Learned so much from him! Tough class but totally worth it.
Very stubborn. Don't expect him to give any leniency. More worried about students selling his lectures than providing materials outside of class.
Yamamoto comes across as being fairly passionate and deeply knowledgeable about film theory, but sometimes it's to the student's detriment - the classes were organised a little weirdly so we only ended up watching maybe four of what was planned in the subject reader which was disappointing. very theory heavy, no discussion of specific films :(
Overall pretty straightforward and doable class. His accent isn't really that bad, just used as an excuse. He does take attendance, but the screenings were good and he gives you some freedom with the assignments which were few and far apart.
Probably the worst teacher I have had at UCSB. His lectures are unbearable, it honestly doesn't seem like he knows what he is talking about, and on top of that he is extremely hard to understand. His "review" for the midterm consisted of a series of questions he wouldn't answer, probably because he doesn't know the answers himself. Avoid if you can
He literally won't answer your questions because he says he can't, but then expects you to answer them on the exams. Lectures are horrible and I want to die.
He is the worst teacher I've ever had here at UCSB. Because of his accent, it's hard to understand him, and honestly it gets really really annoying. His lectures are torturously long and boring and he coughs every three seconds out of nervousness. If you can avoid him please do.
Yamamoto made this class super easy. I could not imagine a more helpful professor. The class has a midterm, final exam, and final paper. GO TO LECTURE! He summarizes all the readings for you (even though the concepts are really easy to understand). His accent was never an issue, people that disagree are just haters.
Yamamoto is super organized and has good slides but is hard to understand at times because of his accent. Class is reading heavy, but if you go to all lectures he summarizes the reading anyways. Term paper at the end, and an easy midterm and final if you've paid attention and understand key terms.