Women, smoking, 1930s Tokyo

[Michael Hirohama]

I saw "Hodo no sasayaki" (Whispering Sidewalks), directed by Denmei SUZUKI,
1936, six weeks ago.  The film is "preserved by PFA (Berkeley Art
Museum/Pacific Film Archives) in collaboration with the National Film
Center, Tokyo".  These two organizations may be able to help you locate the
films you seek.

I was surprised when I saw the second or third scene of the film; in it,
three men and one women are in an office setting--the woman and at least
one of the men (two?) are smoking heavily.  I recall thinking that I was
might be watching the genesis of "product placement" advertisements.  The
closeup of the woman, who plays the role of a powerful executive--another
surprise, puffing her cigarette is still fresh in my mind!  This is a very
powerful, modern image.

Cigarettes appear throughout this film, but nowhere near as obviously as in
this initial scene.  In one "humorous" scene near the start of the film,
the "buffoon" character in the film is seen placing a cigarette in the
nostril of his snoring colleague, who eventually awakens from his nap after
much aggressive, "slapstick" effort.

Michael Hirohama <kamesan at ricochet.net>


At 13:48 +0900 12/4/97, Sarah Teasley wrote:
>Yo.
>
>I am working on a project on women, smoking, urban space and
>representations of gender in early Showa Japan, and am hoping to use films
>from the period in my analysis. Two general questions for the list, then
>(both of which may be horribly elementary, in which case apologies for
>asking questions to which even a cucumber should know the answers):
>
>1. Does anyone know of any early Showa period films in which women who
>smoke or scenes of women smoking figure prominently? Scenes or images that
>remain in the mind?
>
>2. Is there any place in Tokyo/the Kanto area that has videos of early
>Showa era films? If not, does anyone have any recommendations on the best
>way to get access to films from this era?
>
>Thanks for your help,
>
>Sarah Teasley
>Institute for Gender Studies
>Ochanomizu University