His research and teaching interests include film history and film theory. He has published widely in the area of silent film, with his monograph Sessue Hayakawa : Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007) receiving the 2007 Book Award in History from the Association of Asian American Studies. In 2011 he authored the Japanese language reference text, Eiga wa neko dearu: Hajimete no cinema sutadizu [Cinema Is a Cat: Introduction to Cinema Studies] (Tokyo: Heibon sha, 2011). His most recent monograph The Aesthetics of Shadow: Lighting and Japanese Cinema (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013) explores the innovative lighting and cinematography of early twentieth century Japanese cinema, creating a new history of the art form in the process.