[Commlist] New book: The Paths of Zatoichi

Replies and emails should be sent to (j.wroot /at/ gre.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(j.wroot /at/ gre.ac.uk)>

Jonathan Wroot wishes to announce that a new book, The Paths of 
Zatoichi, is now available from Lexington Books:
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793601223/The-Paths-of-Zatoichi-The-Global-Influence-of-the-Blind-Swordsman 
<https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793601223/The-Paths-of-Zatoichi-The-Global-Influence-of-the-Blind-Swordsman>


The blind swordsman is one of the most iconic and significant tropes in 
global popular cinema, and this new volume is the most comprehensive 
account to date of the transnational influence of Zatoichi on these 
representations. Jonathan Wroot’s book expertly charts the impact of the 
character within US genre films like Blind Fury (1989), across the 
exploitation cycles of blind swordsman films produced in Taiwan and 
Indonesia, and even demonstrates the continued memetic influence of the 
character in blockbuster franchises like Daredevil (2015-) and Rogue 
One: A Star Wars Story (2016). Highly recommended.


— Iain Smith, King’s College London


Jonathan Wroot offers a rich and compelling history of the Zatoichi 
phenomenon from the early 1960s to the twenty-first century—a phenomenon 
that includes not only hundreds of films, TV episodes, spin-offs, and 
remakes in Japan, but also a host of imitations, appropriations, and 
crossovers from Taiwan, Indonesia, and even Hollywood studios. 
Painstakingly researched and written in plain, lucid language, this 
excellent study is an important contribution to scholarship on the 
action genre as well as on transnational flows of popular film and culture.


— Man-Fung Yip, University of Oklahoma


This important and expansive work shows how a film franchise like the 
immensely popular Zatoichi series of films and TV programs should not be 
understood as simply structurally contained in itself, representing a 
single culture or ideology, but like the wandering and sightless 
Zatoichi himself, as taking a myriad of paths in both time and space, 
changing as Japan transforms, while also flowing beyond borders to 
affect filmmaking from East and Southeast Asia to Hollywood. Here is 
where the significance of Zatoichi—and any franchise–lies.


— Aaron Gerow, Yale University


Meticulously scholarly yet completely readable, Jonathan Wroot’s 
analysis of the many incarnations of Zatochi is an important addition to 
the literature on Japanese film and its transcultural influence.


— Dolores Martinez, SOAS University of London


Jonathan Wroot's exploration of the sprawling Zatoichi franchise invites 
the reader to travel a path less-trodden, revealing hidden intertextual 
landscapes of local and international exchange, while providing 
insightful revelations about the production of Japan's famed 
blind-swordsman series of films. Wroot's focus on the lesser-known 
avenues traveled by Zatoichi is just as revealing as traveling with him 
down the famed mainstreet of Hollywood's appropriations of the blind 
swordsman character. This book will appeal to those who want to 
understand how Japan makes franchises as much as it will appeal to 
martial arts and sci fi fans keen to seek out the origins of the 
favorite genre characters. Wroot's much-needed book maps the 
interlinking worlds created around Zatoichi and in doing so demonstrates 
how rich and far-reaching the character has become.


— Rayna Denison, University of East Anglia


We often look at the character of Zatoichi as one of the stalwarts of 
Japanese period action cinema, forever wandering the insular world of 
Edo-era Japan with his trusted cane sword. Jonathan Wroot deftly 
demonstrates the blind swordsman's transnational sojourns, across 
screens large and small, stopping at waystations on a path that leads 
across the Asian and American continents. In doing so, he underlines 
that the Japanese cinema was never quite as self-contained or 
inward-looking as many have presented it to be, but rather a 
significant, vital, and perennially popular—in all senses of the 
word—node in both the Japanese media landscape and global film history.


— Tom Mes, co-author of The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------