Reviews of professor Kirsten Cather

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Prof. Cather cares so much about the class and the students. As long as you watch the movies and do the readings you'll be fine.. just don't skimp on assignments. Participation matters A LOT. If you're shy, you're able to pass index cards with your thoughts on them too. This is definitely not a blow-off class, but one that grades off effort!

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Preface: engineer major, took for GC. Every week, film assigned Mon and discussion Wed. Long readings for weekend. Still got an A, but not without extra effort that I would've rather spent on my engineering courses. I like the professor/class, but if not a film/jpn major, I would hesitate to take. Exams are detailed/medium, all based on lectures.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Love her class she was so great at teaching her lectures. The debates we had over these actors were so amazing. Learning about Japanese films was such a new world I came to love and understand what the directors portrayed for the viewers. There are pop quizzes for the films we watch so don't miss class as well 2 discussions short essay.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
She's awesome! Definitely requires a lot of reading but they're fun. Tests are free response but really easy. All the films we watched in her class were so interesting. The class is discussion-based. She knows all her students' names and faces tho so attendance and participation are an important part of your grade. Wouldn't skip a lot if I were you

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Class is fun, she is nice, and really gets to know each and every one of her students by name. Sometimes she assigns theory type readings which can run super long but she doesn't expect you to read them, just skim, and she doesn't test on those. Tests not too bad, there's EC, "pop" quizzes (she drops hints beforehand)

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Took it for my jpn major but I wish there was a different professor. Keeps speaking in jpn even though its not great. Its an intro course but theres so much reading. Pop quizzes over readings basically every class day. I had read the most for this class. It's not an interesting course imo and the readings aren't worth it. Tests are easy though

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Wonderful professor. Very passionate and excited about Japanese film. We had to watch a film every week outside of class time, but as long as you watched the film and listened to the lectures, the exams were very doable.