a panel on Manga-based Japanese Live Action Films?

[Alwyn Spies]

Hmmm. Would anyone like to join a panel on this topic for Kine8 next  
April??  I'd be willing to coordinate the proposal -- please contact  
me off-list:  alwyn.spies at ubc.ca

And here are a few more shojo manga to live action examples...

Blue
Lovers Kiss
Sakura no Sono

-------------------------
Alwyn Spies
Assistant Professor
Creative and Critical Studies
UBC-Okanagan





On 15-Aug-06, at 7:50 PM, Aaron Gerow wrote:

>> 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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