Covert dissent in wartime cinema?

Peter High peterbhigh2004 at yahoo.com
Thu Nov 3 23:31:37 EST 2005



SYBIL.THORNTON at asu.edu wrote: 
>First, I am not so sure that film censors are all that on the ball, as Marc 
>Ferro has indicated in his book on Film and History and the career of Furumi 
>Takuji makes clear. Censors tend to focus on the script that is handed to 
>them and pass for permission based on the written text. 

************************

 

‚r‚™‚‚‚‰‚Œ||I'm intrigued by your reference to Furumi Takuji (whom I know only as a director of horror films in the late twenties and thirties). How does Furumi's career "make clear" the doltishness of the censors? Clearly you have an anecdote or two in mind that I need to hear.

 

Remember, the issue here is WARTIME era censorship. As we know, the censorship system underwent its own transformations, particularly in the mid-thirties, when the old time keishicho (police affairs) types,  who did censorship for the Home Ministry (and who reportedly had little interest in or knowledge about film),  began to be replaced by a younger crowd--university educated and very much inspired by the "Reform Bureaucrat" ethos of their leader and mentor, Karasawa Toshiki. Many--or at least some--of the latter were rather avid film fans and apparently could hold their own when it came to in-depth knowledge of the medium. Actually the most amazing instance was the sudden intrusion of the Kenpeitai into the film policy/censorship arena quite late in the Pacific War. With the personality and mental acuity of a G. Gordon Liddy, they quickly learned about all phases of film production and several began turning out learned and accute film analyses for the film mags.

 

Anyway, what is it about Furumi I should know? I'm really fascinated.

 

Always enjhoy your postings, Sybil.

 

Peter B. High



		
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