TERMS

Benshi: A narrator for old silent films
Bunraku: The Puppet Theater in Oosaka. Performs plays largely for adults. Moralistic. Many plays by Chikamatsu
Chambara (Chanbara) eiga: sword fighting movies. (word from sound of music accompanying them).
          Usually a "light" film as opposed to a serious one.
Eiga: Movies
Ero guro: Erotic-grotesque. A modern genre of films
Joruri: A style of narration that describes the action in Bunraku
Gagaku: courtly music
Geki: drama
Gendai-geki: modern film (see Jidai-geki) (A mega-genre)
Haha mono: a genre of film dealing with mothers and their long suffering position
Jidai-geki: period film (See gendai-geki) (A mega-genre)
Kabuki: A popular kind of Japanese theater
Kaiju Eiga: Monster film
Katsudo shashin: Action photographs (early name for movies)
Kazoku mono: Family drama
Kyogen: short comedy pieces performed between acts of Noh
Kyu-geki: (old drama) or kyuha (earlier form of jidai-geki) based on traditional theater
Mono no aware: a sentimentality or nostalgia
Noh: Theatrical performance of plays often about gods. Set generally in mythological time. Heavy stylization
Onnagata: Men who play women's roles in Kabuki
Ronin an "unattched" samurai
Rumpen mono: films about the "lumpen" the lower classes of Marx' proletariat
         or people who can only make money by their labor
Shimpa (Shinpa) (shinpa-geki or shimpa-geki): earlier form of Gendai-geki.
         Based on 20th Century drama associated with People's Rights and Freedom
         movement of the 1880's dealing with social issues and Western ideas.
         Often used female impersonators as in kabuki. The style crystalized and was rather rigid.
Shimpa daihi-geki (shinpa daihi-geki): "Grand tragedy" usually sentimental with tragic ending.
Yakuza: a member of Japanese organized crime. Is said to originated in "ya" meaning "eight",
         "ku" meaning "nine"; and "sa" meaning "three". these add up to 20 a losing number in gambling.
         Hence Yakuza can be loosely said to mean "losers:
Zankoku eiga: cruel film

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