Mark Player

Poster for "More Cultural Politics of the Computational Image," Friday Jan 23, 2026. Schedule SESSION 1. 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST Amitabh Vikram (Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University), “Holy Pixels: Temple CCTV, Darshan Livestreams, and Crowd Vision” Ann Wang (University of Pennsylvania), “Amphibious Tropics: Automation, Extraction, and the Imaging (Making) of Malaysia’s Geospatial Landscape” Hansun Hsiung (Durham University), “NHK Engineers Meet Media Theory: The Televisual Image in Japan’s ‘Informationalizing Society’” SESSION 2. 8:00 – 9:30 PM EST Ding-Liang Chen (National Tsing Hua University), “Prospecting Resource: Early Satellite Vision and War Ecologies in Southeast Asia” Joia Duskic (UCLA), “The Procession Does Not Proceed, It Gets Prompted from the Sidelines” Yedong Sh-Chen (Harvard University), “Under the Chinese Skin: A Digital Dermatology of Video Games” Register at https://globalmediations.mit.edu/cpci-workshop/

Join us for a follow-up conference to Cultural Politics of the Computational Image, this time online. Friday, January 23, day/night. Register for the zooms at: globalmediations.mit.edu/cpci-workshop/

Thank you. I hope you like the rest.

The full line-up for the V-Cinema focus program I curated for the International Film Festival Rotterdam is up now:
iffr.com/en/iffr/2026...
Miike, Kurosawa, Aoyama, Takashi Ishii and lots of films that have never been shown in a theater before. Plus the full Crime Hunter trilogy!

1980s: The Lost Decade of Japanese Cinema / The Garden Cinema The 1980s were the zenith of Japan’s bubble economy, an era which saw the accumulation of vast wealth, alongside rapid technological and commercial growth. City centres sprouted neon-emblazoned…

The Garden Cinema in London will be hosting a season of Japanese 80s films, with a few Third Window titles included: Typhoon Club, Crazy Family, Tetsuo and His Motorbike Her Island.
Put it in your calendars!

YouTube video by The Garden Cinema 1980s: The Lost Decade of Japanese Cinema

There's a great season of 1980s Japanese cinema coming up at The Garden Cinema in the new year, including a couple of films that I wrote about in Japanese Cinema and Punk.

I'll be introducing Tetsuo: The Iron Man on Thurs 26th Feb.

Season and booking info: www.thegardencinema.co.uk/season/1980s...

YouTube video by リアルサウンド映画部（サブチャンネル） 映画『ストリート・キングダム 自分の音を鳴らせ。』特報映像

First teaser for Street Kingdom: Make Your Own Sound (2026), based on Yuichi Jibiki's book about the punk-inspired Tokyo Rockers scene of the late 1970s.

Reunites the Iden & Tity (2003) writer/director partnership of Kankuro Kudo and Tomorowo Taguchi.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGJa...

原田真人さん死去　76歳　映画監督　「クライマーズ・ハイ」「燃えよ剣」「ヘルドッグス」 - スポニチ Sponichi Annex 芸能 「クライマーズ・ハイ」など社会派の作品で知られる映画監督の原田真人（はらだ・まさと）さんが8日死去した。76歳。静岡県出身。葬儀は近親者で行う。後日、お別れ…

The Japanese film director Harada Masato (原田真人) died on December 8 at the age of 76. He made hit films like Climber's High as well as art films like Kamikaze Taxi. He appears as an actor in The Last Samurai.
www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainmen...

ICA | UK PREMIERE Escape + online Q&A The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is London’s leading space for contemporary culture. We commission, produce and present new work in film, music, performance and the visual arts by today’s most...

Masao Adachi’s Escape is screening at the ICA from 16th January

"The Documentary Cinema of Haneda Sumiko
Japan in Transition through Gender, Arts, Nature and Society"
is finally out next March.

I've contributed with a chapter on Ode to Mt. Hayachine (a.k.a. The Poem of Hayachine Valley, 1982)
www.routledge.com/The-Document...

Exterior view of Cinema Skhole on Nagoya, Japan.

Cinema Skhole

Opened by Koji Wakamatsu in 1983, just a couple of minutes walk from Nagoya train station.

So many of Japan's longtime mini theatres have disappeared in recent years. It's great to see this one still open.

A massive thank you to those who came to Japanese Cinema and Punk - Live in Nagoya yesterday.

Thanks again to Nagoya University for hosting me. Sorry for overrunning.

Sorry, I only just saw this. Thanks for coming along and it was nice to finally meet in person.

I'm not sure, actually. The university hasn't mentioned it. I plan to record the audio and might turn it into a transcript if everything goes well.

Japan mutuals:

I'm doing a talk based on my book Japanese Cinema and Punk at Nagoya University next week (9 December)

Attendance is free
Talk is in English with Japanese visual materials
Includes screening of rare Nagoya punk short film: Crazy Dolls (1984)

info below👇

Thank you for the kind words. I talk (very briefly) about Fish Story towards the end of the book. Brass Knuckle Boys (Merikensack, 2008) is also another great film from that era about punk.

'Trailer' for Crazy Dolls (1984).

A rarely seen and almost lost 8mm short featuring the Nagoya punk scene of the early 80s.

Full address:

Room 211, the Liberal Arts and Sciences North Building, Higashiyama Campus, Nagoya University
名古屋大学東山キャンパス 全学教育棟北棟211

About 5 mins walk from Nagoyadaigaku station

Japan mutuals:

I'm doing a talk based on my book Japanese Cinema and Punk at Nagoya University next week (9 December)

Attendance is free
Talk is in English with Japanese visual materials
Includes screening of rare Nagoya punk short film: Crazy Dolls (1984)

info below👇

Finally visited Video Market in Shinjuku, which stocks cult Blu-ray/DVD imports.

It's pleasantly strange seeing releases I've worked on in a Japanese shop, like 88 Films' recent blu of Zebraman (I wrote the essay).

Also decided to treat myself to the new New Wave Video release of Rubber's Lover.

Tokyo Tower at night🗼

An important dispatch from 'the other site'

Many thanks again to Hiroshi Harada for helping with my research.

I'm off to Japan next week to give out more copies of Japanese Cinema and Punk to other filmmakers whose input made this project possible.

Mark Player著「Japanese Cinema and Punk: Intermedial Exchanges」(日本映画とパンク/2025年刊) に、1992年「地下幻燈劇画 少女椿」赤猫座興行と、1986年 京都ライブハウス CBGBで「二度と目覚めぬ子守唄」と 氷室京介主演「裸の24時間」が同時上映された事が掲載されました。

Tatsuya Nakadai riding a demon motorcycle to death in The Wicked City. What a legend.

I'm planning to do a deeper dive into Tetsuo's (and other Japanese media's) cyberpunk-ness as part of a bigger project on cyberpunk and Japan. But that might be a few years away yet 😅

My book touches on Tetsuo's connection to cyberpunk a little, as this was often how the film was understood/marketed at the time, especially overseas (its 1st London screening called it 'cyberpunk splatter'). But my focus was more on the film's relationship to punk rather than the 'cyber'.

Shocked to hear of the death of Oki Hiroyuki, one of the pioneer queer filmmakers in Japan. He was only 61. Working in a variety of media and genres, from experimental and documentary film to performance art, Oki-san was a daring artist who made the body both the subject and the method of his art.

世界各国の監督の声を届けたい　山形映画祭がCFでインタビュー集：朝日新聞 山形市で9日に開幕する山形国際ドキュメンタリー映画祭で、世界各国から訪れる映画監督のインタビュー集を作る資金をクラウドファンディング（CF）で募っている。インタビュー集編集長の小野聖子さんは「様々な…

My partner appears in the Asahi newspaper, describing the collection of interviews she is putting together of filmmakers attending this year's Yamagata Film Festival.. Please support the crowd funding if you can.

www.asahi.com/articles/AST...

YouTube video by イーチタイム 映画『こんな事があった』予告編｜9.13公開

Yoshihiko Matsui, director of Noisy Requiem, has made a new film - his first in 18 years. It's called Kon'na koto ga atta (こんな事があった)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLT5...

If you're at FrightFest this weekend, I look forward to seeing you on Sunday, with a wad of banknotes in your hand which I'll happily exchange for a signed copy of the new edition of Behind the Pink Curtain! #frightfest #pinkueiga #pinkfilm #behindthepinkcurtain #fabpress @fabpress.bsky.social