Questions re Manga-based Japanese Live Action Films

[Aaron Gerow]

> I haven't been paying much attention, so I hesitate to ask, but is 
> there any 'thoughtiness' (thanks due here to Stephen Colbert) behind 
> this seemingly interminable thread? I've heard that there are people 
> who collect empty beer cans, and evidently there are lots of people 
> who collect titles of films based on manga. So what?

When I woke up this morning I was very surprised to see over 30 pieces 
of mail in my KineJapan box. I think that sets a record for mail at 
KineJapan. Either that communicates how much people are interested in 
the topic or, which is just as likely, how there are literally hundreds 
of live-action films in Japan based on manga spanning back to the 
prewar era. It sure would be nice if someone could accumulate a list of 
all these, but I can understand the frustration of some on the list 
getting lots of mails many of which only add one or two films to the 
list. We have not had this problem at KineJapan, so I don't see any 
need to intercede, but I have seen this problem arise on other 
film-related lists. Right now I don't think this is an issue, and I do 
not want to stop people from asking the list for film suggestions since 
that is an important role of KineJapan. But in the future if you do 
foresee a lot of responses (and I think it's only necessary in such 
cases), you might want to ask that responses be sent directly to you. 
Since I think many on the list are interested in the responses, the 
original poster can then send a final list of the films to the list a 
while later. In the meantime, people are certainly free to discuss the 
issues behind the call for a list of such films on KineJapan.

For instance, I thought it was interesting that almost all the 
responses came up with films from the last 20 years or so. That 
certainly may have some historical backing (it probably is true that 
the number of live-action films based on manga has increased since the 
1970s), but there is a danger of concluding that this is either a new 
phenomenon or easily represents some shift in Japanese popular culture 
or the status of film. These are all issues to discuss, but only after 
recalling the large number of films based on manga before the 1970s. 
Here are some examples:

There were Nonkina tosan films made in the 1920s. Many films were made 
of works by Okamoto Ippei before the war. Yokoyama Ryuichi manga were 
made into live action films both before and after the war. Ichikawa 
Kon's Pu-san from 1954 is based on a manga, and Hasegawa Machiko's 
Sazae-san was adapted into film a dozen times in the 1950s. Comedy 
stars like Enoken and Shimikin and Kingoro sometimes had manga gensaku 
for their films (Kingoro had the Otora-san series). Some films even had 
manga in the title, like the Manga yokocho Atomic Obon films (great 
title!). A lot of these were based on manga by artists mostly forgotten 
like Akiyoshi Kaoru or Sugiura Yukio or appeared in now defunct manga 
magazines, so it is understandable that they don't easily come to mind 
today.

Some of these films were based on 4-panel manga, but the 1950s saw many 
film adaptations of popular kids story manga, especially Akado 
Suzunosuke, Gekko kamen (these are pretty fun!), etc. Do remember that 
until the animation industry got on solid footing with Toei Doga in the 
late 1950s, it was much easier to adapt some popular manga into live 
action films than to do them as animation (this was the same on TV: 
Tetsuwan Atomu was first a live action TV show before it was an anime). 
But even after that, popular kids manga like Iga no Kagemaru and 
Akakage (Yokoyama Mitsuru), Maguma taishi (Tezuka), Watari (Shirato), 
Attack No. 1, etc. were made into live action films. It's also 
interesting that not a small number of gag manga like Dame oyaji, 
Harenchi gakuen, and even Tanioka Yasuji's stuff were made into live 
action films. How many people have seen the live action version of 
Lupin from 1974 (it is pretty weird!). Genre also probably had 
something to do with it as one could argue that until jidaigeki really 
declined after the 1970s, it was more likely for a jidai manga to be 
made into a live action film than an anime. Some tokusatsu films also 
found a good source in manga like Kamen Rider.

It is important to look at these films because in is in these that some 
of the relations between film and manga--some of the rules of 
adaptation or the ways films recalled their manga sources--were laid 
out, to be used and/or altered by later films. The mediation of TV is 
also very important given that, especially with the kids manga, a TV 
version often existed before the film one. A lot of these works are 
hard to get a hold of, but some are not, so there is material for 
research out there.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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