Fwd: Japanese film in post-Occupation Taiwan

[Aaron Gerow]

> Quick (big) question: Though I'm well familiar with the state of 
> Japanese film's official suppression in South Korea until about six 
> years ago (I was at the Pusan film fest the year Kitano made an 
> epoch-ending appearance with *Hana-bi*), I am far less familiar with 
> the situation of Japanese film in Taiwan post-Japanese occupation 
> (i.e. post-1946). Can anyone here provide me with a quick sketch of 
> governmental sanctions/restrictions (if any) of Japanese films in 
> Taiwan between, say, 1946 and 1990? Were Japanese films banned from 
> circulation in Taiwan during this entire period, or at all, and if so, 
> from when to when?

I don't have my reference books around either (they're mostly packed 
and ready for the move), but Taiwan in general was more congenial to 
Japanese pop culture after the war. It's well known that directors such 
as Hou Hsiao-hsien grew up in postwar Taiwan watching Japanese films 
(for him, Ozu (he's now making the Ozu homage film) and Nikkatsu 
Action) and that those works did have an influence on their cinema. 
Japanese studios were also not ignorant of the Taiwanese presence, if 
not market.  Nikkatsu even made a Yujiro film about Kinmonto (as it's 
called in Japanese) in the early 1960s with Taiwanese locations. I also 
recall that some Okinawan theaters right after the war got some of 
their Japanese films by smuggling them from Taiwan.

I'd like to hear from someone who knows a bit more about official 
government policy, however.

Aaron Gerow