Taisho film

[Sarah Teasley]

Dear Sarah,

It wasn't through a magazine, but the Ministry of Education ran a scenario
contest for amateurs to promote agriculture as a "life choice" for young
people in 1924, and made the winning script into a film directed by
Mizoguchi Kenji.

The NFC recently made a new, English-subtitled print of the film, which I
think was to be shown at several festivals in the US/Europe this summer.

A non-English-subtitled print was also screened as part of the "Japanese
Silent Cinema" special programme at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in
Italy last October.

http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/previous_editions/edizione2001/japanese
_silent.html#hoji

The following is the text from the Pordenone homepage:

 FURUSATO NO UTA / [THE SONG OF HOME / LA CANZONE DI CASA] (Nikkatsu, JP
1925)
 Dir.: Kenji Mizoguchi; ph.: Tatsuyuki Yokota; cast: Shigeru Kifuji,
Masujiro Takagi, Sueko Ito, Mineko Tsuji, Kentaro Kawamata, Shiro Kato,
Shizue Matsumoto, Michiko Tachibana; prima proiezione / released 17.9.1925;
35mm, 3774ft., 50? (20 fps), National Film Center. Didascalie in giapponese
/ Japanese titles.

 Naotaro Takeda, a young coachman, hankers after city life. Though he was an
excellent student in primary school, he could not go on to higher education
because he was poor. One day some of his former classmates return home from
the city. They begin to live in a manner alien to country life, and their
behavior starts to affect the young people of the village, who gradually
lose their innocence by imitating the frivolous ways of city life. Naotaro
saves a drowning girl, the daughter of a foreigner who is researching
education in Japan. The foreigner offers to pay for Naotaro?s education in
the city, but Naotaro decides to remain in the village and become an
excellent farmer.
 This is the earliest surviving film by Kenji Mizoguchi, who had already
made about 30 films. Throughout the 1920s Mizoguchi made extremely diverse
kinds of films, ranging from the traditional Shinpa with oyamas to comedy,
horror, serials, and even expressionist film. Furusato No Uta might be
classified as an educational film. One should not be surprised by its
ethical tendencies. Even though this was Mizoguchi?s only educational film,
it is very well known that he made some enlightenment films after the War.
This could thus be regarded as Mizoguchi?s first socially conscious "message
film". His later proletarian films, like Tokai Kokyogaku (Metropolitan
Symphony, 1929) and Shikamo Karera Wa Yuku (And Yet They Go, 1931), can also
be included in this genre. The Ministry of Education invited Mizoguchi to
enter a scriptwriting contest to promote agricultural activity for young
people in 1924. A man named Choji Matsui won second prize. This film is
based on this script, which was re-adapted by a professional scriptwriter at
Nikkatsu.

(End of text)

It's an interesting film, especially for the almost preachy message-- it's
almost less "pro-agriculture" than "anti-urbanization" in many ways, and
features a very clear-cut division between the morally upstanding young
people who have stayed in the village and their former classmates who have
been seduced and corrupted by the morally spineless modern pleasures of the
city. 

Best wishes,

Sarah Teasley

?          ?          ?

Sarah Teasley / batgirl at tkb.att.ne.jp
University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Programme in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies