Opium War

[David Desser]

>Janine Hansen asked,
>
>>could anybody tell me how to get a copy of AHEN SENSO (Opium War, 1943,
>>dir. Makino Masahiro)? And has anything been written on this particular
>>film?

For a look at AHEN SENSO from a variety of perspectives, please see my
essay "From the Opium War to the Pacific War:  Japanese Propaganda 	Films
of World War II"   _Film History_ 7, 1 (1995). The essay is centrally about
AHEN SENSO, the first and only such article in English.

For my discussion of the film and on Makino Masahiro, I relied on a video
copy (without subtitles) and I also utilized the special issue on Makino
that Aaron refers to (below).

David

>
>The film is in the collections of the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art Film 
>Center and the US Library of Congress.  Neither, as far as I know, has 
>subtitles.  It is not easy to get films from the Film Center, but for a 
>big museum exhibition, that might be possible.  The LC copy might also be 
>used, but if I remember, it has reels out of order and needs to be 
>checked before screening.
>
>For one piece in Japanese, there is an essay by Hasegawa Akira called 
>"Eiga _Ahen senso_ to goraku seishin" in Cineaste 3 (the Japanese: 
>Shineasuto) (1985): pp. 148-157.  Issue 3 is a special issue on Makino 
>Masahiro.
 

_____________________________________
David Desser,UIUC Cinema Studies
2109 FLB/707 S. Mathews, Urbana, IL  61801
217/244-2705