International Symposium on JIDAI GEKI, Part I

[Davis Darrel]

International Symposium:  "JIDAI GEKI and World Cinema"
Kyoto, December 13

Participants:
	David Bordwell
	Tierry Jousse
	Marco Muller
	Edward Yang
	Hasumi Shigehiko
	Nakajima Sadao
	Kato Mikiro
	Yamane Sadao (moderator)

Introductions:
	 David Bordwell is a leading theorist and historian of film, well known for his work on classical Hollywood cinema, Eisenstein, and Ozu
	Tierry Jousse was chief editor of CAHIERS DU CINEMA from '91- '96, and has written books on Cassavetes and LE RETOUR DU CINEMA
	Marco Muller, former director of Pesaro and Rotterdam Film Festivals, is Europe's leading expert on Asian cinema, esp. Japanese New Wave
	Edward Yang is the director of THAT DAY ON THE BEACH; THE TERRORIZERS; A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY; CONFUCIAN CONFUSION; MAHJONG--all classics of Taiwan cinema (in my opinion)
	Hasumi Shigehiko, now president of Tokyo University, has written many books on Japanese and Hollywood cinema, and is especially known for his work on Ozu
	Nakajima Sadao is a successful director of JIDAI GEKI, starting in 1959 for Toei; his films include ART OF THE FEMALE NINJA; 893 GANGSTERS; YOUNG ACES OF THE SKY. Later directed MONJIRO THE WANDERER; THE DON OF JAPAN; THE WIVES OF YAKUZA on contract
	Kato Mikiro, a former Fulbright fellow, is a professor of image studies at Kyoto University; he has published books on genre and POLITICS OF THE GAZE.
	Yamane Sadao is one of Japan's leading critics, having written many books on Japanese action movies and various studies of directors.


	With preliminaries out of the way, I will try to digest 3 hours of discussion into several strands I found interesting.  To me "interesting" also means questionable or misleading so I will occasionally make comments that are critical.  This should not be considered a reflection on the symposium as a whole, which I found wide-ranging, insightful and very exciting.  
	 
1.  Framework.
	Yamane's statement:  What is the Jidai geki's appeal?  Why has it been so fruitful in Japanese film history?  In today's discussion we'll try to account for its expressive power and its relationship to Japanese culture.  But also, its influence outside Japan:   "How does Jidai geki, being so quintessentially Japanese, reach people all over the world?" (from the festival catalogue) Let's evaluate this phenomenon of Jidai geki:  its contributions to world cinema and its place within that 100 year history.

	Bordwell: after quickly listing the various audiences for Jidai geki in the West, confines his remarks to its importance for Western film scholarship.  To wit: Jidai geki is important because it was a fullfledged POPULAR cinema roughly contemporaneous with that of Hollywood.  There was an historical lag between the time Hollywood cinema reached its classical phase and that of the Jidai geki.  But that is b/c the latter developed its style in relation to Hollywood, particularly pre-WWI action films.  Still, Jidai geki often worked against and beyond Hollywood norms for genre, narration, continuity, physical action and comedy.  This shows a mastery of Western codes of popular film entertainment and also, a revision of those codes to suit Japanese (audiences' or directors') tastes.  This is when Jidai geki reached its classical phase, which was fully developed by 1926 or 27.   Throughout the 30s and 40s, it became a monumental vehicle for nationalist aspirations; in the 50s and 60s, it became a major source of international norms for action pictures generally--not just martial arts.  Thus it's possible to trace its influences through styles as diverse as those of Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorcese, Quentin Tarentino, Wong Kar-Wai, Beat Takeshi, et. al.

2.  Periodization and approach.

	Hasumi: agrees with this chronology that sees a certain threshold for Jidai geki around 1927.  Mature jidai geki before this could be characterized as the age of Ito Daisuke, a real auteur and crucial figure for the development of Japanese film, but after 1927, you could say it was the age of Yamanaka Sadao.  Yamanaka is known for his "humanist" Jidai geki which focuses on the problems of ordinary people in a samurai-dominated age, but as Jidai geki gradually became more patriotic in the 1930s, Yamanaka was increasingly out of step with its rhythms and was eventually sent to the front, where he died in 1938.  
	Another point: it is tempting for Japanese to take a proprietary interest in Jidai geki, and suppose that b/c we Japanese have seen so many from our earliest childhood that it is our vernacular, and that our feelings for it are the only legitimate ones.  But I propose that we approach Jidai geki as a "foreign language," and to take care that we see it as one of a number of important world cinemas that have entertained generations of audiences not only in Japan but all over.  So I concur with Professor Bordwell's emphasis on a comparative evaluation of international film styles.

	Yamane: well, then.  Let's get a sense of how Jidai geki was received worldwide in the prewar period, since it's well known how far it traveled after Kurosawa's RASHOMON in 1950.

3. The European connection.

	Muller:  there is a connection between the flashing, whirling "Chan-Bara" of Ito Daisuke and the montage of attractions of Eisenstein and Pudovkin.  There is also a political connection with the KEIKO EIGA "tendency film" movement of the late 1920s, a leftist inspired group of films that took social protest quite far and sparked police crackdowns and censorship.  But I would make less of this than the technical kinship between "the age of Ito" and Soviet montage that was advancing at the same time.  This is just a kinship; aside from Von Sternberg's viewing of Futagawa Buntaro's OROCHI (1927), I am not sure that European directors saw prewar Jidai geki.*  There were also many pre-WWI French thrillers (ZIGOMAR) that were seen in Japan, and became very popular.  These must have influenced the shape of Ito and others' Jidai geki and helped differentiate them from American action films.
	Closer to "home," I would emphasize Japanese pulp fiction and serial novelists like Nakazato Kaizan over European or American films in accounting for prewar Jidai geki.  These works had immense popularity, and depth, as well, with multi-volume epics like DAIBOSATSU TOGE and MUSASHI that were a near-inexhaustible trove of character, plot and action.  In post WWII, too, you mustn't forget this side of  Jidai geki, which had a very prolific B-side of samurai action films based on MATATABI MONO, wandering gangster stories that seem more like yakuza pictures than RASHOMON-like spectacles that received international distribution.

	Jousse:  Jidai geki is like a dream, it's both open and closed . . . it's also very big.  Probably it doesn't do to call it a genre; at certain points in Japanese film history it made up more than half the total output of the industry.  What should we call it?  It is . . . itself.  It is hard to do it justice.  Especially since we French have not had as much chance to see Jidai geki until very recently. (Pompidou Centre, Cinemateque, etc.)

* (aside) Muller should have said this, but didn't.  The reason is that Yamane's question assumed there was considerable traffic in Jidai geki outside Japan in the 1920s and 30s, and rather than just shoot that assumption down, Muller spent at least 10 minutes hedging.  He is clearly knowledgeable, full of titles and names and dates, but he seemed to be making prepared statements for some other question rather than the one put to him by Yamane on the international influence of prewar Jidaigeki.  The appropriate answer (in my opinion)?  None to speak of. 


to be continued...