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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Roger,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I was looking forward for the movie too, but
unfortunatly it doesn't appear in the final programme (pdf on the bottom of the
site). Maybe they cancelled it?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Robert</FONT></DIV></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=macyroger@yahoo.co.uk href="mailto:macyroger@yahoo.co.uk">Roger
Macy</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, June 24, 2009 2:20
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Question re 1940 Toho
Musical Film Extravaganza Etc.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>On the subject of early colour films, I see that the
upcoming 'Cinema Ritrovato' at Bologna has a series, <EM><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Il colore più grande della vita</FONT></EM>, in which
Shin Heike Monogatari, 1955 is to be shown. There still doesn't seem to
be a specific date for the films on the website</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><A
href="http://www.cinetecadibologna.it/cinemaritrovato2009/ev/Programma">http://www.cinetecadibologna.it/cinemaritrovato2009/ev/Programma</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Roger</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>----- Original Message ----- </FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>From: "Mark Roberts" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:mroberts37@mail-central.com"><FONT
face=Arial>mroberts37@mail-central.com</FONT></A><FONT
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>To: <</FONT><A
href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu"><FONT
face=Arial>KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu</FONT></A><FONT
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 7:00 AM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Subject: Re: Question re 1940 Toho Musical Film
Extravaganza Etc.</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial>Michael,<BR><BR>I've
always heard of Kinoshita's "Carmen kokyo ni kaeru" (1951) <BR>described
as the first color film in Japan.<BR><BR>"Carmen" was filmed using a Fujicolor
reversal film made available in <BR>1950. The film speed was quite slow
(El. 10), and this may have been <BR>part of the rationale for shooting
most of the scenes as exteriors <BR>(lots of natural light). My
recollection of the color quality is that <BR>it looked super-saturated,
especially the reds, though the copy I saw <BR>was likely from a recent
restoration, and who knows what was tweaked <BR>in the
process.<BR><BR>At the time, I'm guessing that the color quality of the
Fujicolor <BR>process was not entirely satisfactory to the studios, and
this was the <BR>reason that Eastmancolor and Agfacolor were used during
the 1950s. <BR>E.g. Daiei's first color film, "Jigokumon" (1953), was
filmed in <BR>Eastmancolor. Toho's first color film was apparently "Hana
no naka no <BR>musumetachi" (1953), although it seems there were some
experiments at <BR>Toho dating back to 1946.<BR><BR>I would imagine that
processes such as Fujicolor, Eastmancolor, and <BR>Agfacolor were all
chosen over Technicolor for reasons of cost. <BR>Originally, Technicolor
required a more elaborate set of optics with a <BR>beam-splitter, and a
special dye-transfer process for developing and <BR>producing prints.
The cameras were quite expensive and at the <BR>beginning the American
studios had to rent them. The Technicolor <BR>camera was obsolesced in
the early 1950s with the introduction of a <BR>"Monopak" single-strip
color film, but it was still very expensive and <BR>it seems the film
still needed to be processed by a Technicolor lab. <BR>The apparent
advantage of Eastmancolor was that it was single-strip <BR>and did not
involve a proprietary developing process.<BR><BR>While 1951 is generally cited
as the date of the earliest color film <BR>in Japan, I see that the JMDB
lists two films from 1949 that included <BR>some color
segments:<BR><BR>新妻会議<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1949/by000080.htm"><FONT
face=Arial>http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1949/by000080.htm</FONT></A><BR><BR><FONT
face=Arial>虹男<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1949/by000950.htm"><FONT
face=Arial>http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1949/by000950.htm</FONT></A><BR><BR><FONT
face=Arial>And here's a short film from 1948 about boxing that was filmed in
color:<BR><BR>ねずみの拳闘<BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1948/bx000780.htm"><FONT
face=Arial>http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1948/bx000780.htm</FONT></A><BR><BR><FONT
face=Arial>For more details, you might look at an article by Hisashi
Okajima <BR>called "Color Film Restoration in Japan: Some Examples"
(Journal of <BR>FIlm Preservation, FIAF, 10/2003), that includes more
history on the <BR>origins of color processes in the Japanese
cinema.<BR><BR>Best regards,<BR><BR>M. Roberts<BR><BR><BR><BR>On Jun 22, 2009,
at 1:26 AM, <</FONT><A href="mailto:mccaskem@georgetown.edu"><FONT
face=Arial>mccaskem@georgetown.edu</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial>>
<</FONT><A href="mailto:mccaskem@georgetown.edu"><FONT
face=Arial>mccaskem@georgetown.edu</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial> <BR> >
wrote:<BR><BR>> Dear Faith Bach,<BR>><BR>> Thank you very much for
the information on Songoku. It was very kind <BR>> and very<BR>>
thoughtful of you to look into it and send your findings. I am glad
<BR>> that you got a<BR>> chance to see Songoku - you're very fortunate
to have the resources <BR>> to do so. I<BR>> am pretty much
limited to films I can get in DVD form from Amazon <BR>> Japan,
or<BR>> from dealers willing to send material overseas.<BR>><BR>> I
looked in Galbraith's new book, "The Toho Studios Story," which I
<BR>> just got,<BR>> and it seems (155-156) that Yamamoto Kajiro remade
Songoku in 1959, <BR>> using<BR>> the same special effects person
as in 1940, Tsuburaya Eiji. It's in <BR>> Agfacolor.<BR>><BR>>
Agfacolor tended to make everything look bluish in the 1940s, and
<BR>> mostly in<BR>> the 1950s as well. It was originally a German film,
but US <BR>> Occupation outlets<BR>> sold it in Japan after WWII.
Technicolor was better, but perhaps for <BR>> some reason<BR>>
Yamamoto liked it, or got a special deal, or couldn't get <BR>>
Technicolor film, even<BR>> in 1959. I saw a rare US grade B Agfacolor
movie made in the 1950s, <BR>> about the<BR>> Civil War, and
everything was bluish, except the Union Army <BR>> uniforms,
which<BR>> became super-blue, deep indigo to purple.<BR>><BR>> In any
case, it's clear that you indeed saw the classic 1940 <BR>> original
version,<BR>> since the remake was in color, and the cast was different. It
would <BR>> be wonderful<BR>> if some entity could put that out
now on a DVD, with perhaps the <BR>> 1959 version<BR>> as well. It
would be interesting to compare it with "The Wizard of <BR>>
Oz."<BR>><BR>> My inquiry about Toho color was based on the fact that I
saw <BR>> "Tohokaraa 東宝カ<BR>> ラー" mentioned in connection with
Songoku, in the Toho historical <BR>> item<BR>> attached, though
there were only B&W stills. I didn't think Japanese <BR>>
studios<BR>> made color films in 1940, but as I recall part of The Wizard
in Oz <BR>> is in B&W, so I<BR>> wondered if the Songoku
picture had a color segment stashed away in <BR>> it. Or<BR>>
something like the pink smoke in the otherwise B&W "High & Low,"
<BR>> Kurosawa's<BR>> first bit of color. Thanks very much to your
special efforts, <BR>> though, it's now clear<BR>> that there's no
color in Songoku at all.<BR>><BR>> The other alternative was that
"Tohokaraa" was some kind of special <BR>> metaphor,<BR>> but that
seemed very odd and peculiar, or perhaps completely <BR>> mistaken,
so I<BR>> did not want to mention it online as a
possibility.<BR>><BR>> After receiving your email, I went back to the
source again, and it <BR>> looks as if, as<BR>> in the
attachments, it was idiosyncratically used, as a sort of <BR>>
proprietary slogan<BR>> or buzzword, to refer to performers or performances
that were stylish,<BR>> cosmopolitan, etc. - perhaps meaning somthing like
"cool" today. Like<BR>> "TohoCool," maybe.<BR>><BR>> It looks as if
perhaps Toho never again used the term "Tohokaraa," <BR>> the way
it<BR>> later used "Tohoscope," perhaps because of this earlier usage.
It <BR>> seems as if<BR>> Toho later used "Toho/Karaa" to mean
"Toho films in color."<BR>><BR>> I'm very impressed by your expertise,
and I hope I may learn more <BR>> about your<BR>> research. It
sounds as if you know a great deal about 1930s and <BR>> 1940s
films<BR>> and performers.<BR>><BR>> If you're researching 1940s and
later Toho days, if you haven't <BR>> already seen it,<BR>>
there's a 2003 book by Takase Masahiro, 「東宝砧撮影所物 <BR>>
語」ISBN4-924609-<BR>> 82-X, which you might perhaps be interested in.
Takase's also <BR>> written another<BR>> follow-up book
「東宝監督群像―砧の青春」2006, ISBN-10: <BR>> 4924609927 ISBN-<BR>> 13:
978-4924609921, which I've not yet seen.<BR>><BR>> Thank you once again
for your email, which I appreciate very much <BR>>
indeed.<BR>><BR>> With Very Best Wishes,<BR>><BR>> Michael
McCaskey<BR>> Georgetown Univ.<BR>> Wash. DC<BR>><BR>> PS<BR>>
I realize now that I've finished writing that this is on list. If
<BR>> the attachment does<BR>> not come through, I can send it to you
off