Japan and the West

Film

before we start...

The invention of the 'movie'

Shot 1895-7

No editing

No movement

No story(?)

early film in japan

First movie camera  was imported to Japan by Asano Shiro in 1897.

Asano's films were lost as they were shipped to France for processing and printing.

Lumiere-like scenes produced by Shibata Tsunekichi of Mitsukoshi's new photography department.

Early films and film production were often linked to kabuki companies so there were many 'filmed plays' (e.g. Shochiku)

momijigari  (1899)

benshi

Katsudo/setsumei benshi

活動・説明弁士 

Narrated and explained silent films.

Became stars in their own right and were sometimes the main reason people went to see films.

Became a vary influential group within Japanese cinema.

Some early films provided a script for the benshi.

Hollywood dominant

By the 1920s the 'Hollywood' film style had become the standard.

  • Continuity editing

  • Realism (though as with theatre/fine art, Japan had its own influential traditions)

The film industry in the US produced on average 800 films per year during the 1920s.

THE arrival of 'talkies'

Early attempts at coordinating film and sound using gramophone recordings had been largely unsuccessful (tricky to do well, lack of amplification)

1929: Fox Movietone's Marching On shows to full houses for two months, convinces Japanese studios they have to adopt the new technologies.

"As advertised, this is all-talking. Too much so, because there is no room for benshi explanation. [...] they will soon tire of something they cannot understand."              Tanaka Yoshihiko, film critic (apx 1929)

Benshi and musicians went on strike in theatres around Tokyo.

the first JApanese 'talkies'

Because of the popularity and influence of the benshi, some silent films were still being made in Japan during the 1930s. But Japanese cinema started producing 'talkies' very soon after the process was developed in the US.

Dir: Gosho Heinosuke, 1931

Madamu to Nyobo (The Neighbour's Wife and Mine)

First truly successful Japanese all-sound film.

Ozu yasujiro

Joins Shochiku in 1923 at age of 20

1927: first film as director, Sword of Penitence (jidaigeki)

1932: I was born, but... (大人の見る絵本-生れてはみたけれど) wins critical success as first Japanese film to include a degree of social critique

Ozu Style

Low camera angle: 'tatami shot'

Narrative elision

Ignore eyeline

Static camera

Innovative transitions

tokyo story (1953)

Setsuko Hara

(1920 – Sept 5, 2015)

The human condition

Dir: Kobayashi Masaki

Trilogy of films released 1959-1961

• No Greater Love

• Road to Eternity

• A Soldier's Prayer

"unquestionably the greatest film ever made."

David Shipman, The Story of Cinema (1984)

Suzuki Seijun: Branded to Kill

Koroshi no Rakuin   (1967) Nikkatsu Films

"Suzuki makes incomprehensible films.

Suzuki does not follow the company's orders.

Suzuki's films are unprofitable and it costs 60 million yen to make one.

Suzuki can no longer make films anywhere. He should quit.

Suzuki should open a noodle shop or something instead." 

(Hori Kyusaku)

domestic rules

Domestic conservatism provides steady income.

Occasional acclaimed international works.

Dualism: Export & Domestic audiences

it's complicated...

THE Seven samurai (1954)

The magnificent seven (1960)

kureyon Shin-chan (2004)

Magnificent seven REAPPEAR

studio ghibli 

Summer 2001: Released in Japan

Autumn 2002: Dubbed version released in Canada 

2003: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

Highest-grossing Japanese film so far  (apx.US$330million)

next week