This book explores significant representations of Shinto and Buddhist sacred space, spiritual symbols, and religious concepts that are embedded in the secular framework of Japanese films aimed at general audiences in Japan and globally. These cinematic masterpieces by directors Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Makoto Shinkai operate as expressions of and, potentially, catalysts for transcendence of various kinds, particularly during the Heisei era (1989-2019), when Japan experienced severe economic hardship and devastating natural disasters. The book's approach to aesthetics and religion employs the multifaceted concepts of ma (structuring intervals, liminal space-time), ku (emptiness, sky), mono no aware (compassionate sensibility, resigned sadness), and musubi (generative interconnection), examining the dynamic, evolving nature of these ancient principles that are at once spiritual, aesthetic, and philosophical. Scholars and enthusiasts of Japanese cinema (live action and anime), religion and film, cinematic aesthetics, and the relationship between East Asian religions and the arts will find fresh perspectives on these in this book, which moves beyond conventional notions of transcendental style and essentialized approaches to the multivalent richness of Japanese aesthetics.

This collection of essays examines the ways in which recent Shakespeare films portray anxieties of an impending global wasteland, technological alienation, spiritual destruction, and the effects of globalization. Films covered include ""Titus"", William Shakespeare's ""Romeo & Juliet"", Almereyda's ""Hamlet"", ""Revengers Tragedy"", ""Twelfth Night"", ""The Passion of the Christ"", Radford's ""The Merchant of Venice"", ""The Lion King"", and Godard's ""King Lear"", among others that directly adapt or reference Shakespeare. Essays chart the apocalyptic mise-en-scenes, disorienting imagery, and topsy-turvy plots of these films, using apocalypse as a theoretical and thematic lens.

Reel Histories: Studies in American Film is an essay collection that extends the academic dialogue concerning the "holy trinity" of race, social class, and gender as they are constructed on the screen while also examining aspects of the film industry that are often ignored: the means and politics of film production and distribution, audience reception, the role and influence of film criticism, film's intersections with other media, and many other modes of approach stemming from particularities of historical, sociological, and cultural situation. Nine scholars, analyzing such films as From Here to Eternity, A Raisin in the Sun, Midnight Cowboy, Magnolia, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, The X Files, and Saving Private Ryan, go far beyond close readings approaching the films as matrices of intersecting voices located in particular socio-cultural moments participating in significant historical trajectories. These essays insightfully examine how specific films have functioned in American history, their provenance and their subsequent effects - both actual and potential.