Updates the story of Japanese cinema for the 21st century. This book looks at some of the key genres in Japanese cinema since 1997. In several cases it considers in detail the ways in which individual films have both drawn and departed from those films that have comprised the key works and trends in these generic categories, and in others it looks at some significant recent developments that have little real precedence in filmmaking in Japan. Through close textual analysis of representative films, the study seeks to elucidate the prevalence of repetition and variation in contemporary Japanese genre cinema, to understand some of the reasons behind this paradigm, and analyse where relevant how and to what extent new modes or generic groups fit into the schema. In so doing it seeks for the first time in English language discourse to offer an academic appreciation and overview of popular Japanese of the last two decades. It considers and analyses numerous films and filmmakers that have yet to feature predominantly in western discourse on Japanese cinema; the first study of the significant developments in Japanese genre filmmaking since the turn of the new millennium; analyses in detail the dialogue that can be seen between new Japanese cinema and the significant trends and practices of past generations; includes for the first time in western discourse a discussion of the modern state of the Japanese documentary feature, based on interviews with some of its leading practitioners and also includes a review of Japanese language criticism and a consideration of how the country's cinema has been perceived within Japan.