<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><I>I was reading David Bordwell's blog entry mourning the passing on Edward Yang and came across his fascinating description of a film that just showed at Cinema Ritrovato (dated July 6).</I></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">_________________</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">In the early 1930s, Japanese companies explored the possibility of exporting their films to Europe and the US. One result of these initiatives was </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><B><I>Nippon: Liebe und Leidenschaft in Japan</I></B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">, a 1932 German compilation created by Carl Koch. It originally consisted of three films from the Shochiku studio, condensed and supplied with German intertitles. The original films were silent, so, oddly enough, synced Japanese dialogue was added.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Georgia; min-height: 19px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><BR></SPAN></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">In the version screened here, only two episodes were presented. What beauties they were! Since many of the 1920s and 1930s Japanese films that survive look quite weatherbeaten, it was wonderful to see, in the print from the Cinémathèque Suisse, how gorgeous quite ordinary movies from this era could be.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">The first story, </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><I>Kaito samimaro</I></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"> (orig. 1928), deals with a young samurai rescuing his beloved from the clutches of a corrupt priest. Brisk and beautifully shot, it came to the sort of frothing swordplay climax typical of the period—rapid cutting, dynamic tracking, and slashing assaults aimed at the camera. </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><I>Kagaribi</I></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"> (1928), about a young vassal betrayed by his corrupt lord, likewise ended with a protracted action scene capped by a jolting climax. A prolonged tracking shot follows the young man’s former lover as she backs away from him, but then we cut to a full shot. With a single stroke he kills her, jaggedly ripping a paper door in his follow-through. Both stand motionless for a moment before she falls. A conventional finish, but no less eye-smiting for that. For more on the power of this action-cinema tradition, see </SPAN></FONT></SPAN><A href="http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=911"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#BF6718">an earlier entry</FONT></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> on this site.</SPAN></FONT></P></BODY></HTML>