s; he moved into television as martial arts co-ordinator in the late 1970s and thru the 1980s (on several historical TV series); he moved up to directing movies with 1983's Duel To the Death.
Tony Ching Siu-tung's two signature works are probably A Chinese Ghost Story and The Swordsman 2. Critically, those two films (and their movie series, the Chinese Ghost Story series and the Swordsman series), have garnered the highest criticial accolades (and they were big hits financially), and The Swordsman 2 has been the subject of numerous analyses of gender-bending issues in cinema. The sight of Brigitte Lin in drag and later fooling around with Jet Li as a 'woman' seems to drive film critics goo-goo.
Tony Ching Siu-tung has won top awards for the action choreography for The Witch From Nepal, Shaolin Soccer, New Dragon Gate Inn, Hero and The Swordsman.
Fully illustrated, with images from the Swordsman films and the films of Tony Ching.
With filmography, bibliography and notes. 168 pages.
www.crmoon.com
ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA
TSUI HARK
A Critical Study
By Jeremy Mark Robinson
This is a study of the Once Upon a Time In China film series produced and directed by Tsui Hark and starring Jet Li and Vincent Zhao.
The Once Upon a Time In China series in movies comprises six features of 1991, 1992, 1993 (films), 1994 and 1997 (four of which were helmed by Tsui Hark - the first three and the fifth one, all were co-produced by Tsui), a TV series, plus other additions - and a host of cash-in movies and parodies.
The first Once Upon a Time In China installment was one of those movies where every element comes together beautifully - the legendary character and story of Wong Fei-hung, a superstar-in-the-making, Jet Li, a terrific supporting cast (including Yuen Biao, Jacky Cheung, Kent Cheng and Rosamund Kwan), ouststanding technical aspects from all departments (including historical research), grand political themes, astonishing action choreography (from Yuen Shun-yi, Yuen Cheung-yan and Lau Kar-wing), and of course white-hot direction from Tsui Hark.
Once Upon a Time In China was Tsui Hark's most-awarded movie, with wins for best director, best action choreography, best editing, and best music at the Hong Kong Film Awards (and it was nominated for best photography, best film and best supporting actor, Jacky Cheung).
Director Tsui Hark is the dragon master of Chinese cinema (Stephen Teo calls Tsui a 'lion dancer among film directors'). Yes - a master, a lion dancer, a sifu, a wizard, a dragon master.
Tsui Hark is a one-man film industry - as a glance as his list of credits will show, along with setting up his own film company in 1983, Film Workshop. Tsui Hark directs movies like a force of nature. The energy coming off the screen is stupendous. He is a fearless filmmaker, willing to try anything to get a good shot. That feeling of fearlessness, and wildness, coupled with imagination and technical brilliance makes Tsui an incredibly formidable filmmaker. There are very few filmmakers on the scene today with those qualities in such abundance. When you come back to a Tsui Hark picture after looking at other movies for a while, you realize that this guy is so passionate about cinema, so willing to try anything, to experiment, to push the boundaries of what cinema can do, of what cinema can be.
Fully illustrated, with images from the Once Upon a Time In China films and the films of Tsui Hark.
With filmography, bibliography and notes. 208 pages.
www.crmoon.com
APPLESEED
MASAMUNE SHIROW
THE MANGA AND THE ANIME
by Jeremy Mark Robinson
Color Edition
This is a study of the Appleseed manga by Masamune Shirow (real name Masanori Ota, born in 1961, Kobe, Japan), and the adaptations of Appleseed in animation. Shirow is a Japanese artist best known for the comics Ghost In the Shell, Appleseed and Dominion: Tank Police.
This is a colour edition, with over 180 illustrations, most in colour.
Masamune Shirow is one of the great creators in the world of Japanese manga and animé - his works have been the basis of several important franchises, with Ghost In the Shell the best-known. Shirow's art is marked by futuristic, cyber-punk settings, fabulous, often eccentric designs, elaborate mecha (such as tanks and mobile suits), attractive warrior women and detailed storytelling (accompanied by his famous, sometimes arcane notes).
The impact of the work of Masamune Shirow has been immense in animé and manga: Ghost In the Shell alone led to not one but two classic movies, two outstanding TV series (plus a third, the Arise series), and spin-off movies. Add to that the live-action Ghost of 2017, and more Ghosties on the way. Then there's the Appleseed digital animations and Appleseed cel animation, plus Black Magic, Real Drive, Ghost Hound (Unseen World) and Dominion: Tank Police. It all adds up to a remarkable presence in TV and movies.
In cinema, Masamune Shirow's influence is easy to spot in the Star Wars prequels, in the Matrix movies, in Avatar, in Minority Report, in the Avengers series, and in many a superhero flick.
Illustrated in colour with over 180 images from Ghost In the Shell, and Masamune Shirow's output.
Hardcover - full colour laminate cover.
Bibliography, resources and notes. 296 pages.
www.crmoon.com
