Self-introduction, and a request for suggestions

[Irene Hahn]

Dear everyone,

My name is Irene Hahn, and I'm a Lecturer in English at the University 
of Michigan, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am also a fiction writer 
at work on my first novel, a historical novel that takes place mostly in 
Korea during the Japanese Occupation and the Korean War, but which also 
includes a segment that takes place in Japan between the years 1922 and 
1924. The first portion of the novel won several literary awards while I 
was a Master's student, and with luck I will finish it in the next year. 
As part of my research, I am trying to find films that try to re-create 
the early 1920s in Japan (or as close to that time period as possible), 
and was hoping to enlist your suggestions regarding films that might be 
helpful.

By way of plot summary, the portion of my novel that takes place in 
Japan follows the travels of a young Korean man named Juho, who is a 
member of the landowning aristocracy in Korea. He wants desperately to 
be a painter and goes to Japan to study at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts 
and paint 100 views of Mount Fuji, following the model of Hokusai. I 
suppose if I had to itemize the main areas that I am interested in, they 
would fall along these lines:

1. Most of this portion of the novel takes place in Tokyo, and I would 
like to learn more about student life (preferably among student 
painters, although I imagine it'll be tough to find films on that 
specifically), particularly student radicalism in the universities--I've 
read that quite a few student intellectuals advocated Communism, and I 
am trying to get a sense of what their lives might have been like on a 
day to day basis, the conversations they might have had, and whether 
they actually acted upon their ideas and demonstrated or just talked 
about them.
2. I am trying to find out what the interactions between Koreans and 
Japanese were like in Japan, especially Korean and Japanese students.
3. While in Tokyo, Juho falls in love with a "modern" woman. I've read 
about the westernized Japanese girl of the 20s and 30s but would like to 
see a moving representation of her, and so I am interested in any film 
that illuminates gender relations and the opportunities that were 
available to young women.
4. I am trying to learn more about the lives of Japanese painters in 
this time period, particularly those who went to Paris and came back 
wanting to incorporate Impressionism and Post-Impressionism into their 
work.
5. Because Juho also travels throughout Japan to see Mount Fuji from 
different parts of the country, I am very interested in the scenery of 
the time, modes of transportation, places a traveler might have stayed 
and things they might have done, any sorts of visual details that might 
help me re-create the atmosphere of the early 1920s.
6. One of Juho's childhood friends spends a year as a miner in Kyushu. 
I'd like to know more about the conditions there.
7. Juho's plans are interrupted by the Great Kanto Earthquake. In the 
aftermath of the massacre of Koreans that took place after the 
earthquake, he goes home. With this in mind, I was wondering whether any 
films have tried to recreate the experience of the earthquake.

As you can see, the areas I am researching are unfortunately quite 
varied. All of my research has been literary thus far, and while books 
are helpful I would like to try and see and hear the times via film, 
even if only fictive. In case anyone had suggestions based on the above 
I would be deeply grateful. Thank you very much for your time and 
consideration--

Sincerely,
Irene Hahn