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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>An anthropologist friend specializing in doll
culture in Japan asked me this question. Any help would be most
appreciated.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I'm trying to
track down information on the 1929 film by Uchida Tomu, "Ikeru Ningyo" (The
Living Doll). Do you by any chance know<BR>anything about it? I
don't even know the plot, or if the film is still extant, but I keep running
across references to it. I'm tracing doll symbolism from the 1920s through the
war period, as dolls are gradually militarized, and I'm intrigued by the movie's
title.<BR><BR>Hotaru (Firefly) is based on a widely believed story that the soul
of a dead kamikaze came back as a firefly the night after he died, to the cafe
where he'd spent his last night of life. The director, for various interesting
reasons, decided to merge this with a true story, that involved a different
pilot, who was secretly Korean, and who 'came out' as it were the night before
he died to his friends by singing a Korean folk song.
<BR></FONT><BR>Thanks!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Matthew Bernstein</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Emory University</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>