Query re Ikeru Ningyo

[bernst_m@bellsouth.net]

Re: Query re Ikeru NingyoHi Joanne!

Thanks so much.  I'll pass all this info on.  It's a huge start.

Hope you're well.  I'm planning to attend Sacile this year, so I hope I can look forward to the pleasure of seeing you and Leslie there again.

Best regards, and thanks again,
Matthew
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bernardi-Buralli 
  To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 12:33 PM
  Subject: Re: Query re Ikeru Ningyo


  Hi Matt,

  You're likely to get more detailed info, but  I think the title is meant as a kind of existentialist comment on the "modern" human condition, a reference to the protagonist's being no more than a living "doll" (more in the sense of "puppet" or someone lacking any real substance or raison d'etre). I think the protagonist is a young man who comes to the city for a new job with the hopes of  "making it big."

  It was an adaptation of a newspaper story by the "Shinkankaku ha" writer Kataoka Teppei, and also featured Irie Takako as a quintessential working "modern girl."

  The film is often referred to as a representative "tendency film" and as far as I know, is believed lost although material from this period seems to be turning up in Moscow's Gosfilmofond (as was the case with the 1930 "What made her do it?" (Nani ga kanojo o so saseta ka) that was shown  in reconstructed form with missing footage replaced by title cards at Pordenone in 1999. If your friend would like to read a synopsis in English, I think one is included in the new book out from Matsuda Eigasha, synopses of a number of silent films. An English language copy can be ordered from their bilingual website: 

  http://www.infoasia.co.jp/subdir/matsuda.html

  best,
  Joanne



    I'm trying to track down information on the 1929 film by Uchida Tomu, "Ikeru Ningyo" (The Living Doll). Do you by any chance know
    anything about it?   I don't even know the plot, or if the film is still extant, but I keep running across references to it. I'm tracing doll symbolism from the 1920s through the war period, as dolls are gradually militarized, and I'm intrigued by the movie's title.
    Thanks!
    Matthew Bernstein
    Emory University



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