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<TITLE>Re: Query re Ikeru Ningyo</TITLE>
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Hi Matt,<BR>
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You're likely to get more detailed info, but I think the title is meant as a kind of existentialist comment on the "modern" human condition, a reference to the protagonist's being no more than a living "doll" (more in the sense of "puppet" or someone lacking any real substance or raison d'etre). I think the protagonist is a young man who comes to the city for a new job with the hopes of "making it big."<BR>
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It was an adaptation of a newspaper story by the "Shinkankaku ha" writer Kataoka Teppei, and also featured Irie Takako as a quintessential working "modern girl."<BR>
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The film is often referred to as a representative "tendency film" and as far as I know, is believed lost although material from this period seems to be turning up in Moscow's Gosfilmofond (as was the case with the 1930 "What made her do it?" (Nani ga kanojo o so saseta ka) that was shown in reconstructed form with missing footage replaced by title cards at Pordenone in 1999. If your friend would like to read a synopsis in English, I think one is included in the new book out from Matsuda Eigasha, synopses of a number of silent films. An English language copy can be ordered from their bilingual website: <BR>
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http://www.infoasia.co.jp/subdir/matsuda.html<BR>
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best,<BR>
Joanne<BR>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman">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>
<FONT SIZE="2">Thanks!<BR>
</FONT></FONT><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Arial">Matthew Bernstein<BR>
Emory University<BR>
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