Japanese Cult Cinema: Films from the Second Golden Age
is a collection of film reviews and in-depth essays exploring some of the best from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.
During the period between the early 1990s and early 2000s the Japanese film industry enjoyed its biggest boom since the post-war era. Cult monster and horror films like
Godzilla 2000
, and
Audition
enjoyed successful releases overseas and Hollywood remakes.
In her first book, Upton explores some of her favorite
Japanese films and directors in the crime, kaiju and J-horror genres
. In the essays, she digs deeper, using
semiotic
and
feminist
interpretations to explore notions of
authorship, gender
, and the
adaptation
process for some of the most interesting films to come out of this era including
Ringu
,
Cure
Kikujiro
.