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A graphic composition of CineMAP Japan logo in the middle, a cartoon representation of a filming camera on the left, and a close-up of spiraling film reels on the right.

CineMAP Japan

CineMAP

CineMAP Japan geotags cinematic scenes to put films literally on the map, indicating both where films were shot as well as where they are set. The project consists of two interrelated digital undertakings: (1) a database of time-stamped film scenes with their corresponding global coordinates, and (2) an interactive mapping website and app that represent this data. 

The film database draws on important information about each film, such as synopses, genre, dates of production and release, and crew. CineMAP will enable anyone (from students and scholars of film studies, urban development, and geography to film buffs and tourists) to produce various interactive maps visualizing the data. One could, for instance, produce maps that show in what parts of which cities the majority of New Wave films were shot, or when mountains became important markers of nation in film history, or in which fictional genres filmed locations more often correspond directly to depicted locations. CineMAP will thus be the first research tool to crystallize the interconnectedness of cinema and space via a clear visualization.

CineMAP Japan is an interactive visualization tool for Japanese films shot on location. Based on a vast database of the geotagged film locations of films shot both in Japan and around the world by Japanese film producers or in the Japanese language, CineMAP enables researchers, fans, and tourists to examine the real places recorded on and refracted through film. This instantiation of CineMAP will for the first time make the database public as a means for visualizing the places of Japanese film.

CineMAP collaborators are particularly grateful to the following project sponsors:

  • Center for Humanities and Information, Penn State University

  • Teaching Innovation Project (TIP), College of Arts and Science, Penn State University

  • Center for East Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison

  • Japan Past & Present, Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities

  • Northeast Asia Council (NEAC), Association for Asian Studies