<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16809" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Thanks, Alex,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>And I now notice, on p19 of the 1991 Yamagata IDFF
catalogue, 'Media Wars' (and thus, also presumably in 'Japan/America Film
Wars'), Shimizu Akira says that Yokohama Cinema's <EM>The Southern Cross
Beckons, Minami jujisei wa maneku</EM> (1938) was 'intended to promote
Japanese immigration, and introduced the natural scenery of various South
American countries'. That's very much beyond the Japanese empire and
decidedly later than <EM>Minato no nihon musume</EM>, so I stand well and truly
corrected.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Roger</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=a_p_jacoby@yahoo.co.uk href="mailto:a_p_jacoby@yahoo.co.uk">Alexander
Jacoby</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu">KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 08, 2009 1:40
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: emigration in Japanese Girls
at the Harbor</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top>Emigration features in quite a few of Japanese silent
films as a positive conclusion or at least as a potential solution to
problems. Shimizu's Eternal Pearl (Fue no shiratama, 1929) is another
example, and I've seen others, though I'd have to check my records to
name them.<BR><BR>In the mid- to late- thirties, emigration is still
presented as a solution to problems, but by then, the destination is
Korea or Manchuria. See for instance Shimazu's An Older Brother and Her
Younger Sister (Ani to sono imoto, 1939), with its ending at the
airport. Grass gets caught in the wheel as the plane takes off, and the
last line is "That grass will grow in
China."<BR><BR>ALEX<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>--- On <B>Wed, 8/4/09, Roger
Macy <I><macyroger@yahoo.co.uk></I></B> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid"><FONT
face=Arial></FONT><BR>From: Roger Macy
<macyroger@yahoo.co.uk><BR>Subject: emigration in Japanese Girls
at the Harbor<BR>To: "KineJapan"
<KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu><BR>Date: Wednesday, 8
April, 2009, 1:20 AM<BR><BR>
<DIV id=yiv65909776>
<STYLE></STYLE>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Dear KineJapaners,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>If anyone cares to suggest answers to some
questions on <EM>Japanese Girls at the Harbor</EM>, I would much
appreciate it. It would be nice to think that Keiko McDonald's
promised book on Shimizu has a midwife somewhere, but in the meantime
a viewing has aroused my curiosity. </FONT><FONT face=Arial>One
advantage of a boxed set of a director's films is that you can spread
their viewing out, rather than keep within the short
concentration of a cinethecque convoy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I got round to watching Shimizu's <SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><EM>Minato
no nihon musume</EM><FONT color=#000000> last night which was more
than up to expectation. What surprised me at the end was
how Shimizu could show emigration as a positive and morally redeeming
conclusion to his story in 1933. Although Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano,
in her <EM>Nippon Modern</EM>, says just that Sunako
disappears in the end; William Drew, in his <EM>Midnight Eye
</EM>piece, says that 'Sunako ultimately takes charge of her destiny
by going abroad with her artist-paramour in search of a new life' - a
reading with which I concur.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT
color=#000000>Although the dialogue (and perhaps the script
submitted to the censors?) does not mention emigration, the
direction of the ship out of Yokohama, and the opening sequence, of
the Canadian Pacific gangplank onto the 'Empress of Russia' seems to
leave little doubt. I went back and checked the beginning
to see if it was a revealed flash-back - it's not - but this did
remind me that I had tried to adjust my set when the opening pan
seemed to have the bottom cut off, leaving ships and foreground
apparently unsupported by water or quayside. But the contrast to
the closing pan, showing the flotsam and jetsam left behind in Japan
has to be deliberate. The paintings of Sunako, in her old-world
guise as a bar hostess/prostitute, which she asks her partner to
jettison from the ship, mysteriously do not fade or wash away, but
remain in full appearance, clinging to the Japan shore, whilst the
redeemed couple sail away.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Has
emigration in Japanese cinema (beyond the Japanese empire) been
discussed or observed previously ?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Are
there other such filmic examples of emigration portrayed in a
positive light ?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Can
anyone suggest likely western movies of the time that inspired the
story ? Two couples who have no family seems very Hollywood.
<FONT color=#000000>(The writer of the original story,</FONT> <FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#ff0000>北林透馬<FONT face=Arial
color=#000000>, isn't in WINE - still looking for suitable
directories.).</FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Would
a silent film in 1933 be suitable for an émigré market
?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: rgb(0,51,153); FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Roger</SPAN></FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>