a panel on Manga-based Japanese Live Action Films?

[Michael E Kerpan]

I would note that there seems to be a considerable body of 30s Japanese films 
that FEELS like shoujo manga adaptations -- though they were presumably based 
on things like serialized romances.  This sort of "romance for young working 
women" doesn't seem to have gotten much attention in the west -- and seems 
fairly distinguishable from the "home dramas" typically made by the same 
directors.

Some examples -- Shimizu's "Seven Seas", Naruse's "Kafuku", Gosho's "Shindo". 
(Interestingly enough -- these three were all two-parters.  And these are not 
isolated examples -- Shimizu's "Nobuko" and Gosho's "Bokuseki" (IMDB has this 
as "Mokuseki" but isn't this wrong) also seem to fall in this category.  One 
hallmark of these is that they tend to be set (at least in part) in what 
feels like a rather fantasized upper class milieu (very like that of "Hana 
yori dango").  Ozu doesn't seem to have made a full-fledged example of this 
sort of film -- but perhaps "Lady and the Beard" comes closest (of the 
surviving films).

MEK
Boston